annieb123's Review of Basics with Babish

by Andrew Rea

Over 100 easy-to-follow recipes that teach you how to learn from your mistakes and become a better cook, from the culinary genius who created the Babish Culinary Universe YouTube channel in this long-awaited companion.

In his wildly popular Basics with Babish series, YouTube star Andrew Rea, who has amassed millions of subscribers, attempts, often fails, but always teaches cooking techniques for all levels of cooks. He’s explained everything from how to make challah bread and English muffins to Asian dumplings and homemade bacon. Now those classic, essential recipes (and many more) are compiled into an authoritative cookbook which contains hundreds of step-by-step photographs with tips and tricks to help you troubleshoot anything from broken butter to burnt bread to bony branzino. Basics with Babish isn’t just a kitchen Bible for a new generation of home chefs, it’s a proud reclamation of mistakes which encourages you to learn from your and Andrew’s missteps alike.

Andrew Rea launched Binging with Babish on YouTube in 2016, recreating and reimagining dishes from famous television programs and movies inspired by everything from Mad Men to The Simpsons to Game of Thrones. The tie-in cookbook, Binging with Babish, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and fans of that book and countless more will delight in this new cookbook which will truly teach you how to cook, with Rea’s beloved sense of humor and guiding hand throughout.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Basics with Babish is an -interactive- cooking guide with recipes and info curated by Andrew Rea. Released 24th Oct 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Simon Element imprint, it's 464 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a useful and warmly written guide with lots of recipes, but it's also a learning guide/cookery course which aims to help readers acquire useful skills and develop their cooking repertoire. There's a very "trouble-shooting" vibe to the recipes which will help readers understand where things might've gone differently from their goal and how to improve results next time.

There's a logical layout and chapters are grouped roughly thematically: bread, pizza, pasta, eggs, vegetables, seafood, poultry, pork, beef, and desserts. Each of the recipes include a title and introduction, ingredients in a bullet list, and step-by-step prep instructions. Ingredients will mostly be readily available from any moderately well stocked grocery store. Measurements are given in metric SI units (yay!); so a kitchen scale is a must.

Recipes are accompanied by many (many) process photos as well as styled finished shots of the dish. Serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate. Nutritional info is not included. The author has included many alternate preparations/forms (loaves, muffins, individual servings, and pull apart loaves, for example) for most of the dishes.

The standout for this volume is the author's exploration of why individual recipes have gone wrong, a troubleshooting discussion, and techniques for improving results.

There's a lot of personal detail here, and for current fans of the author's work on youtube, etc, the background makes for entertaining reading.

Four and a half stars. This is a really useful and beautiful book. Highly recommended for public library acquisition, home use, and gifting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

30 December, 2023: Started reading

30 December, 2023: Finished reading

30 December, 2023: Reviewed