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The Kitchen Whisperers: Cooking with the Wisdom of Our Friends The Saveur Founder's Beautifully Written Memoir with Recipes and Lessons from Chefs
A beautifully written tribute to the people who teach us to cook and guide our hands in the kitchen, by a founding editor of Saveur . “[The book features] many of the culinary names [Kalins] worked with . . . like Colman Andrews, Marcella Hazan, Michael Anthony and Anita Lo. Through her eyes and lively prose, they provide [a] compelling common-sense approach to food that will easily resonate with experienced cooks and should bolster the confidence of novices.” — New York Times
The cooking lessons that stick with us are rarely the ones we read in books or learn through blog posts or YouTube videos (depending on your generation); they’re the ones we pick up as we spend time with good cooks in the kitchen. Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Savuer magazine, calls the people who pass on their cooking wisdom her Kitchen Whisperers. Consciously or not, they help make us the cooks we are—and help show the way to the kind of cooks we have the potential to become. Dorothy’s prolific career in food media means many of her Kitchen Whisperers are some of the best chefs around (though the lessons she’s learned from fellow home cooks are just as important). For Dorothy, a lifetime of exposure to incredible cooks and chefs means that she can’t enter her kitchen without hearing the voices of mentors and friends with whom she cooked over the years as they reveal their favorite techniques. Marcella Hazan warns her against valuing look over flavor. Christopher Hirsheimer advises that sometimes water is the best liquid to add to a dish rather than stock or wine. Her onetime Southern mother-in-law wisely knows that not everyone who asks for a biscuit is food hungry. Woven through the text are dozens of narrative recipes, from her mother’s meat loaf to David Tanis’s Swiss Chard Gratin. The Kitchen Whisperers will prompt older readers to identify and cherish the food mentors in their own lives, just as it will inspire younger readers to seek them out. Stories and recipes from Dorothy’s notable connections will inspire the creative food journeys of all.
The cooking lessons that stick with us are rarely the ones we read in books or learn through blog posts or YouTube videos (depending on your generation); they’re the ones we pick up as we spend time with good cooks in the kitchen. Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Savuer magazine, calls the people who pass on their cooking wisdom her Kitchen Whisperers. Consciously or not, they help make us the cooks we are—and help show the way to the kind of cooks we have the potential to become. Dorothy’s prolific career in food media means many of her Kitchen Whisperers are some of the best chefs around (though the lessons she’s learned from fellow home cooks are just as important). For Dorothy, a lifetime of exposure to incredible cooks and chefs means that she can’t enter her kitchen without hearing the voices of mentors and friends with whom she cooked over the years as they reveal their favorite techniques. Marcella Hazan warns her against valuing look over flavor. Christopher Hirsheimer advises that sometimes water is the best liquid to add to a dish rather than stock or wine. Her onetime Southern mother-in-law wisely knows that not everyone who asks for a biscuit is food hungry. Woven through the text are dozens of narrative recipes, from her mother’s meat loaf to David Tanis’s Swiss Chard Gratin. The Kitchen Whisperers will prompt older readers to identify and cherish the food mentors in their own lives, just as it will inspire younger readers to seek them out. Stories and recipes from Dorothy’s notable connections will inspire the creative food journeys of all.
304 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2022
24 people are currently reading
2546 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 28, 2021
I wanted to love this book! I loved the idea of this book but I wanted the warm reminisces of a down to earth cook tied to her ancestry, neighborhood, and friends. Instead, this is the memoir of a socialite looking to highlight her family's upscale roots and all the cooking celebrities who are her good friends. I wanted to read about cooking in the autumn with fresh apples and pumpkins, about a granny picking rhubarb and make luscious desserts, and the fresh taste of vegetables fresh from the garden of a neighbor.
October 3, 2021
Extremely disappointing book , boring and uninformative. This book is nothing more than a rehash of the various personal experiences of the author, dinners , cooking and eating in various restaurants with her friends in the food industry.
November 1, 2021
As a fan of food nonfiction, I cook (and eat) with so many voices in my head from books and recipe headnotes I've read, and I can only imagine what it would be like to be an editor like Dorothy Kalins who has cooked with some of the greats. A fun exploration of how our palates and repertoire grow because of the influence of others.
