Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

The World Cookbook for Students. By Jeanne Jacob and Michael Ashkenazi. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. 5 vols. 1198 p. $225.00. ISBN 10: 0313-33454-4; ISBN 13: 978-0-13-33454-2.

While this is designed for an older age group, elementary teachers will be delighted to know of its existence when their students study countries of the world and what people in those countries eat. The objective of this reference is “to introduce … U.S. students to contemporary foodstuffs, ways of eating, and typical cookery in almost every country of the world,” and this objective is met.

Vol. 1 has the contents of that volume, a list of countries and regions, the list of recipes by region, a two-page glossary and six pages of line maps showing the world’s regions. Each country begins with a line map of the region showing the country (sometimes so small it requires an arrow to point to its location) and a paragraph with a sentence of the history, climate and a discussion of the cuisine. Foodstuffs, typical dishes, styles of eating and what is served at the various meal times are reported. Each recipe has a sentence or two to describe how it is served. Black and white sketches illustrate the pages. Inset boxes provide definitions and explanations such as “Food Taboos” found under United States where most people do not eat certain foods consumed in other places. Students might discuss whether or not the recipes found there: cheese meat loaf, fried chicken, chocolate fudge upside-down cake, butter pecan praline ice cream and fudge brownies are representative of U.S. cuisine or what they might have substituted (oatmeal raisin cookies?). This could lead to e-mail messages to students in other parts of the world to test what is considered “typical” in other countries. Those who are truly interested in comparisons might research the differences between how borscht is made in different countries or how many serve chicken with a peanut sauce or what is the difference between all the “dumpling” recipes. The 11-page bibliography with some Web sites will help in further research. Each volume has an index to all five. While this is most suited to the study and preparation of food, it would be of interest to reports on other countries for a world geography assignment and even to confirm the menus found in contemporary literature. This is a must purchase.