WHAT'S COOKING?

I'm so excited for this week's cookbook pick! Sure, there are Halloween cookbooks. And it would make sense to do one on this week before the holiday. However, when I saw this book, I knew it had to be the one I chose for Halloween.   

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COOKING PRICE-WISE:

A CULINARY LEGACY

By Vincent Price

Best known as a star of stage and screen, Vincent Price was also a noted gourmet whose enthusiastic promotion of home cooking included several cookbooks and a television show, Cooking Price-Wise. This charming book of Price's favorite recipes is based on the Thames Television series he hosted in the 1970s, which showcased timeless international cuisine. Scores of easy-to-make dishes from around the world include soups, breads, main courses, sidedishes, and desserts that can be made from ingredients readily available in supermarkets and food shops. Fascinating food-related historical tidbits add extra zest to the newly typeset recipes and numerous color and black-and-white photographs that enhance this handsome collectible edition.

This special expanded edition of Cooking Price-Wise stands as a true family affair, featuring new contributions from the author's children, including a Preface by his daughter, Victoria, and a Foreword by his son, V.B. An extensive bonus section, "The Culinary Legacy of the Price Family," includes baking recipes from Vincent's grandfather, the inventor of baking powder; journal entries from the author's eye-opening trip to Europe as a 17-year-old; and a selection of family favorites from Victoria Price's childhood. Plus, Victoria also provides a wealth of insights into the Price Culinary Legacy.

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MY REVIEW

A cookbook by Vincent Price? Yes! I’m so in!

The first things you’ll read in this are the Preface by Vincent’s daughter, Victoria Price, and the Forward by Vincent’s son, V.B. Price. It was lovely getting an insight into Mr. Price from his children.

The next thing you’ll read is a delightful Introduction from Vincent Price himself. (Yes, Vincent Price has passed away. However, this is a new version of his past work) I truly loved this. It was wonderful to “hear” in his own words a little about his life, and his love of food. He even hosted a short live cooking show in Britain called, of course, COOKING PRICE-WISE.

The recipes included in this tome are from all around the world. As he states in his Introduction, Mr. Price traveled all over the world and was able to try many dishes. His show, and this book, were intended it to make “foreign” food less intimidating to those who are hesitant to try new things. Turning basic food items, available in just about everyone’s pantry or fridge, into something exciting and exotic is the main focus of this book.

There are introductions for each chapter, and short stories throughout the book to inform the reader about certain foods, and dishes. Each chapter centers around one main food group. For instance, Chapter One is all about potatoes, Chapter Two is all about meat, and so on.

Within the chapters of COOKING PRICE-WISE you’ll find recipes such as . . . American Rice Salad, Bacon Carbonnade, Brown Bread House, Cheesed Party Eggs, Chicken Solange, Creamy Apple Crunch, Fish Fillet Noord Zee, Greek Lemon Soup, Huntington Fidget Pie, Lancaster Hotpot, Mushroom Risotto, Orange Coffee Cream, Potato & Fish Chowder, Raspberry Cream Pancakes, Stilton Cheese Slaw, Wellington Salad, and so many, many more.

I’d like to point out that these dishes were originally made in the 1970’s. The recipe photos on this this book scream the 70’s. I think it would be wonderful to not only create some of these dishes just as Mr. Price intended, but to also make updated versions.

One of the best parts of this book were excerpts from Vincent’s travel journal from 1928. Some of it is in his own handwriting! What a thrill it was for me to get a peek into his life in such a way. I had so much fun reading, COOKING PRICE-WISE. It was wonderful getting to see this side of the man known as the “Horror King”.

Lovers of cookbooks, retro, and Vincent Price, must make  COOKING PRICE-WISE: A CULINARY LEGACY a part of your household.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Actor, writer, and gourmet, Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was born in St Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., president of the National Candy Company. He traveled through Europe, studied at Yale and became an actor. He made his screen debut in 1938, and after many minor roles, he began to perform in low-budget horror movies such as House of Wax (1953), achieving his first major success with House of Usher (1960). Known for his distinctive, low-pitched, creaky, atmospheric voice and his quizzical, mock-serious facial expressions, he went on to star in a series of acclaimed Gothic horror movies, such as Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). He abandoned films in the mid-1970s, going on to present cooking programs for television - he wrote "A Treasury of Great Recipes" (1965) with his second wife, Mary Grant - but had two final roles in The Whales of August (1987) and Edward Scissorhands (1990). He also recorded many Gothic horror short stories for the spoken-word label Caedmon Records. Vincent Price died at age 82 of lung cancer and emphysema on October 25, 1993.

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