Book Review: Let’s Make Bread! A Comic Book Cookbook

 Reviewed by Christina Pasqua, University of Toronto

Ken Forkish and Sarah Becan. Let’s Make Bread! A Comic Book Cookbook. PenguinRandomHouse, 2024. US$22. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/697048/lets-make-bread-by-ken-forkish-and-sarah-becan/

When my husband and I started grad school, we got tired of having to regularly buy bread. We were already baking cakes and other sweet treats, so why not try the most essential item on our weekly grocery list? We started with Julia Child’s white sandwich bread and a friend’s recipe for peasant loaf, then dinner rolls, baguettes, challah, and brioche buns. Pizza dough and focaccia were already in our back pocket, thanks to my Italian grandmother, so by the time the pandemic hit, we were baking bread regularly enough that the shift to sourdough made sense. After a few years of trial and error—and with the help of Ken Forkish’s earlier book, Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast (2012)—our sourdough starter and boule baking skills are still going strong. Reading Let’s Make Bread!, co-authored by Forkish and Sarah Becan (illustrator of Let’s Make Dumplings and Let’s Make Ramen), I am reminded that our relationship with sourdough is not an uncommon one. Making bread is a long-term project that requires regular attention and care, is rarely perfect on the first attempt, but always worth the effort, and this comic book cookbook helps explain why.

 

Let’s Make Bread is approximately 150-pages and is divided into five main sections: The First Rise; Basics & Methods; Levain; Recipes; and The Final Proof. “The First Rise” is a short overview of who the co-authors are, what the book will cover, and what you’ll learn by the end of it. The “Basics & Methods” chapter, however, provides more extensive instructions on the equipment, ingredients, and techniques you will need to get started on your sourdough baking journey. For example, it explains how to weigh and mix ingredients, how to work the dough and shape it for either a loaf pan or a dutch oven, how to proof and bake your bread, and what to look out for when determining whether your loaf is done. I particularly enjoyed seeing the anatomy of a wheat berry and learning about the science behind how the dough’s moisture levels and environmental factors, such as time of year and temperatures in your baking area, can affect the outcome of your bread making process.

 

The “Levain” chapter is perhaps the most practical and reflective of Forkish’s bread making philosophy, beginning with a definition of the term: “Levain is the French word for sourdough. Because I don’t want my breads to taste sour,” the cartoon Forkish explains, “I usually use the word ‘levain.’ Both words mean the same thing: a wild-yeast culture made up from many feedings of just flour and water” (44).

 

 

In addition to this lesson on yeast cultures, the chapter includes step-by-step instructions for getting your levain started, how to store, maintain (i.e., feed), share, and reactivate it (especially if you’ve left it in the fridge for a while), all while explaining the fermentation process at the cellular level. The next chapter gets right to the good stuff—Forkish’s tried and true recipes from the simple “Saturday Bread” you can make and enjoy in a single day to more labor-intensive (i.e., multi-day) recipes like the “Country Bread” or “fruity” pizza dough. Tips and tricks for shaping your pizza dough, making the perfect sauce, and choosing toppings are also thoughtfully included, amping up your culinary skills. Many helpful charts are also listed throughout the chapter highlighting everything from essential ingredients to a schedule of day-to-day tasks to ensure success for each recipe. One of my favorite pages from this chapter follows the “Bacon Bread” recipe. I love it not only for its vibrant use of color but also because it extends the reader’s bread making skills to the inevitable (and most important) step in baking: eating.

 

 

This page wonderfully showcases the flavor profile and versatility of Forkish’s bacon bread recipe, teaching the reader how best to serve it through simple kitchen hacks. Who doesn’t love a homemade crouton!? Finally, the book wraps up on a light summative note in “The Final Proof,” reiterating some of the main takeaways: that baking bread is delicious, rewarding, and fun!

 If this is sounding like an instruction manual, it’s because in many ways it is. As an avid reader of narrative comics, I found I was craving a bit more “story” out of this comic book cookbook. There are some elements of this scattered throughout, but it’s not as detailed as some of the food histories that you get in Becan’s other illustrated cookbooks. For this reason, I would say Let’s Make Bread is a companion piece to Forkish’s Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, which goes into much more detail about the author’s career and relationship to bread making, as well as the history of sourdough and its key ingredients. Nonetheless, this comic stays true to the basics of Forkish’s philosophy. Visually, the color palette is simple, but the blue and green accents play nicely off the golden yellows and browns of the breads and the white background used in much of the panel design. The artist’s attention to detail is scrupulous. Every texture, stretch, fold, and crackle of the dough is accounted for, making this a very useful guide for the various sensory elements of sourdough baking.