April 6, 2022
I fell in love with this book, especially the concept of the book, right away. I cook with lots of wonderful voices in the kitchen with me - grandmothers, good friends, Mrs. Child, of course, the brilliant chefs I got to work with, TV chefs who want to draw us in and get us moving and the quiet cookbook writers and stylists who offer their best.
They all seem to want to engage us to try new things, to go beyond our self-imposed borders and experience the wonders of the kitchen, the market, the table. At some point in the book, and it may have been too early on, Ms. Kalin's voice went from collaborative and encouraging to showcasing. Her Kitchen Whisperers are the chefs, the magazine editors and the stylists with whom she collaborated. And, rather than drawing us in, she seemed to have drawn a line - a sort of "us and you" line I found off-putting. She makes a statement about a chef whose new kitchen isn't completed and he brings an amazing meal to the table with two toaster ovens and a hot plate. Brilliant! Wonderful! Exciting! Tell me more, tell me how. Instead, she goes on to comment, "In most chef's kitchens, and especially in most high-end non-chef's kitchens, you'll find a row of shiny appliances that signify mastery to the Williams Sonoma crowd but in reality only telegraph a quick Amazon trigger finger. (Just because they're there doesn't meant they're used, or used well.)" She may have hit more than two birds with that stone. There is this unnecessary defense of expertise. I'd prefer she acknowledge the heritage of home cooking - the inspiration, the doing, showing, trying, sharing. It's food! If someone with limited experience gets their hands dirty by using shiny appliances and gadgets, hooray! They're in the kitchen.
I will say this, the book will stay in my kitchen. It was given to me as a gift and I assumed I'd read it and pass it along, but I can't! It's FULL of sticky notes, full of ideas for the hours I'll spend at the farmers market and then in the kitchen. (I do wish she'd indexed all the non-recipe recipes!)
This is a good book but sadly, the writer managed to create a line, perhaps unintentionally, between the reader and her accomplished associates when she could have sidled up next to us and been our Kitchen Whisperer.
They all seem to want to engage us to try new things, to go beyond our self-imposed borders and experience the wonders of the kitchen, the market, the table. At some point in the book, and it may have been too early on, Ms. Kalin's voice went from collaborative and encouraging to showcasing. Her Kitchen Whisperers are the chefs, the magazine editors and the stylists with whom she collaborated. And, rather than drawing us in, she seemed to have drawn a line - a sort of "us and you" line I found off-putting. She makes a statement about a chef whose new kitchen isn't completed and he brings an amazing meal to the table with two toaster ovens and a hot plate. Brilliant! Wonderful! Exciting! Tell me more, tell me how. Instead, she goes on to comment, "In most chef's kitchens, and especially in most high-end non-chef's kitchens, you'll find a row of shiny appliances that signify mastery to the Williams Sonoma crowd but in reality only telegraph a quick Amazon trigger finger. (Just because they're there doesn't meant they're used, or used well.)" She may have hit more than two birds with that stone. There is this unnecessary defense of expertise. I'd prefer she acknowledge the heritage of home cooking - the inspiration, the doing, showing, trying, sharing. It's food! If someone with limited experience gets their hands dirty by using shiny appliances and gadgets, hooray! They're in the kitchen.
I will say this, the book will stay in my kitchen. It was given to me as a gift and I assumed I'd read it and pass it along, but I can't! It's FULL of sticky notes, full of ideas for the hours I'll spend at the farmers market and then in the kitchen. (I do wish she'd indexed all the non-recipe recipes!)
This is a good book but sadly, the writer managed to create a line, perhaps unintentionally, between the reader and her accomplished associates when she could have sidled up next to us and been our Kitchen Whisperer.
November 11, 2021
Wanted to like this book but it turned out to be more name dropping and talking about her mother’s cooking than a book about Interesting cooking stories.
June 11, 2021
This book was received as an ARC from William Morrow and Custom House in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
I loved the approach Dorothy Kalins took when writing this book. I am familiar with her work as the founding editor of Saveur magazine, and always was a fan of the personal stories she would publish in the magazine. All of the recipes she featured looked and sounded absolutely delicious and they are definitely potential candidates for a future cooking demo. I do appreciate though the amount of knowledge Dorothy shared in this book as well as told some personal stories rather than have this book be a full cookbook because as home cooks, we don't really pay attention to all of the technicalities and all of the guidance from other chefs because it confuses us in many ways rather than applying the knowledge to our own food, Dorothy does a brilliant job connecting all of that within her story to really reflect on the whole concept of Kitchen Whisperers.
