More Fast Food My Way isn't particularly pretty. No one will ooh and ahh about the photography or the utilitarian design. Pepin also repeatedly turns to certain ingredients - anchovies appear in at least eight recipes.
For style, turn to Oliver's book.
Each of the 400-plus pages is filled with great photography and festive, colorfully presented information - even the index has pizazz.
That said, Oliver's no Pepin when it comes to fast and easy. Though Oliver introduces Jamie at Home saying, "It's about no-nonsense, simple cooking," more than a few of the recipes have ingredient lists that stretch down the page, many of which call for imprecise and rather nonsensical measurements, such as a "good knob" of butter or a "small wineglass of white wine."
With his Cheat's Pappardelle With Slow-Braised Leeks and Crispy Porcini Pangrattato, Oliver attempts to oblige his readers who are pressed for time by suggesting they cut ready-made lasagna sheets into ribbons of pappardelle. Faster still: Just buy pre-made pappardelle. (I actually couldn't even find fresh lasagna sheets - maybe it's a British thing.)
Oliver arranges the book seasonally, pulling together recipes that work with the produce he grows in his own garden. His offerings include an asparagus tart for spring, rice pudding with strawberry jam in the summer, butternut squash muffins in the winter. The recipes are not generally easy.
Malgieri, a pastry chef whose previous cookbooks have won a number of prestigious awards, knows how to boil what could be complicated instructions into clear steps.
The Modern Baker isn't necessarily a beginner's cookbook. It's a book for cooks who want to bake, but without unnecessary, old-fashioned steps. Malgieri includes some time-saving tips, but mainly it's his clarity that will spare readers headaches.
Beautiful color photos appear on about every other glossy page of this substantial book. Unlike Oliver and a number of celebrity chefs-turned-authors, Malgieri doesn't spend a lot of time talking about himself. He includes personal details but only when they make sense.
For instance, I chose to try the Cinnamon-Scented Baked Chocolate Mousse Cake because in an aside he wrote, "When I have a bare minimum of time to make a dessert, I always make this."
He didn't mislead. With the exception of the chocolate, the cake used ingredients that I already had in the house, came together in minutes and looked and tasted like something that took a lot more time and effort.
