I started thinking about the Silver Palate cookbook again after reading this piece in Bon Appetit: How the Silver Palate Cookbook Changed Our Cooking
It’s funny to read the staff of Bon Appetit talk about this as their parent’s cookbook. To me the tone is nostalgic. Perhaps they believe it is dated. Like any decades old cookbook, it is dated in a way. There’s lots of things in there that was novel and daring at the time but now are passe, and ingredients which are now commonplace were once hard to find.
But there is much about the book that is still great. The layout and design, for one thing. And some recipes stand the test of time and became classics. It’s so much more than a collection of recipes.
In some ways, publications like Bon Appetit are the same. Many of the things I’ve said about that cookbook will apply to Bon Appetit over time. And like the Silver Palate cookbook, I believe people will look back on Bon Appetit in this era the way the folks at BA look back at this kitchen classic.
If you haven’t read the Silver Palate cookbook in some time (or ever), you can read (at least some of) it online.
P.S. I came across another article on the Silver Palate in the New York Times, and similar to Bon Appetit, the author was condescending towards it and the owners of the place. Odd. Especially since the Cooking section recently did two versions of the Palate’s classic dish, Chicken Marbella. Here’s a weeknight version of the recipe, and here’s the standard version. Go and make either one whenever you get a chance. You’ll be glad you did.
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