The Kitchen Whisperers: Cooking with the Wisdom of Our Friends

In this well-written culinary memoir, Kalins (founding editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine; author of V is for Vegetable) discusses her so-called “kitchen whisperers”: the chefs whose culinary guidance she often calls on while cooking or shopping for ingredients. Danny Meyer, a longtime friend, wrote the book’s introduction, where he talks about his own kitchen whisperers, including his father and Kalins. Kalins’s memoir mentions a number of personal mentors, including Marcella Hazen and David Tanis, and describes how they have influenced her throughout her culinary career. There is also a chapter about traveling to Israel with chef Michael Solomonov to film the documentary In Search of Israeli Cuisine (directed by Kalins’s husband Roger Sherman). In addition to these recollections, the memoir includes a handful of recipes—some based on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, others influenced by Kalins’s Southern mother-in-law.