cover image After Toast: Recipes for Aspiring Cooks

After Toast: Recipes for Aspiring Cooks

Kate Gibbs. Trafalgar Square, $29.95 (232p) ISBN 978-1-74237-941-8

Australian journalist, blogger, and food and travel writer Gibbs’s new book contains over 150 simple recipes to inspire young aspiring cooks. Geared toward teens and 20-somethings, it is organized by meal, with straightforward chapters on breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and dessert, as well as one on parties and friends. The author says, “my advice as someone who once only knew how to make toast or the more daring sandwich or salad, but then gradually learned how to cook, is just to start cooking.” Many familiar, easy-to-make recipes are written in cheeky prose that aims to please. The author suggests starting your day with dishes that have fun names like I Heart Eggs Omelette and Zucchini Fritters with Melty Cheese. For in-between meals, there’s grilled corn salsa with corn chips and peanut butter popcorn balls. For lunch, Gibbs aims to elevate typical choices by “thinking outside the (lunch) box.” Examples include chicken sesame sausage rolls; tuna, lemon, and coriander mash; and spiced roasted pumpkin, lentil, and feta salad. Standards like cheeseburgers and mac and cheese, along with Thai green chicken curry and buckwheat risotto with juicy steak make up the chapter on main courses. For parties, Gibbs offers recipes for sticky soy chicken wings and grilled prawns with creamy dill and lime dressing, to name just a few. This collection is appealing and easy to navigate—as the author intended—though it’s also a bit gimmicky. (June)