The World In a Skillet by Christopher Kimball is the April 2023 is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection for April. We find ourselves back from fiction last month to a cookbook. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I find a it difficult to evaluate a book without using it. That certainly is the case here. That being said, there are some unique elements to this particular cookbook.

You may be familiar with Christopher Kimball as he was a host of America’s Test Kitchen for many years. I did notice that he was gone from the show about eight years ago. In fact, his fixture was so long and his transition abrupt that I thought that maybe there was a health problem or something. This is actually the first time I had seen anything publicly and learning that he changed directions.

My supposition about his whereabouts were not without merit. I ran across some allegations and apparently there was a lawsuit between America’s Test Kitchen and Kimball accusing theft of intellectual property and damages in his new endeavor Milk Street. If you ever watched any of his previous work then you will know it was highly technical. Fortunately, it appears this new direction is simpler and more approachable.

It is interesting to see different approaches, dare I say novel approaches to cookbook and I would say this is one of them. Let’s talk about the title first. Kimball’s premise is that there are a lot of specific apparatus involved in ethnic cooking. Or said another way, each culture uses a proprietary piece of cookware and he surmises that this could all be substituted with a skillet.

That was the approach, but it wasn’t the only innovation. The cookbook is organized by time to cook. So, the user can go to the section and look at the 20 recipes that require less than 45 minutes to make. I think that this is a brilliant because skillet meals are often one dish meals. One dish meals are often those made in time constrained periods (weeknights, after work).

I do have a varied palate and I like the idea of Asian one night, Mexican another, soul food on another and comfort food on Friday. I think that it is pretty interesting that the recipes go from Vietnamese, to Italian to African to Chinese on page by page basis. So, it does seem to me that this approach fits my cooking instincts and preferences.

But wait… there’s more. It is not just single dish recipes but also sides and deserts and all things skillet. Now, maybe that is a step too far from what we need in a cookbook. But, if it is anything it is all in on skillets. So, I will give props for wringing the most out of the one-trick pony.

Out of 300 or so pages, nearly half of them are pictures. It does make you stimulated to page through the book. So, barring the fact that I haven’t cooked anything yet, it is a beautiful book. However in my kitchen, books are starting to clog up spaces so I am moving to the point that they need to earn their place. I do plan on trying a few things in the next month to see if it is worthy.

End Your Programming Routine: The book club is emerging out of our Covid hangover. Starting in 2020, we cut our interactions from about 10 a year to 4 (including March that was already scheduled) with outside summer gatherings. We have more books and meetings in the pipeline again as the composition of the group has changed to the new reality. I love reading and cooking but I warm up to people over time. I also love that being part of this group is a leap of faith for the interests of others. More books to come.