We will consider adding this title to our William Morrow in exchange for an honest review. That is why we give this book 5 stars.
I loved the approach Dorothy Kalins took when writing this book. I am familiar with her work as the founding editor of Saveur magazine, and always was a fan of the personal stories she would publish in the magazine. All of the recipes she featured looked and sounded absolutely delicious and they are definitely potential candidates for a future cooking demo. I do appreciate though the amount of knowledge Dorothy shared in this book as well as told some personal stories rather than have this book be a full cookbook because as home cooks, we don't really pay attention to all of the technicalities and all of the guidance from other chefs because it confuses us in many ways rather than applying the knowledge to our own food, Dorothy does a brilliant job connecting all of that within her story to really reflect on the whole concept of Kitchen Whisperers.
We will consider adding this title to our William Morrow in exchange for an honest review. That is why we give this book 5 stars.
March 5, 2022
I won an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thank you.
Dorothy Kalins has written a memoir of sorts, about the people who inspire and mentor her in the kitchen. We all have those people when we start certain tasks. The ones whose lessons stick with us, whose whispers we hear in our heads when we cook like they showed us, who make small changes in our daily habits. Dorothy calls them Kitchen Whisperers.
Reading this, I found myself wishing I had some of her same Kitchen Whisperers, that I could gather around the table with their Stomach Club for supper, understand some of the ingredients, spices and flavors in the same way they do. Like Sandrine, I find myself wanting to sit in Dorothy’s kitchen and for her - and my transference, all of her kitchen whisperers, to become mine.
Inspiring, romanticizing food, and cooking experiences and the community that good food can build, it made me think of my own food experiences a bit differently. And that I lived in a place with more options for food sourcing!
Well worth the read if you’re interested in food, cookery, flavor and inspiration.
Dorothy Kalins has written a memoir of sorts, about the people who inspire and mentor her in the kitchen. We all have those people when we start certain tasks. The ones whose lessons stick with us, whose whispers we hear in our heads when we cook like they showed us, who make small changes in our daily habits. Dorothy calls them Kitchen Whisperers.
Reading this, I found myself wishing I had some of her same Kitchen Whisperers, that I could gather around the table with their Stomach Club for supper, understand some of the ingredients, spices and flavors in the same way they do. Like Sandrine, I find myself wanting to sit in Dorothy’s kitchen and for her - and my transference, all of her kitchen whisperers, to become mine.
Inspiring, romanticizing food, and cooking experiences and the community that good food can build, it made me think of my own food experiences a bit differently. And that I lived in a place with more options for food sourcing!
Well worth the read if you’re interested in food, cookery, flavor and inspiration.
January 9, 2025
I got this as an uncorrected proof through a giveaway and I wanted to like it so much.
A lot of the book feels like bragging: look at what I can do, what I have, what I've done, who I know, which got old/annoying really fast.
I understand that if I knew names/people of the cooking world better, this book would have been a lot more interesting, but I don't so it was a slog to read.
I only finished out of spite and because of a library reading challenge that this book fulfills.
Some of the emotions and descriptions were very nice, though, to give credit where credit is due. It would have been really nice to have had some pictures or illustrations to guide reading. It's about food and cooking after all. And since the author is someone who has been in charge of magazines and photo shoots and touring for many years, it would have made a lot of sense.
A lot of the book feels like bragging: look at what I can do, what I have, what I've done, who I know, which got old/annoying really fast.
I understand that if I knew names/people of the cooking world better, this book would have been a lot more interesting, but I don't so it was a slog to read.
I only finished out of spite and because of a library reading challenge that this book fulfills.
Some of the emotions and descriptions were very nice, though, to give credit where credit is due. It would have been really nice to have had some pictures or illustrations to guide reading. It's about food and cooking after all. And since the author is someone who has been in charge of magazines and photo shoots and touring for many years, it would have made a lot of sense.
September 12, 2021
I liked this look into Dorothy and her friends and their different styles of cooking that have impacted her over the years. I liked the different recipes included and I look forward to trying some of them. I really loved how she talked about each person and how she could picture them in their kitchen and even hear their voice. I liked how she described different people's voices so that we could almost here them. This is a really lovely read. It took me a little while to read, but I think it is one of those slow reads that you take your time with and savor the characters and the lessons and the food they are teaching. This is a book I will be returning to and will purchase to have in my own kitchen.
