What do you think?
Cookin' with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price
There’s only one thing that Coolio’s been doing longer than cooking. His recipes are built around solid comfort foods with a healthy twist that don’t break the bank. You can’t find the fusions Coolio created like Blasian (black Asian) or Ghettalian (ghetto Italian) in restaurants, but you can have them cooking away in your kitchen faster and easier than ordering takeout.
Coolio started making thirty-minute meals when he was ten years old and has since developed a whole new Ghetto Gourmet. Start your Ghetto Gourmet adventure with some “Soul Rolls,” follow-up with “Finger-Lickin’, Rib-Stickin’, Fall-Off-the-Bone-and-into-Your-Mouth Chicken,” and finish off with “Banana Ba-ba-ba-bread” sweetened with golden honey.
Cookin' with Coolio features 76 tasty, easy-to-make and economical recipes built around comfort foods with a healthy twist, accompanied by 25 full-color pictures. The book covers
-How to Become a Kitchen Pimp
-The Rules of the Ghetto Gourmet to everything you'll need to make a complete meal
-Pimpin’ the poultry
-Sinful steaks
-It’s Hard Out Here for a Shrimp
-Chillin’ and Grillin’
As Coolio says, “All you need is a little bit of food, and a little bit of know-how.”
Coolio started making thirty-minute meals when he was ten years old and has since developed a whole new Ghetto Gourmet. Start your Ghetto Gourmet adventure with some “Soul Rolls,” follow-up with “Finger-Lickin’, Rib-Stickin’, Fall-Off-the-Bone-and-into-Your-Mouth Chicken,” and finish off with “Banana Ba-ba-ba-bread” sweetened with golden honey.
Cookin' with Coolio features 76 tasty, easy-to-make and economical recipes built around comfort foods with a healthy twist, accompanied by 25 full-color pictures. The book covers
-How to Become a Kitchen Pimp
-The Rules of the Ghetto Gourmet to everything you'll need to make a complete meal
-Pimpin’ the poultry
-Sinful steaks
-It’s Hard Out Here for a Shrimp
-Chillin’ and Grillin’
As Coolio says, “All you need is a little bit of food, and a little bit of know-how.”
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Coolio
5 books3 followersArtis Leon Ivey Jr., known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta's Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997).
He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and "C U When U Get There" (1997).
From 1996 on, Coolio released albums independently, and provided the opening track "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel. He created the web series Cookin' with Coolio and released a cookbook.
-From Wikipedia
He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and "C U When U Get There" (1997).
From 1996 on, Coolio released albums independently, and provided the opening track "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel. He created the web series Cookin' with Coolio and released a cookbook.
-From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 5, 2010
i picked this up initially to have a laugh only, but the recipes are actually pretty good, so now it is mine. a lot of it does read as though run through a "pimp translator machine"; i don't know that i need to "sensually bathe (in beer)my steak like an egyptian princess", but at the end of the day, that steak looks pretty good. good enough to eat even. and the food is shot like porn, it all kind of ... glistens suggestively. it is kind of conflicting. and i know shit from poundcake about coolio, but anyone that is going to make a chicken recipe with peanut butter has got my ear.
some of the measurements i have to question, though. while it is cute to have ingredients measured out in dime bags, i don't think any recipe needs both one dime bag of salt and one dime bag of pepper. unless dime bags are much much smaller than they were when i was still a smoker. (oh my god, does anyone but me right here remember the days when you had your special card, and you would go to any juice bar in manhattan and present your card, and you would get a dime bag with your juice?? now all you can get is juice. man, i miss "new york")
this book made me happy because when i was in high school, everyone would pile into my house and we would get high. (hi, dad!!) and at some point in the evening, i would slink out of the room and go make food for everyone. never did burn the house down (hi, dad!) but for me, that was the best part of the evening; going through the cupboards and gathering blueberries and english muffins and whatever i could find to make a culinary masterpiece. and i would always enter proudly with my food prettily arranged on a tray, and bonnie would fall out of her chair laughing. ah, teen memories... and i hope coolio has friends that laugh when he enters with his sunglasses on and his tray full of "chicken lettuce blunts" and "soul rolls"
not much here for the foer-faces - "hot fruit sandwich", "heavenly ghettalian garlic bread", and a token chapter at the rear, "to show you that you can be a vegetarian, or even a vegan, and still eat like a kitchen pimp". so -gratitude, please, for mr. coolio.
