The Meal World

A storybook brunch with a cookbook ending

 
 

ith so many chefs producing cookbooks, sometimes your head can spin. Makes me want to grab my Betty Crocker red-and-white-checked “tablecloth” cookbook my mom gave me and crawl under our kitchen table.

Don’t mind me.

Apparently the folks at the Blue Room in Cambridge feel the same way, so they’ve weeded through the library of foodie books and found a few that you should definitely know. Beginning Sunday (April 6), executive chef Andrew Bonner is cooking it old school with the new Cookbook Brunch monthly series that celebrates dishes from these iconic cookbooks.

It kicks off with an oldie but a goody. Published in 1950 and viewed by many as the Bible of authentic Italian cuisine, The Silver Spoon is the origin of savory items including uova in cocotte ai porri (braised leeks and nutmeg with a soft egg), broccoletti piccanti allo yogurt (spicy broccoli with yogurt), arrosto con il rosmarino (braised pork with rosemary), and pollo alla ratatouille (braised chicken with zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes).

The rest of the calendar reads like your mom’s recipe cabinet. May brings The Doubleday Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna from 1975; June is The Fireside Cookbook, authored by someone you might have heard of, James Beard, in 1949; and July offers dishes from The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer in 1931.

Cambridge resident Julia Child gets her own kudos of course, with her 1961 Mastering the Art of French Cooking as August’s focus. Since this is her birth month, it was a clear choice.

Brunch is typical brunch time, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the menu changes the first Sunday of every month. It’s $27 and includes all buffet items, coffee and selection of loose teas.

I intend to become a veracious reader/eater starting Sunday. The Blue Room has really culled a fine list of published culinary masters (even though they left out Betty Crocker … sigh). It even makes the onslaught of chef-driven cookbooks not seem as daunting. Good rule of thumb: Just take each book one month at a time. With a mimosa in your hand.