Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen: Learning to Cook with 65 Great Chefs and Over 100 Delicious Recipes – An Encouraging Food & Wine Guide for the Amateur Home Cook

by Dana Cowin

An uproarious, inspiring cookbook from the longtime editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine, in which the first lady of food spills the secret of her culinary ineptitude, while learning—finally—to cook, side-by-side with some of the greatest chefs working today, from David Chang to Thomas Keller

For years, Dana Cowin kept a dark secret: From meat to veggies, broiling to baking, breakfast to dinner, she ruined literally every kind of dish she attempted. Now, in this cookbook confessional, the vaunted “first lady of food” finally comes clean about her many meal mishaps. With the help of friends—all-star chefs, including David Chang, Jacques Pépin and Tom Colicchio and many others—Cowin takes on 100 recipes dear to her heart. Ideal dishes for the home cook, each recipe has a high “yum” factor, a few key ingredients, and a simple trick that makes them special. With every dish, she attains a critical new skill, learning invaluable lessons along the way from the hero chefs who help her discover exactly where she goes wrong.

Hilarious and heartwarming, encouraging and instructional, Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen showcases Cowin’s plentiful cooking mistakes, inspiring anyone who loves a good meal but fears its preparation. Featuring gorgeous full color photography, it is an intimate, hands-on cooking guide from a fellow foodie and amateur home chef, designed to help even the biggest kitchen phobics overcome their reluctance, with delicious results.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Memoir

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 2014

Reviews

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, she claims to be a neophyte, but she knows how to throw food together and substitute, so she's not exactly a babe in the woods. However, I liked the idea that someone in food culture could still make mistakes and I loved the chef tips. So, a win. Recipes call for weird ingredients, but it's Food and Wine not Everyday Food.

[Jiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this cookbook mainly because of the famous chef's perspectives and explanation of how and why things happen that lead to success or failure. The tips from the various chefs after each recipe had some really good nuggets.

Any cookbook is not going to appeal to every single person - it depends on your style of cooking, your cultural background and identification of course the main thing is: are you looking for something simple, easy to put on the table quickly without too much effort or are you looking for an interesting challenge that will teach you new things.

Having cooked in the restaurant business for many years, I am quite familiar with many of the dishes and ingredients. There is always a way to tweak or change up a classic like - caesar salad, pesto, bruschetta, etc. Some ideas appeal to me and others maybe not so much. The book presents an interesting array of food from different cultures and hopefully there is something there for everyone.

The objective of this book is to present problems and issues that occur in the kitchen and how to correct them while not becoming demoralized or giving up. It does a good job of that though some of the mistakes seem quite silly but accidents and missteps happen. This appeals to some readers as they feel validated seeing that even really good cooks make mistakes, yet to some people it does not appeal at all.

In explaining the mistake and referring to a trusted source (one of the many chefs used for helpful advise) it seems to validate the solution. I enjoyed seeing a number of recommendations fall in line with what I do: allow a chicken to dry overnight before roasting for crispier skin, don't truss a chicken as it will cook unevenly, use bechamel as creamy sauce in pasta, etc.

Overall this book has some good tips that will make you a better cook and some recipes that are enjoyable.

[Ashleyree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love how she describes her mistakes and what her chef friends showed her to save the dish. Also loved the chef suggestions. Plenty of tasty recipes. Made me hungry just reading! No nutrition info. Ingredient lists can be long with non-standard ingredients. Would buy this.

Recipes: *can make now
Tuna + white bean "Tonnato" dip*
Chicken soup several ways
Spicy watermelon gazpacho
Lentil + Swiss chard soup with 🍋*
Creamy roasted carrot soup with pine nut + capers topping
Butter lettuce with sweet tart Dijon dressing*
7 green kale salad with buttermilk dressing*
Broccoli stem, celery and pumpkin seed salad
Beat, tart Plum and ginger salad
Green beans with arugula and lemon pesto
Roasted brussel sprouts with Caper raisin sauce
Blistered Tomatoes, fairytale eggplant and corn
Spiced creamed spinach*
Asparagus with gribiche vinaigrette
Charred corn with green olives and oregano
Slow roasted tomatoes with crunchy bread crumbs
Zucchini and yellow squash with Parmesan crisps*
Sweet potato, coconut and five spice gratin
Broccoli rabe pizza*
Braised chicken with leeks, mushrooms and peas
Four chile chicken
Chili of forgiveness
Greek chicken salad*
Chicken thighs with Smoky Vietnamese caramel sauce
Roast chicken + garam masala ginger butter
Chicken stir-fry with celery and peanut
Pork tenderloin with arugula
Pork chops with 5-minute umami sauce
Korean meatloaf
Lemon pepper whole trout
Halibut with red coconut curry
Roasted salmon with mustard and panko
Spiced chickpea and yogurt salad
Pimento cheese grits
Couscous with cumin and carrots
Cannellini beans with fennel and charred lemon
Grilled cheese
Warm egg salad on sourdough
Goat cheese, honey and walnuts on multigrain bread

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading a really good New York Times cookbook, this one felt very inadequate. The author was the editor in chief at Food & Wine magazine (at time of publication) and shares some basic recipes and tidbits of cooking advise from chefs. I felt the best recipes were the fried chicken and the Greek chicken salad. Somehow there are plenty of photos of the author and chefs but not of all the recipes. That’s a big fail in today’s world of cookbooks. A few ingredients might not be available to those who live in smaller communities.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun, quick read. As a regular reader of Food & Wine (of which Dana Cowin is the former Editor), I must admit that I did not learn a lot of new tips from her "mistakes". But it was still fun to learn what a seasoned veteran of the food world hadn't fully mastered and how top chefs had overcome these hurdles.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dana Cowin is the former editor of Food & Wine magazine, so I really doubt she's quite the amateur cook. However, there are some interesting recipes in here and some good tips from top chefs. Best of all, most of them seem fairly easy.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit that I love reading cookbooks, but this one was especially fun because the author told a short story with each recipe, including some mistake she’d made as a young cook. It was entertaining and educational!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you ever make a dish and it doesn't turn out the way it was supposed to turn out? We have all been in that boat before. Although, I bet you didn't think that the Editor of Food and Wine Magazine had the same troubles as the rest of us.