 

I do less of the bread making and more of the bread eating in my household, so I appreciate how this book helped me understand the basic elements of baking without the pressure to do it for myself or, if I were to attempt these recipes, to be good at it. Instead, Let’s Make Bread! revels in the experimentation process. This comic book cookbook would make a perfect gift for an aspiring bread baker, old or young, especially visually oriented folks who prefer illustrated instructions when learning something new. It’s full of humor, great recipes, and yummy illustrations that will have you baking (and eating) bread in no time.

Book Review: Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice: A Thai Comic Book Cookbook

reviewed by Cord A. Scott, UMGC Okinawa

Christina De Witte and Mallika Kauppinen. Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice:  A Thai Comic Book Cookbook. New York:  Ten Speed Graphic, 2024. 208 pp. US $22.99. ISBN:  978-1-9848-6160-3. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709867/noodles-rice-and-everything-spice-by-christina-de-witte-and-mallika-kauppinen/

For the culinary curious, but challenged, any sort of cookbook can be fraught with anxiety and frustration. What might seem simple on paper may turn nightmarish in the kitchen. However, the origins of food are far more intriguing for readers and culinary practitioners. For Christina De Witte and Mallika Kauppinen, the goal of combining food origins, recipes, and an ease of explanation is in Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice. As with so many books, it is a labor of love, as well as a long creative process to the final product.

In the first part of the book, the authors describe the manner in which they came to work on this project. For Christina, it was growing up as a mixed-race woman in Belgium. While she spoke Flemish most of her life, she often felt not quite comfortable in either her European life, or that of her Thai origins, of which she knew very little. It was only after she became an adult that she decided to embark on a quest to learn her mother’s language, which led her to an online teacher, Mallika (10).

Mallika’s story was interesting and meandering. She grew up in southern Thailand and started assisting in her family restaurant early on. She moved to Bangkok and worked at an aunt’s restaurant through adulthood. As an adult, she worked as a travel guide, and while in Finland, she met her now husband. After establishing a new life, she started cooking for neighbors, started a restaurant, and then took on virtual students for a Thai language class, which is where the two met.

The first part of the book describes the general areas of Thailand and how the food is a reflection of the local interaction with related cultures. For example, southern Thai food is spicy and heavily influenced by Malay and Indonesian culture, while the northern area has a Chinese influence. The Northwest is influenced by India and Bangkok is metropolitan and almost unto itself (17-21). From this point, the book goes into a variety of dishes made with specific ingredients. These form the chapters and are reflective of the areas in which the recipes originated.

From this point, the book is divided into chapters on ingredients, snacks and starters, noodle dishes, rice dishes, curries and soups, desserts and drinks, and finally, staples of Thai cooking. The first section, which discusses equipment, as well as Asian spices and ingredients, emphasizes the importance of cooking devices such as rice cookers (for ease), woks (for a traditional feel), as well as items, such as a mortar and pestle, for properly blending some of the ingredients. The authors also note what ingredients work best, which can be frozen for later use, and which sauces are authentic. Of particular interest was the “three buddies” spice (34-35), consisting of cilantro, garlic and peppercorn, which is frequently used in Thai cooking. The use of spices is another area of detail, as those not overly familiar with Thai cooking may shy away from chilies. The authors note that it often is left to the cook to decide, but, overall, the chilies bring a balance of flavor to the dish (36-37).

From this point, the descriptions become more precise, and again offer historical context. In the noodles chapter, some noodles originate from China and their texture and style may alter the presentation of the dish. There is also a historical overview of the flooding in Bangkok in 1942, when roadside restaurants were able to make dishes that all could quickly get, and were delicious at the same time.

The chapter on curries even offers some humor. For example, it is recommended to wear either regular work goggles (or even swim goggles!) when preparing curries. The pounding of the chilies causes some to fly out and it runs a risk of getting into the eyes. The cosmopolitan nature of Thai food, especially from Bangkok, is expanded with the brief history of Maria Guyomor di Pinha. She was of mixed heritage and introduced egg yolk desserts from Europe to the Thai community. When combined with other items, such as papayas and pineapples, introduced from Portugal (23), it has given Thai food a unique taste profile and quality that is renown the world over.

