We asked you, our readers, about your favorite books of 2011, and one of your top five picks was this gorgeous, lavishly-illustrated volume on all aspects of home cooking by Amsterdam cook, author and illustrator, Yvette van Boven.
Today, we're taking a closer look at Home Made, and giving you a little peek into Yvette's own home kitchen!
Yvette van Boven is a chef and illustrator in Amsterdam and she sent us a little peek into her own kitchen! Here she is cooking up a recipe for her next book — all photos taken by her husband. They live in an old warehouse along the canals of Amsterdam. "We have a dark house," says Yvette. But they've made it so glam in its darkness — I love the shelves and the copper pots!
Yvette says that she is not a stranger to cookbooks — wrote her first at the age of four! Since then she has gone on to own and run a restaurant, and to illustrate many magazines, newspapers, and books. This multi-pack of talents led her naturally to this cookbook, Home Made, which pulls in yet another of her interests. She says:
My mother and the women in our street made a lot of things with their own hands, out of necessity or by tradition, and my sister and I did the same. We made soda bread, biscuits, shortbread, jelly, and stew for our toy restaurant, which we built in our room or in the garden. We made ice creams, cheeses, yogurt, butterfly cakes, and ginger ale for our dolls or friends.
This home made playtime turned into real-life home made treats in her book, Home Made, which is a delightful and delicious collection of recipes for DIY basics and for ways to use them. It's chock-full of Yvette's own drawings, and her husband's beautiful photographs. Here's a little taste of a recipe from her book — one for homemade tea, made with things local to you.
• Visit Yvette: Yvette van BovenLook for Yvette's new book soon too! It's called Home Made Winter and it will be out this October from Stewart, Tabori & Chang. (She's working on Home Made Summer as well!)
Find Yvette's book: Home Made (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, September 2011) at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon.com
Related: Recipes as Art: Delicious Illustrations by Yvette van Boven
(Images: Oof Verschuren)
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Are those putty knives she has on her knife magnet? Any idea what she uses them for? I'm assuming she uses them like turners or palette knives.
@CHRISTIANDHOLMES, they do look like palette or putty knives, I don't know what she uses them for but I have a few - I use them like bench scrapers and to scrape off smaller chocolate or confectionery molds after I've filled them (I hold the mold and use the scraper to scrape the excess chocolate back into the bowl or tempering machine). They're really handy I'd just make sure ones you get can be thoroughly cleaned and don't have a lot of crevices for harboring bacteria.
LOVE this kitchen! A real working kitchen! Shows how you don't need a giant kitchen with outrageous appliances and overblown islands to produce outstanding meals!
That's crazy I was just at the bookstore today and skimmed thru her book, amazing recipes!