Title: Cooking with Kip – A Cook’s Memoir
Author: Kip Meyerhoff
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781491782040
Pages: 286
Genre: Memoir / Cooking
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Pacific Book Review
Kip Meyerhoff is a colorful character who has traveled the world and is still most at home in the kitchen. He’s sharing his lore in a book both practical and entertaining.
Meyerhoff learned to cook at an early age, from his father Charles, who got his expertise in culinary arts “while doing a stretch ‘upstate’” for financial activities related to horse racing. Out of prison, Charles became a restaurateur, using young Kip as his not always willing worker. Often helping out in the kitchen of his father’s establishments, Kip picked up cuisine tips from Chinese and Italian chefs as well as from his dad and grandmother and, as a serendipitous spin-off, met a cast of characters that the author describes as Runyanesque: “wise guys” from the mobs, and famous actors like Ben Gazzara and Harry Guardino who portrayed mobsters on the silver screen. Later, Kip would encounter more such types in his military and law enforcement careers.
Each chapter of Kip’s highly engaging collection combines a story with recipes and cooking tips — from mango salsa to garlic bread to Chef Wu’s Chinese Roast Ribs to grandmother Nellie’s Roast Chicken to Elvis Presley’s Favorite King Sandwich (peanut butter and bananas on white bread). There are well-chosen black and white illustrations by James Reeves throughout, and each section ends with a lined page for “Chef’s Notes.”
Anyone who reads and enjoys this happy helping of “sage” advice will have a favorite chapter, whether it be Kip sampling Italian food in Tokyo, taking a hot air balloon flyover in Kentucky followed by a delicious picnic that might have been, or savoring buffalo steak in Deadwood (hint: order it rare – “well done buffalo is best worn on the soles of your feet”). A section on what to serve for a promising evening with the lovely lady of your dreams, comprising several sensual scenarios, is a triumph of Kip’s creative talents, proving he is as comfortable in the world of imagination as in the realistic realm of recipes.
Somewhat surprisingly, Meyerhoff wound up his world travels in a quiet Ohio town where, not so surprisingly, he is a columnist and started up a popular local eatery. This is a highly recommended guide to just about every sort of exotic edible from various world cuisines, along with some simple tips about boiling eggs and baking a chicken, Nanny style. The recipes and food prep advice are served in equal measure with some nicely spiced recollections from a well-seasoned raconteur.
Cooking with Kip is a book of rich storytelling that lures the reader in with romantic descriptions of simple scenes and dishes. In fact, the stories were so well written that I wanted to pull up a chair and have a bite to eat. How wonderful it is to create special meals with love that will nourish both body and soul, to be reminded that an evening meal can be more than food valued for its quickness or ease of preparation. It can be something that enriches us, as we create it, serve it and eat it.