This book is a lively read, with effective explanations of the recipes. The preparation may inhibit those who are culinarily challenged (reviewer included), but, at the same time, does have one minor issue:  substitutions for items such as fish sauce or squid sauce when preparing the food. This may frustrate those who have allergies to shellfish. Additionally, there are few truly vegetarian dishes, for those who do not consume meat. The assumption is that one would cook the dish without meat, but this will also alter the original taste. However, this was one of the few issues that was noted.

On the whole, the book was a fast, engaging read that offers a new way to educate people on the history of food from a specific region, while offering visual references to the cooking process. In the end, there is also the additional engagement of not just reading but making the food. And in the end, it’s not only nourishment for the brain, but also the body.

 

Book Review: Cooking with Deadpool

reviewed by 

Lizzy Walker

Wichita State University Libraries

Marc Sumerak, Elena P. Craig, and Ted Thomas. Cooking with Deadpool. San Rafael, California: Insight Editions, 2021. 143 pages, $29.99 978-1683838449 https://insighteditions.com/products/marvel-comics-cooking-with-deadpool

Fandom cookbooks, from comics to movies to video games, have become popular items. Cooking with Deadpool is a great addition to the genre. The book, totaling 63 recipes, contains six sections: Small Bites for Big Mouths; Side Jobs; Maximum Efforts; What the People Really Want; Waking Up with Wade; and Sweetest Things. X-Men’s Cable even has a few recipes in here. Each recipe includes an introduction by Deadpool, which are highly entertaining, as well as provide some history about the Marvel universe, or the dish itself. Other information included with the recipes are serving totals, the occasional helpful tip, and detailed instructions. While Deadpool helps the reader out with handy tips within some recipes, there are more in-depth explanations in Just the Tips, such as folding the perfect chimichanga before popping it into frying oil, making an accurate knife selection for the job, and spatchcocking a chicken. Provided at the end of the cookbook is a menu section that helps the reader combine different recipes to host the perfect meal. Deadpool, also known as Wade Winston Wilson, is the Merc with a Mouth, and Sumerak has a solid grasp on how to write the character, even in a cookbook. Along with the recipes and tips, Deadpool delivers snarky one-liners and casual poses.

As I read through the recipes, something that was refreshing is that all of the ingredients can be found at your local or big box grocery store. This makes the ingredients, and the meals, quite accessible. From creating the shopping list, to preparation and cooking, to serving, everything in here is understandable for the beginning chef and gourmand alike.

The design of the hardcover cookbook is fantastic. It can stand up to kitchen use well. The spine allows for the book to lay flat on a counter or other flat surface. The glossy pages are also easy to clean if anything happens to drip onto them in the preparation of the delicious recipes.

A Review of Selected Recipes (photos by Lizzy Walker)

Ya Basic Chimi: This one was easy to prep, except for folding the chimichangas. Even with the detailed instructions, toward the end steps of the process I couldn't get the wrap to cooperate. This could be because I can't even do origami well, or there is a step missed in the instructions. Regardless, with the aid of some well-placed toothpicks to keep them sealed, frying them up was easy. Accompanied with homemade salsa, these chimis were more than basic.  

Pool-tine: I have to admit, I used a tip provided by Deadpool and used frozen steak fries instead of making my own. The gravy was delightful, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. Combining the flavor of the steak fries, cheese curds, and gravy was the perfect meal after a long day. This one will become a staple in my household.

Smells Like Victory: Combining two different pancake flavors is a brilliant idea. In this case, it was chocolate and malted milk pancakes. I did omit the malt powder, since I didn’t have any on hand. The chocolate batter cooked a bit faster and the pancakes came out thinner than the plain pancakes, but the texture and flavor were great together.

With relatively simple to make recipes, Deadpool’s witty remarks, and special appearances by Cable, Cooking with Deadpool would make an excellent addition to a cookbook collection. The creative team behind this cookbook is great. Marc Sumerak is a Harvey- and Eisner Award nominated comic writer, and he earned his BFA in Creative Writing at Bowling Green State University. Between writing and editing comics, his body of work is impressive. Elena P. Craig is a food stylist and cookbook developer working in the field for over 25 years and she enjoys telling food stories. Ted Thomas provided the beautiful photography that accompanies the recipes.