now go eat something.
come to my blog!
some of the measurements i have to question, though. while it is cute to have ingredients measured out in dime bags, i don't think any recipe needs both one dime bag of salt and one dime bag of pepper. unless dime bags are much much smaller than they were when i was still a smoker. (oh my god, does anyone but me right here remember the days when you had your special card, and you would go to any juice bar in manhattan and present your card, and you would get a dime bag with your juice?? now all you can get is juice. man, i miss "new york")
this book made me happy because when i was in high school, everyone would pile into my house and we would get high. (hi, dad!!) and at some point in the evening, i would slink out of the room and go make food for everyone. never did burn the house down (hi, dad!) but for me, that was the best part of the evening; going through the cupboards and gathering blueberries and english muffins and whatever i could find to make a culinary masterpiece. and i would always enter proudly with my food prettily arranged on a tray, and bonnie would fall out of her chair laughing. ah, teen memories... and i hope coolio has friends that laugh when he enters with his sunglasses on and his tray full of "chicken lettuce blunts" and "soul rolls"
not much here for the foer-faces - "hot fruit sandwich", "heavenly ghettalian garlic bread", and a token chapter at the rear, "to show you that you can be a vegetarian, or even a vegan, and still eat like a kitchen pimp". so -gratitude, please, for mr. coolio.
now go eat something.
come to my blog!
no-way-in-hell
October 18, 2013
February 17, 2020
if ur not cookin with Coolio then what are u doing with ur life
April 3, 2015
Easy recipes. Perhaps relies a bit too much on balsamic vinegar, canned cream of whatever soups, alcohol, and cornflakes. Ohhh, and I would ignore using dime bag sized portions of seasonings, that's a bit much. This is one of the most hilarious and awesome cook books I've ever read. Coolio should either write another one or have his own cooking show.
April 12, 2014
Profane language is a major problem, but otherwise a hilarious book.
September 19, 2011
The recipes are pretty much not worth it (1 Goodreads star) -- any book that utilizes things like cans of cream of mushroom soup in the recipes usually aren't -- but the commentary by the "kitchen pimp" Coolio himself is pretty fantastic (5 Goodreads stars)! I'll let the man's own words speak for the book:
"When you put on that pimptron (that's an apron for a pimp, for those of you who didn't know), you betterget ready to be around some prime-time nakedness, because fall-off-the-bone chicken is the quickest way to guarantee fall-off-the-girl clothes. Shaka!"
"Peench [peench]: This is when you put a little bit of a spice between your fingers and throw it on your food. It's a lot like a pinch, except for the motherfucking fact that gangstas don't pinch. They peench."
"Even I like to go vegetarian once in a while, but there's nothing like a bland-ass bowl of steamed vegetables or a limp lettuce salad to make you wanna just go you and eat a damn dog off the street."
"When you put on that pimptron (that's an apron for a pimp, for those of you who didn't know), you betterget ready to be around some prime-time nakedness, because fall-off-the-bone chicken is the quickest way to guarantee fall-off-the-girl clothes. Shaka!"
"Peench [peench]: This is when you put a little bit of a spice between your fingers and throw it on your food. It's a lot like a pinch, except for the motherfucking fact that gangstas don't pinch. They peench."
"Even I like to go vegetarian once in a while, but there's nothing like a bland-ass bowl of steamed vegetables or a limp lettuce salad to make you wanna just go you and eat a damn dog off the street."