This book is fun and informative! Only Dana Cowin could have brought together the brightest minds in cooking today like Andrew Zimmern, Mario Batali, David Chang, and Eric Ripert to help us home chefs create foolproof meals. Great dishes paired with hilarious stories of previous mistakes makes this cookbook a great one to read from cover to cover.

I have tired a few of the recipes and they have worked out great! The Baked Ziti Arrabbiata is worth the extra effort that goes into this recipe. It really is one of the best ziti dishes I've ever made.

Here are some of the recipes that I am looking forward to trying:
Spicy Spiced Nuts
Snap Peas with Pickled Shallot Dressing
Roasted Winter Vegetables with Miso Vinaigrette
Sweet Potato, Coconut & Five-Spice Gratin
Korean Meat Loaf
Halibut with Red Coconut Curry

Dana Cowin tells us about the lessons that she learned while making this cookbook which also can be used as really great life lessons.

I look forward to cooking my way through this cookbook! Maybe, just maybe, I will master some of these recipes myself.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be a really interesting and helpful cookbook, but I was disappointed. The author works for Food & Wine magazine and was always embarrassed that her home cooking wasn't better since she had such good resources through her job. In the cookbook she works with various chefs to learn how to correct her kitchen mistakes. There were a few good tips (let baking ingredients come to room temp, read a recipe all the way through before you start, etc.), but overall it was disappointing. There weren't any recipes I wanted to try either. Overall, it did have some good tips, but not a great cookbook.

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up being lukewarm about this. I was a little miffed that Dana Corwin is obviously not as bad a cook as she claimed, and I didn't want to try most of the recipes (the exception being the brownies, whose picture looked so good I wanted to lick the page). However, I will use some of the tips, and I gotta love a woman who at least pretends she wears tasteful gold jewelry and stylish aprons while she breezes around a kitchen with famous chefs.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fideo recipe was great, as was the squash with parmesan crisps. But then I found myself in the kitchen for two hours fussing with things like a caper parsley pesto (not good) to swirl into a roasted carrot pureed soup (not good). Most of the things I tried didn't have enough payoff, considering the time and effort. The book is a great idea, though, and there are a lot of interesting tips from a variety of chefs.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

cookbook. Very approachable and good advice for anyone who's ever had a recipe attempt not turn out as well as they'd hoped. I bookmarked several of the poultry, meat, and veggie dishes to try (immediately!) and in general found the content to be very useful as various techniques are explained and demonstrated through the recipes.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes there are things I won't ever make...like carrot soup with pine nuts and caper topping, and I still don't know what chermoula is, or gribiche vinaigrette or fideos...but what makes this book original and a good read is the authors input. She takes you through her experience making each dish, the trials and the tribulations, and there are chef's comments as well.

[Therese Wiese · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this a three-star as a cookbook, as there wasn't really much of interest to me to actually cook. However, I would give it four stars for non-fiction. I loved the pages with all things from the chefs. While I personally didn't learn a whole lot, I plan to buy a bunch of these for Christmas gifts - someone new to cooking will get so much out of this book!

[Maria Kemplin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was lovely to look at, but I was a bit put off by the former editor of Food & Wine stating that she ruined everything she tried to cook and then sets out to learn and describe the cooking process for the reader. It undermined my confidence in both this book as well as in Food & Wine, to which I have subscribed.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fun personal stories to introduce each recipe followed often by tips from the chefs. Loved almost every salad recipe and snagged a few interesting dishes to try. I cannot wait for our cookbook book club to meet. I look forward to sampling everyone's dishes.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to cook everything in here-- Julie & Julia style.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected.

[Lisa Urso · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good recipes in here, but this was more of a name-dropping book than anything else. Quite disappointed, and was hoping for some funnier stories about the author's kitchen mistakes.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was not impressed how many times do i have to say that cookbooks should have recipes with pictures of most if not all of the food.

[Virginia Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book, made two recipes and loved them. Great tips but I do wish there were more pictures not only of the food but the chefs.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to return to library earlier than I wanted to but recipes we made so far were definitely keepers. Going to check out again soon.

[Avi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some occasionally interesting chef tips and recipes. The thought of mixing cumin and corn never occurred to me before.

[Mt. Lebanon Public Library]

Cindy's Pick
Call #: 641.5 Cow

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recipes and beautiful pictures. Isn't it nice to know the editor of Food and Wine makes the same mistakes I do in the kitchen?

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a keeper. Except for the hit-or-miss breakfast entries, everything else I've tried has been a big hit.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some great recipes and tips - but I was kind of shocked. Really, you were the editor of a food magazine - and you made these kinds of mistakes? This book would be most useful for new cooks.

[Librarianjessi]

Practical cooking tips + memoir of learning to cook

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting chef perspectives on known recipes, and some interesting unknown recipes too.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pictures of recipes? Yes.
Commentary on recipes? Yes.
Nutrition facts? Nope.
Recipe Style? All over the place.
Any keepers? Nothing really new and exciting here.
The premise was interesting, but some of the 'mistakes' were laughable (add more water).