Sam Stern's Get Cooking

Stern, Sam. Get Cooking. Candlewick Press, 2009. Paperback $17.99, ISBN 978-0-7636-3926-6

What’s it about?

Sam Stern’s latest cookbook features over 100 recipes centered on different types of food, ranging from tomatoes, to cheese, to pastas, to vegetables, to chocolate.  There is a recipe in here for every chef and every palate!

Find out more:

British teen chef Sam Stern has written a third cookbook for teens. Get Cooking is divided into chapters that focus on seven of his friends (Sam gets a chapter, too!) and their favorite food or food group.  He and his “mates” chose tomatoes, cheese, pasta, vegetables, meat, potatoes, chocolate, and “sweet stuff.”  Eat chapter introduces Sam’s friend and their favorite food. Then Sam talks about the versatility of the chosen food, followed by several scrumptious-looking and sounding recipes. Many of the recipes have variations. There is an extensive index, so don’t worry about thumbing through for a particular recipe!

This is a solid cookbook with a wide range of recipes that will satisfy a wide range of palates. There are recipes that might be best left to experienced chefs, such as the Spanakopita (p. 31) and the Pasta with Sausage Ragu (p. 44). Novice cooks had best stick to recipes like the Chili Pepper and Bean Tortillas (p.65) and the Chocolate Nut Brownies (p. 112). Stern’s book is vegetarian-friendly: even in the chapter devoted to meat, there are vegetarian variations.  There are plenty of ethnic food recipes as well, particularly Italian and Indian foods. This book is overall very appealing, with its large, appetizing photos of the recipes, and the fun photos of Sam and his friends enjoying these culinary creations.  

Genre: Nonfiction, Cookbook

Subjects: Cooking, Cooking for teens

Reading level/ interest level: Grades 6-12

Series information:

Cooking up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook (2005)

Real Food, Real Fast (2008)

Read-alikes:

Carle’s Teens Cook: How to Make What You Want to Eat