May 10, 2010
Funnier and with better recipes than I expected.
July 13, 2010
Hilarious. Real recipes, gansta style.
January 6, 2014
AWESOME! Really good recipes.
January 25, 2015
I especially enjoyed some of the unexpected twists. For example, adding a dime bag of lemon pepper seasoning to the Italian Chicken Breastesses.
January 14, 2019
Gave this book to my most conservative friend at a league white elephant party. She thought it was the best present ever! Apparently, she watches his cooking videos on Youtube and enjoys them. The rest of the party got a kick looking at the recipe titles and will be trying the recipes. I'm not the cookbook kind so I'll pass. However, they are still talking about the book. Perfect gift for a wonderful friend.
December 6, 2019
Genuinely fantastic. I bought this for a friend for Christmas as a gag gift but the more I read the more I came to respect Coolio and his respect for cooking itself.
I have since bought a second copy and while I won't be able to try the shellfish or fish recipes I nonetheless have walked away from this cookbook having learnt a great deal more than I expected to. Well done, Coolio.
I have since bought a second copy and while I won't be able to try the shellfish or fish recipes I nonetheless have walked away from this cookbook having learnt a great deal more than I expected to. Well done, Coolio.
February 1, 2018
It's 'Cooking With Coolio'....that's really all you need to know.
Truly a Fantastic Voyage...
(Stop groaning. You know you wanted to say that.....)
If every cookbook was like this, I'd be a wonderful cook because I'd read them all!
Truly a Fantastic Voyage...
(Stop groaning. You know you wanted to say that.....)
If every cookbook was like this, I'd be a wonderful cook because I'd read them all!
April 12, 2021
Fun but inedible.
February 4, 2026
amazingly smart and fun and, well, cool!
December 28, 2009
Cookin' with Coolio / 978-1-43911-761-3
In retrospect, when I selected this from Amazon Vine, I probably wasn't the best target audience for this - from the sparse description offered, I thought this was a cook book with a humorous tone, and now I see that it's really more of a humor book with recipes. So, in as much as I am slightly disappointed with "Cookin' with Coolio", keep in mind that Your Mileage May Vary, if you're buying this for the humor and the recipes are just icing on the cake for you.
Having said that, this isn't really my style of humor anyway. The introduction pretty much exhausts all the material here - substitute slang for the usual cooking terminology rigmarole, drop profanity early and often, and use as many food metaphors as possible as euphemisms for sex (credit where credit is due: none of the many, many, many references to sexuality in this book appear to be overtly sexist - Coolio just stresses frequently that the best way to a person's, um, *heart* is through their stomach). The introduction is cute and clever, if you like that sort of thing, and if you do, then this would make a good coffee table book, I suppose, but the same shtick over and over will probably get old after the first dozen recipes.
The reason I say this is a humor book with recipes and not a cook book with humor is that, well, as a cook book, I just don't think this book could stand alone. The cutesy 'ghetto slang' is tricky to remember, and you'll be doing a lot of flipping to find the one or two random recipes where a conversion for that item was offered - was a 'dimebag' of parsley a TABLEspoon or a TEAspoon? Many of the instructions are vague and hard to follow (and I say this as a long-time amateur cook who can usually connect the dots in case of poor instructions), because most (if not all) of the given step was devoted to humor and innuendo rather than cooking clarity.
As far as the actual recipes go, I'm disappointed to note that the book has almost no pictures and definitely no pictorial steps shown - all we get are a few glossy photos of some of the finished creations, stuck in the middle of the book. Since I've gotten to the point in my life where I almost won't even buy a recipe book without proper 'assembly' pictures on the relevant recipe pages, this was a disappointment. And the lack of pictorial steps shown doesn't help the beginner chef to cover the gaps between the vague instructions.
