Salt, Sweat & Steam by Brigid Washington

Washington opens with the story of her reason for joining the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Joseph. She details her romance with this man and the heartbreak that occurs when he breaks up with her. So she does what any sane human would do to mend her heart, dive head first into an expensive learning program that, initially, she's not sure she should even take. 

She describes her roommates, her classes, her instructors, and the food. The storytelling around each topic is straightforward and matter of fact. 

I was lucky enough to get both an ebook and an audiobook. If you have the option, I recommend the audiobook. Washington reads it herself making it that much more personal. While the ebook was fine, the audiobook is enjoyable as many passages seem more like conversation than the written word. Overall, this book is fine but parts feel disconnected from each other, more like sections than a smooth story. The food descriptions make the book while her romance (?) with Leo definitely detracts. But Washington does show all sides of herself, even the ones that don't listen to her friends and his family not to follow this romance. 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out April 28, 2026

ARCs kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Cherry Bombe by Kerry Diamond, Claudia Wu

My mom got me this book even before it made it on to Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2018. It's an okay book of beautiful pictures filled with recipes that look like anyone could cook them. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but I've marked a couple for the future.

Three stars

This book came out October 10, 2017

Hard copy of mine

Opinions are my own

The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi

This was an okay book. Definitely branches off of Adachi's first book and her podcast about being a lazy genius. There is an idea of zones which would work fine in theory but that's not always going to be a possibility. That was about my biggest takeaway from the book. Enjoyed the ideas but most were not helpful for my particular situation.

Three stars

This book came out May 3, 2022

Borrowed as hard copy from the library

Opinions are my own

Epic Air Fryer Cookbook by Emily Paster

With a nice thorough introduction, this book sets up what we'll see in this book. To be honest, I didn't actually make any of the recipes yet but the instructions seemed clear and there were great tips, like using your sense of smell to tell when food was done. Pictures were clear and there were plenty of recipes that had five or fewer ingredients as well as more complicated ones.
I wish there had been page numbers on my ARC because the Index pages don't line up to the ebook pages but I didn't count my rating down because of that.

Four stars
This book come out December 10th
ARC kindly provided by Harvard Common Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Instant Pot® Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook (An Authorized Instant Pot® Cookbook) by Sara Quessenberry, Kate Merker

I love my Instant Pot and was excited to see this book come up as an option in NetGalley. I was immediately disappointed by the length (75 pages). I was further disappointed by the recipes. Who has millet in their cupboards on a regular basis? There are some with ingredients that I would consider standard but there were enough with some slightly odd ingredients as to make it not worth reading. Also, the large pages made loading on the ereader very, very slow.

Two stars
This book came out April 15

The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book by Frank Caiafa

Okay. I have to admit that I skimmed a large part of the recipes. But the beginning of the book with the author's history and the setup of the book was interesting and well-written. The tidbits after every cocktail were also entertaining. And while I think that many of the items the author lists would be WAY to fancy for my house, I think there are many people who would enjoy setting up and creating his concoctions.

Four Stars
This book come out May 17