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!
January 20, 2022
I love to read cookbooks and books about cooking experiences all the time. I was very excited to get this book and then I started to read it. My expectations of great stories, hints, and advice handed down from friends and relatives were crushed. Most of the book is a litany of chefs and celebrities the author has met through the years and a rehashing of the meals they had eaten together. Whole chapters were dedicated to one person, many of whom I have never hear of nor were of interest to me.
February 14, 2022
Really 33.5 but rounding up. This is a memoir of cooking with recipes. While I am not familiar with the author she is clearly a name in the cooking community and she knows (or knew) many heavy-hitters in the cooking/food community. SO, for example, there's a chapter devoted to time she spent with Marcella Hazen. Given that organization it's probably inevitable that the author seems very much inclined to drop names. And at some point I got tired of it. But she's a smoother writer and it's certainly worth dipping into the book.
December 28, 2021
The Kitchen Whisperers is a lovely tribute to incredible cooks in not only Dorothy Kalins’ life but also in all of our lives. Beautifully written, I felt like I was right there in those kitchens along for the journey learning the same lessons. And as I read, I reflected on my own journey with my own Kitchen Whisperers in my life, my grandmother and my mother. What a gem of a book, one that you will treasure and one that will inspire you as you read.
December 28, 2021
It takes a lot for nonfiction to grab me. This book was beautiful, honest, thought-provoking, and not at all pretentious, though it easily could’ve been. I ordered a used copy to keep on my shelf of cookbooks before I had finished it, while ordering the cookbooks mentioned within from the library as I read.
February 10, 2024
This was a sweet read, but got a bit repetitive. It’s all about friends who inspired certain recipes, and how we learn to cook from them. I loved the first half of the book, but the stories became so similar that I had trouble getting to the finish line. I enjoyed the idea behind this more than the book itself.
October 16, 2021
I enjoyed reading the introduction and chapters:
Mothers and Daughters
Buttermilk Biscuits and Red Dirt Roads
Daughters and mothers
However, the other chapters had me skimming through, I guess just too much detail that didn't interest me.
Mothers and Daughters
Buttermilk Biscuits and Red Dirt Roads
Daughters and mothers
However, the other chapters had me skimming through, I guess just too much detail that didn't interest me.
Read
December 11, 2021Though I do not rate I wanted to personally thank Dorothy Kalins for the lovely and entertaining memoir: the many tips were a bonus! I was lifted each chapter by the colorful details and felt I was a better human for the read.
October 29, 2022
I wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t. The writing style is good, but I found it a chore to read as it bored me. Mostly the author’s recollections of kitchen-based interactions with famous or semi-famous people, it grew tiresome quickly.
Read
October 8, 2023Reminded me of Judith Jone's The Tenth Muse. An editor who brought what are now culinary household names to the public eye reminisces about how they (and other, friends and family) in turn influenced her in the kitchen.
October 21, 2021
thoroughly enjoyed...
December 17, 2021
This book is great if you like reading about food and food publishing, and I do.
December 18, 2021
A lovely read … light and interesting, brimming with stories from and with some of the contemporary greats in the American culinary tradition. A bit clunky at times.
January 31, 2023
Wanted to like this…I love books with cooking stories, but I felt like the author thought herself above normal folk and that her cooking was just showing off. Too bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2023
Not what I was expecting. Have enjoyed other cooking essays more. This fell flat.
January 2, 2022
I greatly enjoyed parts of this book and other parts were just ok. There were a handful of tangible items I'll take from this book and those alone made the read worthwhile. I love the concept of the book, it just needs to be polished up a bit.
September 13, 2021
A book to savor (no pun intended)! If you love to cook or bake, have happy memories of time spent in a kitchen with family or friends or just love reading cook books, get yourself a copy of this one to read. Writings about food should always have this much emotional connection!
March 24, 2024
Ughhhhhh I really really wanted to love this. The concept was so great, and I love learning about new methods from true epicureans. However, these sentences were SO LONG! And some of the dialogue seemed a little pretentious to me? Idk, I’m really bummed that I didn’t like this that much.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews