The How Not to Cookbook: Lessons Learned the Hard Way - Hardcover

"For what is more a gallery installation than a cookbook, the artist Aleksandra Mir collected advice from home cooks around the world. Sample tidbit: "Do not cook when you are angry -- your dishes will be furious too!" "New York Times", "Best Culinary Cookbooks of 2010""In her memoir, "My""Life in France", Julia Child wrote, 'One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.' In the "How Not to Cookbook", Aleksandra Mir has taken the 'grin and bear it' part to a whole new level. Instead of a coffee table book, think of this as a kitchen counter book--something that you will dip into for solace and a few laughs the next time you burn the rice--or worse at your next dinner party." "New York Journal of Books""Some of the advice is rather ominous - don't fall off the ladder when you're picking cherries for Morello Jelly. Some of the advice is rather obvious - do not overcook anything! All of it is charming." Books for Cooks"The 'Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen' show currently at the Museum of Modern Art is a scholarly take on domestic cookery site's evolution over the course of the 20th century, but it pointedly ignores one aspect of the contemporary kitchen -- namely that it's often a place of stomach-turning, fire-belching embarrassment. Luckily, artist Aleksandra Mir has stepped in with a reminder that even the best-designed kitchen can't protect home chefs from catastrophic cuisine with her new book..." ArtInfo.com."..reading it is fun and it could save a neophyte from self immolation and other inconveniences. It made me laugh. And even think." Gael Greene, Insatiable Critic.com

The books sections are quirky, with a parody of comprehensiveness. Here are a few: Burns, Cover up, Distraction, Cheese, Dating, Explosions, Frying, Gender, Gravy, Hot Stuff, Jamming, Legs, Navigation, Pets, Salt n' Pepper, Splatters, Substitutes, Wine, Worms, Wurst.