Jane Rodmell’s All the Best Recipes

Jane Rod­mell, who has worked with us at Cot­tage Life from the very first issue, has a new cook­book out this fall. All The Best Recipes is avail­able here on our web­site and at the Cot­tage Life Fall Show this week­end. Jane will be at the show on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, for cook­ing demos and book sign­ing. I work too closely with Jane and enjoy our long con­ver­sa­tions too much to pre­tend to be objec­tive about her book, but here’s what some other review­ers have written:

Toronto Tast­ing Notes gives it kudos:

In fact, what it most reminds me of is (dare I say it?) The Joy of Cook­ing, back in its bet­ter days, three edi­tions ago, when it still used fats and raw eggs, and when it was full of those “about the ingre­di­ents” sections.

Of course, with 300 recipes, it doesn’t cover the vast scope of The Joy, but it hits the same bal­ance between begin­ner basics and advanced results. Like the shop it’s named for, it insists through­out on using the best ingre­di­ents – fresh, local and sea­sonal – when­ever possible.

Dana McCauley likes Jane’s store, All the Best Fine Foods, as much as the book:

In fact, this shop was (and remains) my ‘go to it’ des­ti­na­tion for pre­pared foods that are as good as I’d make myself. From the roasted veg­etable lasagna that I’ve had them make in casse­role dishes so that I could serve it up like it was home­made, to the but­tery, super crisp gin­ger­bread cook­ies (recipe below[click here]) I buy in the store as a spe­cial treat for my son, this is a book filled with fan­tas­tic recipes.

What I’m really try­ing to say is: if you buy one cook­book this fall, make it this one!

Eliz­a­beth Baird points out Jane’s strengths:

I often think cater­ers like Rod­mell have the best han­dle on food trends. The book has plenty of trendy flavours and recipes that could as eas­ily be a restau­rant entree, but the book never crosses the line of what ingre­di­ents are gen­er­ally avail­able and what Rod­mell, in all her expe­ri­ence and food sense, knows will sell.

Baird is right. Jane can spot a trend six months before it hap­pens, but just as she does for her store, she knows when it’s some­thing that works for cot­tagers and when it’s bet­ter left in the city.

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