****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My oldest son’s girlfriend has absolutely no idea about cooking, but she has been fascinated coming over and watching all the meals that are generated in our kitchen. I got her a cookbook I thought would be helpful, but she literally did not know the first thing about cooking, and needed something that truly held your hand through the whole process assuming nothing.Being a huge fan of the Dummies books (Organic Chem for Dummies—hello, A in college!) I ordered the Cooking for Dummies, and my (future) daughter-in-law absolutely loves this book. She immediately made chicken pot pie—which I think of as rather complicated—got super motivated, cleaned out her mom’s fridge, organized meals, did the grocery shopping, and started making her mom and siblings home cooked meals. I was amazed at how motivated she was. All she needed was a tutorial that truly assumed no prior knowledge. She is Chinese, so I thought I’d get her the Chinese cooking for Dummies next. She’ll be excited.If you are motivated to cook but can’t, or sending kids off to college or kids are getting married, this is the book to get them for those first adventurous steps, when success is really crucial to motivation. Food dollars in those early adulthood years are precious, and no one wants them wasted on ineptitude or a recipe gone bad. I’ve often said if you can read, you can learn to cook. This book really makes that possible.Happy cooking!