There's also not a lot of variety here - if you use the Amazon "look inside this book" feature to browse the index, you'll note that the "Dessert" section alone has only 5 recipes - one of which, the "Hot Fruit Sandwich", basically involves sticking fruit between two pieces of sandwich bread. The "Vegetarian / Vegetable" section has 6 recipes, only a couple of which fit the traditional 'side dish' type of recipe. There are, however, quite a lot of meat-featured main dish style recipes to try, so if you're just looking for 'main dishes' to serve at home, you might find a lot here to like.
Despite the premise, that this book can teach anybody to cook regardless of background, I think that's probably wrong - without detailed instructions, or at least pictures, I think most novice cooks would struggle with this book. Advanced cooks will be able to fill in the blanks, but the simplicity of these recipes will practically ensure that advanced cooks will already have encountered and tried much of everything here. So, in the end, you're probably coming to this for the humor value. My advice would be to flip through the pages shown here on Amazon, and if it's the sort of thing you'd like on your coffee table, snap it up and enjoy.
NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.
~ Ana Mardoll
In retrospect, when I selected this from Amazon Vine, I probably wasn't the best target audience for this - from the sparse description offered, I thought this was a cook book with a humorous tone, and now I see that it's really more of a humor book with recipes. So, in as much as I am slightly disappointed with "Cookin' with Coolio", keep in mind that Your Mileage May Vary, if you're buying this for the humor and the recipes are just icing on the cake for you.
Having said that, this isn't really my style of humor anyway. The introduction pretty much exhausts all the material here - substitute slang for the usual cooking terminology rigmarole, drop profanity early and often, and use as many food metaphors as possible as euphemisms for sex (credit where credit is due: none of the many, many, many references to sexuality in this book appear to be overtly sexist - Coolio just stresses frequently that the best way to a person's, um, *heart* is through their stomach). The introduction is cute and clever, if you like that sort of thing, and if you do, then this would make a good coffee table book, I suppose, but the same shtick over and over will probably get old after the first dozen recipes.
The reason I say this is a humor book with recipes and not a cook book with humor is that, well, as a cook book, I just don't think this book could stand alone. The cutesy 'ghetto slang' is tricky to remember, and you'll be doing a lot of flipping to find the one or two random recipes where a conversion for that item was offered - was a 'dimebag' of parsley a TABLEspoon or a TEAspoon? Many of the instructions are vague and hard to follow (and I say this as a long-time amateur cook who can usually connect the dots in case of poor instructions), because most (if not all) of the given step was devoted to humor and innuendo rather than cooking clarity.
As far as the actual recipes go, I'm disappointed to note that the book has almost no pictures and definitely no pictorial steps shown - all we get are a few glossy photos of some of the finished creations, stuck in the middle of the book. Since I've gotten to the point in my life where I almost won't even buy a recipe book without proper 'assembly' pictures on the relevant recipe pages, this was a disappointment. And the lack of pictorial steps shown doesn't help the beginner chef to cover the gaps between the vague instructions.
There's also not a lot of variety here - if you use the Amazon "look inside this book" feature to browse the index, you'll note that the "Dessert" section alone has only 5 recipes - one of which, the "Hot Fruit Sandwich", basically involves sticking fruit between two pieces of sandwich bread. The "Vegetarian / Vegetable" section has 6 recipes, only a couple of which fit the traditional 'side dish' type of recipe. There are, however, quite a lot of meat-featured main dish style recipes to try, so if you're just looking for 'main dishes' to serve at home, you might find a lot here to like.
Despite the premise, that this book can teach anybody to cook regardless of background, I think that's probably wrong - without detailed instructions, or at least pictures, I think most novice cooks would struggle with this book. Advanced cooks will be able to fill in the blanks, but the simplicity of these recipes will practically ensure that advanced cooks will already have encountered and tried much of everything here. So, in the end, you're probably coming to this for the humor value. My advice would be to flip through the pages shown here on Amazon, and if it's the sort of thing you'd like on your coffee table, snap it up and enjoy.
NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.
~ Ana Mardoll
July 28, 2010
I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book. The cookbooks I'm used to are filled with beautiful stories and photos and the writing makes your mouth water.
This is not that book. As a novelty however, this book is amazing. This is a book that made my sides ache with laughter. Coolio presents his recipes in a manner that you can't help but just shake your head at and marvel that this book was somehow published.
As for the recipes themselves. They seem to all be very tasty, but are made for home cooks that haven't really had a lot of experience in the kitchen. It would maybe be good for a freshman in college who is living on their own for the first time and looking for some dishes to impress a special someone.
I would recommend the recipes for a middle school home-ec class, but the language bars it from something that could be used in a public school.
Sadly, there weren't really any dishes to tempt me no matter how many times Coolio said "shaka zulu!". If you are a hard-core Coolio fan, I'm sure this book is a must. Frankly, it improved my opinion of Coolio, because someone who can whip something together in the kitchen is usually an all right person, and Coolio is DEFINITELY passionate about food and cooking...and the ladies.
***1/2 = glad I read it, I enjoyed it.
This is not that book. As a novelty however, this book is amazing. This is a book that made my sides ache with laughter. Coolio presents his recipes in a manner that you can't help but just shake your head at and marvel that this book was somehow published.
As for the recipes themselves. They seem to all be very tasty, but are made for home cooks that haven't really had a lot of experience in the kitchen. It would maybe be good for a freshman in college who is living on their own for the first time and looking for some dishes to impress a special someone.
I would recommend the recipes for a middle school home-ec class, but the language bars it from something that could be used in a public school.
Sadly, there weren't really any dishes to tempt me no matter how many times Coolio said "shaka zulu!". If you are a hard-core Coolio fan, I'm sure this book is a must. Frankly, it improved my opinion of Coolio, because someone who can whip something together in the kitchen is usually an all right person, and Coolio is DEFINITELY passionate about food and cooking...and the ladies.
***1/2 = glad I read it, I enjoyed it.
June 23, 2014
Somewhere, Julia Child is turning over in her grave. Repeatedly.
Aside from the corn salad (Really. Corn salad.) recipe, there's not exactly a ton of cooking inspiration in this book. There are a few culinary gems that make it worthy of checking out. Read it for no other reason than the commentary. Hilarious!
The chapters are broken down as follows:
Appetizers for That Ass
Salad-Eatin' Bitches
Pimpin' the Poultry
You get the idea.
The Corn Salad recipe calls for a corn, onions, mayo, tomatoes and a "dime bag" of seasoning. Simply mix it up and "coagulate that shit" til it's done (But be careful. Dried basil is as potent as Maui Wowie so use it sparingly, ya dig?) Surprisingly, Corn Salad is pretty damned good!
Purchased at a bookstore closing sale for the low, low price of $1.99. I figured the purchase price wouldn't exactly set me back a lot of bread (see what I did there?) so I threw it in with my order. Well whaddya know? Recipes are pretty basic, but they do appeal to my love of BBQ and soul food. I probably could have come up with most of these ideas on my own, but Coolio's humorous twists on cooking made the book worth owning.
I still can't get myself to try the Hot Fruit Sandwich, though.
Aside from the corn salad (Really. Corn salad.) recipe, there's not exactly a ton of cooking inspiration in this book. There are a few culinary gems that make it worthy of checking out. Read it for no other reason than the commentary. Hilarious!
The chapters are broken down as follows:
Appetizers for That Ass
Salad-Eatin' Bitches
Pimpin' the Poultry
You get the idea.
The Corn Salad recipe calls for a corn, onions, mayo, tomatoes and a "dime bag" of seasoning. Simply mix it up and "coagulate that shit" til it's done (But be careful. Dried basil is as potent as Maui Wowie so use it sparingly, ya dig?) Surprisingly, Corn Salad is pretty damned good!
