Man Made Meals: The Essential Cookbook for Guys

Raichlen’s 30th cookbook is not exactly reaching out to a new audience. Over the past 16 years, with tomes like The Barbecue Bible and TV shows like Primal Grill, his masculine sensibility of cooking with fire has been hard to miss. However, give or take a blowtorch, there is little here that would be deemed inappropriate for a miss, though he does pump up his prose with references to, or recipes from, V for Vendetta, Oliver Platt, Eisenhower, Stanley Tucci, and Chairman Mao. With over 300 recipes, it would be easier to list what is not offered: doughnuts and sushi, which Raichlen deems “better at bakeries and restaurants,” and also cupcakes, which he somehow believes “aren’t really guy food.” That means a hungry man is left to choose from an armada of burgers, chops, and steaks, as well as chili, fried turkey, five-hour duck, pasta, soups, seafood, quinoa pilaf, and candied bacon sundaes. Interviews with major foodies of the male persuasion are sprinkled throughout the text. Despite bearing the unfortunate slug Food Dude, these are easily digestible and provide the reader with, for instance, Michael Pollan’s favorite go-to dish, and Thomas Keller’s first food memory. [em](June) [/em]