Book review: 'What's Cooking at 10 Garden Street?' is a creative international cookbook geared toward kids

It doesn't look like it, but What's Cooking at 10 Garden Street? is more than a picture book, it's actually a cookbook! It is, however, told in storybook fashion, which makes this cookbook very child-friendly.

Image from Amazon

Apparently, all the residents of N. 10 Garden Street are busily cooking. Their 15 recipes are included in this book and each page illustrates the ingredients as well as the chefs cooking up the international dishes.

Image from Prestel Publishing

Recipes include, among others, Spaghetti al Pomodoro, Baba Ganoush, Coconut Dahl, and Guacamole. Seeing the illustrated ingredients coupled with the short instructions helps makes each recipe seem easy and doable. And, if there's anything I appreciate in the kitchen as a homeschooling mama of five kids, it's easy and doable!

Image from Prestel Publishing

While the book is charming, I wish it included a table of contents. There was a recipe that looked especially appealing to me (fine, I'll admit it, it was the Strawberry Crumble) that I couldn't find one day and I had to flip through all the pages. Now, while I realize having to flip through 48 pages can hardly be labeled a true hardship, it was kinda irritating.

What's Cooking at 10 Garden Street? is a clean book with nothing offensive in it. While some ingredients are unusual, all should be found in neighborhood grocery stores.

Felicita Sala is an award-winning writer and illustrator. She lives in Rome with her family.

Image from Prestel Publishing

Book breakdown:
48 pages
Full-color illustration
Best for ages: any of your kids you allow (or hope would) to cook
Educational factor: medium
Religious content: none
Parents could be concerned about: nothing.