The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks

I am the family cook and am pretty good at getting dinner on the table. This book is inspiring and has lots of easy simple tips on tools food and cooking. Really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed reading this book for various reasons. It was interesting to have a look into how other people approach cooking. Then the tips and simple recipes are very helpful. I had borrowed the book on my Kindle from the library. By the time I finished the book I had ordered a hardback copy for my personal use. I've always enjoyed cooking but never have felt I could do much without a recipe or prepackaged food. This book made me think about how I approach cooking and why I have this approach. My mother cooked from scratch when I was a kid. We had a garden and chickens but all of that was gone by the time I was a teenager. So I learned to cook with packaged foods and by heating up canned items. I love to follow a recipe but that is not practical to do for every dish every day. When I try to wing it I end up overwhelmed and with food that is bland or over-seasoned. I did the salt taste test between sea salt and the iodized salt. It was amazing the difference in taste. I thought salt was salt! I'm throwing out the iodized salt. The information in this book also fit in with my goals to eat better and spend less money. I hope to share the ideas from the book with my 20 year old son and get him away from cans & packages. The only reason I give it 4 instead of 5 stars is the story about her being on the cruise and some of the dinners she held seemed out of place in the book.

I have been cooking for many, many years. I have children, grandchildren and now a great grandchild! I have cooked for everyone and I thought I knew a lot about cooking. However, as I went through this book, I learned so many things I have done wrong all my life - such as keeping too much food in the refrigerator and pantry. There is only two of us now and we do have a busy life so I guess as Kathleen says, "I buy for the life I inspire to have rather than my real life." I used to end up with wilted romaine, yellow broccoli with flowers, and limp celery too often. After reading the book, I have changed my buying habits - I shop more often and buy less produce at a time. So far I have wasted nothing and I feel so proud. I even put a photo at the back of my fridge which I can always see - so my fridge isn't stuffed any more. Sometimes it looks even a little bare but there is no waste. I also learned to taste all kinds of canned goods - what a difference in canned beans when I was making chili. I even threw out one can - it was that bad. Some store brands are better than others but sometimes you have to go with the name brand for taste and texture. I have been practicing my knife skills too and I chop things so much faster now. I like showing that off to my hubby (who doesn't cook at all by the way). My pantry is getting bare but that's okay - I know everything I have and I am sure nothing is out of date. The bonus is I have saved a lot of money at the grocery store and I like that. I make all my own salad dressings now and that is great fun and a real saving. You're never too old to learn new tricks in the kitchen. This book is not only a great read - it is life changing! I loved it.

This was a great read! Very inspiring for home cooks like myself. The beginning is an introduction to the cooking school volunteers and where they're at in the beginning. After the classes, you get to see how everyone changed and where they're at now - loved their personal stories. Also love the recipes in this book. I just made the Alfredo from this book and it was amazing - and so simple! She really makes cooking seem easy and makes you want to stop eating out so much and just get in the kitchen and have fun! I will be reading this book again, it's staying in my collection!

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School, took me to one of my favorite places, the grocery store. Sharing her passion for cooking and teaching, this book illustrates Kathleen’s desire to help demystify cooking and get people eating real food. As a cooking teacher myself, this book not only filled me with inspiration, but gave me empathy and changed the way I share my kitchen knowledge with others. As a person, as a teacher, as a writer and as a cook; the word that describes Kathleen Flinn and her work is approachable. Her books, classes, writing and recipes are all approachable. New cooks and veteran cooks alike benefit from Kathleen’s honesty and wit. I have read each of Kathleen’s memoirs and they are drastically different books. They are each impeccably written and researched, full of tantalizing recipes, but travel down different roads at different places and times.

This book read more like a TV show that was desperately trying to get more viewers by making people appear more stupid than they might be. A book format of this kind does not appeal to me. I don't want to read a book about some random women who don't know what to do with raw vegetables or how to handle a knife. The book has been written in a very boring manner. Not recommended.

I have been cooking for myself and my family for 20 plus years now. I have long placed importance on taking the time to cook from scratch with unprocessed products as much as possible and I love to cook. I had a Mom who cooked home made meals for us regularly and I took an interest in cooking early on. Having said that, I still gleaned an astonishing amount of knowledge from this book, as well as inspiration and enlightenment. I love how the writer ties food to our emotional lives. I had never before considered how closely our relationship with food is intertwined with our emotions and how our early experiences shapes how we deal with it as we grow up. But it makes so much sense, when you consider food is necessary sustenance for life. I also found the book to be a fun, engaging read and the writer just simplifies cooking so very, very well. I tend to be the kind of cook who needs a recipe to get started, but through this book I've found the tools and the confidence to start simply putting things together on my own, which is so liberating! I highly recommend this book for ANYONE ~ young/old, non cook, beginner, old pro ~ whatever! I will have both of my children read it at some point.

Very interesting and informative book.

I had read the previous book and enoyed it as a good story but I found this book to be very informational and very useful. First time I read it I made a homemade carrot soup and a stew on a Sunday and the family fell on it like ravening wolves. I came to understand cooking better and stopped buying prepackaged as it is not necessary. Right now have a beef barley soup in the crockpot and baked the book's artisan bread recipe without difficulty. First time I made that bread, everyone sat down and ate it hot with butter right from the oven. I am buying three copies for Xmas gifts for people I know. So yes, an excellent purchase as a story and a cookbook all in one. It belongs in the kitchen for sure. I hope to see more.

Really enjoyed this book by Kathleen Flynn- it helped me to organize my own thoughts for 'cooking school', and was inspiring to hear about people becoming confident because of well thought out freedom to experiment.