Purchased at a bookstore closing sale for the low, low price of $1.99. I figured the purchase price wouldn't exactly set me back a lot of bread (see what I did there?) so I threw it in with my order. Well whaddya know? Recipes are pretty basic, but they do appeal to my love of BBQ and soul food. I probably could have come up with most of these ideas on my own, but Coolio's humorous twists on cooking made the book worth owning.
I still can't get myself to try the Hot Fruit Sandwich, though.
February 19, 2011
This was a featured book at the library so obviously I snatched it up. Most of the recipes in this are meat-laden, and the few vegetarian recipes are pretty weaksauce (veggie stir fry, chili). But whatever, this is the funniest cookbook I've ever read. All cookbooks should measure their spices in dime bags and nickel bags, amiright? So, not really a kitchen staple for me, but definitely worth getting from the library. And I could see it being a useful cookbook for an omnivorous beginning cook.
March 7, 2014
I knew upon seeing Coolio in an argyle vest that he was serious. I read the recipes and imagined Coolio in the kitchen cooking, probably wearing hat with a hole cut up top to expose a few braids. He requires a show of his own to reveal how his "kitchen is hotter than bein up in the club" and goes down when he throws on his flamingo shirt.
But To be honest, I'm apprehensive about trying any of his recipes.
But To be honest, I'm apprehensive about trying any of his recipes.
July 24, 2011
Found this in the new release shelf on my local library and it's a hoot!
I've always respected Coolio for his talent and smarts. This cookbook is peppered with truly funny sayings and reads as if Coolio is right there alongside you whipping-up one of his dishes...
I wouldn't necessarily recommend buying it but looking it over at your library.
I've always respected Coolio for his talent and smarts. This cookbook is peppered with truly funny sayings and reads as if Coolio is right there alongside you whipping-up one of his dishes...
I wouldn't necessarily recommend buying it but looking it over at your library.
January 23, 2013
Hilarious. I read this cover to cover and enjoyed it way more that I should have. Most of my enjoyment was based on the humor, but there are some solid looking recipes also. The recipes are simple and easy, but there are some that look really interesting. I haven't made anything from it yet, but I have several earmarked to make soon.
December 26, 2013
I was so excited to find this, and immediately bought it for my dad.
Coolio's commentary is priceless. I think a full half of the recipes begin with anecdotes about how the specific recipe has somehow gotten him laid, which bolsters his credibility as a kitchen pimp.
This is not a book to buy for the recipes. It is a book you buy to double-over laughing.
Coolio's commentary is priceless. I think a full half of the recipes begin with anecdotes about how the specific recipe has somehow gotten him laid, which bolsters his credibility as a kitchen pimp.
This is not a book to buy for the recipes. It is a book you buy to double-over laughing.
January 24, 2012
Didn't find any recipes I would actually make. The language was annoying too-instead of a tablespoon of something he uses a "dimebag", etc. I found it very distracting when I was trying to read the recipes.
September 20, 2013
"Beat those eggs like a redheaded stepchild."
My go-to book for budget-friendly date nights, or just a damn good chicken recipe.
Shaka Zulu!
Buy this title from Powell's Books.
My go-to book for budget-friendly date nights, or just a damn good chicken recipe.
Shaka Zulu!
Buy this title from Powell's Books.
June 3, 2010
Funniest cookbook I've read in a long long time. Even has some good sounding recipes! Shaka-zulu!
June 26, 2010
ridiculous. not for the faint of heart. Swearing and soul food. Hilarious.
August 24, 2010
I am not kidding you, this book is hilarious. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet - but I plan on trying some after vacation.
September 26, 2010
Hilarious - more for Coolio fans and less for the serious cook. After all, who wants to measure their spices out in dime bags?
February 10, 2012
Hilarious and amazing. Have not tried any of the recipes yet, but have definitely read the profanity-laden food descriptions aloud to the amusement of all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews