One thing that I wish I had in my family was a list of recipes from my great-great-grandparents. I have four sets of families and only one grandparent managed to write down a few recipes for us! I feel like it is up to me to start writing down recipes to pass down to future generations, but I want to find inspiration somewhere.
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The Grand Dishes: Recipes and Stories from Grandmothers of the World cookbook is filled with delightful memories and dishes from grandmothers all over the planet.
Many of us know that grandmas make the best food. Plenty of renowned chefs have commented on it as well! We love grandmas and their cooking!
There are 240 pages full of colored photos of all the grandmas and their food. It’s a quirky and bold cookbook. This book truly gives you a little insight to the lives of many of these wonderful women and the places they live. Some of the regions covered are Moscow, Cuba, and many cities in between.
This cookbook showcases each lady and some of their best and favorite recipes. The stories that are shared are beautiful. We learn about each grandma’s history, their love for food, or how they discovered their recipes. I feel so grateful that they are willing to share some of their family secrets!
Let’s talk about the recipes! The cookbook looks like it is divided into soups salads, grand dishes, desserts, and more. There are a few women per chapter that the authors focus on and the city that they reside in.
Most of these recipes require ingredients that are common grocery items. There are simple recipes that can be whipped up on weekdays and very elaborate dishes to show off your cooking skills to loved ones.
The best part about this cookbook is how international the recipes are. This is the opportunity to try recipes from all kinds of regions of the world, but at home. Since these are family recipes, they will be unique as opposed to mainstream dishes you see all the time.
This is my favorite excerpt from the summary “This is not a book about what it’s like to be old. It’s about what it’s like to have lived.”
This is no ordinary cookbook!
Do you have any multigenerational recipes that your family is proud of?
~Kaiti
