While Wild Kitchen does include some recipes, to call it a cookbook would be to sell it short. Here, journalist Claire Bingham takes readers into the homes, kitchens, gardens and lives of 20 "nature-loving" chefs to "gain insight into [their] style of cooking and, by proxy, their lifestyles too."
Bingham groups them into five categories: cooking and eating in the countryside; kitchen gardeners; farm-to-table meals; "The Experimentalists"; and local produce features. One is as likely to find a new dish here (Grape Focaccia, anyone?) as tips and ideas for home chefs who want to organize their kitchens better, plant and grow their kitchen gardens, shop better at local farmers' markets or forage for wild foods (with kids, even!). Packed with full-color photography and insight into how to incorporate nature and sustainability into everyday life, Wild Kitchen is a celebration and an invitation; it doesn't take a culinary arts degree to bring these concepts home. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm