Cooking on your own

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews More of Henry Creel's pleasant advice for the single cook (see Cooking for One Is Fun, 1976). His one-person adaptations of well-known and not-so-well-known dishes strike a reasonable balance between the simple and the epicurean, with a lot of chops, braised veal or chicken dishes, scalloped vegetables, and stir-fry variations. Selections include sturdy standbys (split pea soup with ham, shepherd's pie), more august presentations (chicken with champagne sauce), and eccentric inventions (chili pizza). Directions are brief and unfussy, probably better geared to sometime-cooks than to complete ignoramuses. Portions tend to be extremely modest. Though there are introductory essays on shopping and kitchen equipment, one feels (as in the first book) that many prospective buyers will have unanswered questions or indeed unmet needs. Things like a veal curry calling for a tablespoon each of chopped apple and chopped banana might well have suggestions for using the leftover fresh ingredients; and heaven help people on fixed incomes trying to duplicate Creel's collection of Le Creuset pots and pans. In sum, an agreeable book which is not going to be all things to all single-person households.