A large box came in the mail. What is this?! it was The Kitchen Ecosystem by Eugenia Bone. The box and mounds of bubble wrap were a bit much, but the book did come in pristine condition. It is quite the heavy tome. The cover is beautiful and the pictures throughout are wonderful. The introduction was very inspirational. It really got me thinking about how I have and can use so many of the food things I tend to toss out from bones to carrot tops. Eugenia talks about creating your own kitchen ecosystem where your meals are interconnected with each other and where there is less waste. I love the concept. I can't wait to implement it in my own kitchen, when I finally have one again.I know many people who would love this book. It has creative recipes and they look mouthwatering. The problem that I have is that so many of the "staple" ingredients in her book are not available in our small town grocery store. Corn, check. Carrots, check. Chicken, check. Lobster, duck, fennel, not so much. The likelihood that I would be able to make many of these recipes is very slim. The one thing I really liked in this book was the variety of broth and stock recipes that can use leftover bits and bones. It is an awefully big book to keep around for that handful of recipes though.
I am inspired by the concept of this book. I plan to take Eugenia Bone's advice and create an ecosystem in my kitchen. I plan to use my own recipes with the foods available in my area. She doesn't recommend simply following her recipes, she wants you to create an ecosystem of your own and is simply showing how she has done it. In concept I give this book a 5 out of 5, but if I had purchased this book for myself, I would have been sorely disappointed. So, I will average it out with a midrange 3.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
