The First Review

Before we start singing (Happy Music Week!), here’s something to sing about: the first review of my book, via Publisher’s Weekly!

The Amateur Gourmet: How to Shop, Chop and Table-Hop Like a Pro (Almost)

Just a typical Jewish law student who returned to New York to study playwriting, Roberts forsook torts and all things dramaturgical for tarts and all things culinary. In order to better share his discoveries and enthusiasms, he eventually launched a Web site—amateurgourmet.com—replete with recipes, marketing and cooking tips, restaurant reviews and overall winsomeness. Here, in 10 short essays, and with the same charming voice, he offers simple (perhaps even simplistic) lessons from his own journey out of fast food and microwave captivity to the Promised Land of Foodiedom. From basic tomato sauce to a feast for 10, he guides the way through a series of culinary adventures and exhorts the kitchen novice toward the same discoveries, surprises and challenges. This is not really a cookbook or a memoir so much as a kitchen travelogue or series of essays on culinary attitude adjustment, and Roberts has such lightness of spirit that even proficient gourmands may be tempted to seek again the stance of a rank beginner in order to experience anew a perfectly cooked tomato sauce or dinner for one in Paris. There are recipes, mostly cribbed from other cookbooks, but the book’s primary feature is its delight in learning something new. (Aug. 28)

11 thoughts on “The First Review”

  1. Great review! I’ll be eagerly awaiting its release here in the Philippines and compare it to my own journey :) Congratulations!

  2. If you book is as light-hearted and interesting as your blog, I am sure it will do well. Congratulations on the great PW review.

  3. Bravo! What a wonderful poignant and sensitive review. A fantabulous feather in your cap and the greatest motivator of them all, praise.

    Always remember to keep it real. That’s what so wonderful about you, your lightness of spirit. You’re having so much fun and you’re sharing your light.

    Thanks.

    Kathleen

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