More Than Salt and Pepper: 25 Years of Spicing Up the Kitchen

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

When Caren McSherry hit the streets as a rookie chef in 1978, just
convincing Canadians to try making homemade mayonnaise was a challenge.
Today, many Canadians eat curries, pastas, and Asian stir-fries as
routinely as their ancestors dined on boiled potatoes and white bread.
Although Canadians are definitely more adventurous in their tastes, many
are still not quite sure how to buy or use many of the exotic
ingredients now available on grocery store shelves.

In this book, McSherry attempts to bring readers up to speed on things
like balsamic vinegar, chipotle chilies, harissa, lemon grass, olive
oil, pepper corns, risotto, saffron, cooking salts, truffles, and
vanilla beans. In her first chapter, McSherry does an excellent job of
explaining the essence of each ingredient and what people should know
when buying and using it. The subsequent chapters are “Appetizers,”
“Soups, Salads and First Courses,” “Pizza, Pasta, Rice and
Bread,” “Entrées,” “Condiments, Sauces and Beverages,” and
“Desserts.” Some of the dishes sound like what you might get if two
or more Iron Chef contestants had a food fight (e.g., Prosciutto and
Provolone Wonton, California Sushi Rolls, and Mediterranean New Potato
Salad). Besides combining disparate ingredients in imaginative ways,
McSherry also spices her recipes with humor (e.g., her Scalloped
Potatoes contain real scallops). If she does not like something, she is
glad to tell you about that too.

The text is supported with dozens of gorgeous color photographs.
Vancouver broadcaster Bill Good, with whom McSherry shared a radio talk
show about cooking, provides a foreword. The result is a lovely book
full of fascinating and witty prose backed up with intriguing and
sometimes even quirky recipes that just beg to be tried. More Than Salt
and Pepper will appeal to intermediate cooks who have mastered the
basics and are now ready to expand their horizons.