The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

How A Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks

By: Kathleen Flinn

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, writer Kathleen Flinn returned with no idea what to do next, until one day at a supermarket she watched a woman loading her cart with ultraprocessed foods. Flinn's "chefternal" instinct kicked in: she persuaded the stranger to reload with fresh foods, offering her simple recipes for healthy, easy meals. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School includes practical, healthy tips that boost listeners' culinary self-confidence, strategies to get the most from their grocery dollars, and simple recipes that get listeners cooking.

©2011 Kathleen Flinn (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The author's humble approach is inviting and shows why her students were enthusiastic." (Kirkus)

Inspiring Book to Learn Home Cooking

Kathleen Flinn has inspired me to learn how to cook properly. No more can and box meals for me. She makes learning to cook from scratch fun and easy. The narrator Marguerite Gavin lends a fantastic voice for the reading. You can easily follow the different characters just by the change in her reading. Great job.

Grab a knife

Makes you realize what we had when I grew up and what I would like to get back to. Reading all the ingredients on labels is scary.

Enlightening and Inspiring

I am/ was a shy cook and this book made some many things about cooking way less intimidating. I'm actually getting ready to but the actual hard bound book because I'd really like to use it as a reference book when in the kitchen.
The reader keeps things light and cheerful and has a wonderful pace!

I’m a changed cook.

I was looking for some simple ideas to change my cooking abilities and found what I was looking for with this book. I did not expect to take away so much from this book. I’ve improved my knife skills, I understand taste and flavor profiles better, I shop differently, and just feel more confident. I felt like I was a fellow volunteer in the class. I truly enjoyed this book!

Excellent. Entertaining

Loved the audiobook. Very entertaining. May listen again. A fun cooking school. Recommend highly for anyone who wants to advance their skills.

Couldnt get past Performance

I listened to first 3 chapters. There sounds like there could be some good information but the tone is not compassionate or curious.

It reads very much like a brag at an accomplishment for helping the less fortunate.

I liked the concept not the execution.

I'm still hungry.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

So so. It was a light enjoyable listen for the most part. But I sort of was hoping for it to be over at the same time. It wasn't a very compelling story nor very enlightening in the kitchen. I appreciated her desire to help America get back in the kitchen.

Would you ever listen to anything by Kathleen Flinn again?

Yes. Although her characters were not memorable I'd be interested if only for the kitchen tips. The characters were interesting enough just not well developed past their initial encounter. I couldn't remember who was who. I did like the relationship between her and her husband.

As far as the culinary aspect, which is why I chose the book, I felt a bit gipped. I want to learn more about putting it all together and this really wasn't all too helpful. It seemed more novel than kitchen info. I would have preferred the reverse.

What three words best describe Marguerite Gavin’s performance?

Was she drunk?

Do you think The Kitchen Counter Cooking School needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Sure. I think any of the cooking lessons could go into far more depth. But I sure hope she uses a different reader and gets some help in making it more interesting and followable.

Any additional comments?

A few PDF's of recipes and tips would be great.

Solving the mystery of the fridge

It seems that in today’s fast pase world the art of cooking is in many ways lost. To any people now a days seem scared in a weird way to take care of them selfs or better yet they seem scared to try. What the author does is in a very precise way show u in fact how some simple techniques will allow u to be way more self sufficient and in someways more adult in a fashion. The story is really lovely and there is so much u can learn from these techniques that u can take into everyday life.

The Class we ALL should have had in High School!

I hardly ever review, but this was exceptional. I learned a lot. It changed the way I think about cooking and food. It was simple enough to not be too complicated. I LOVED it!

Loved to hear about growing enthusiasm

I really enjoyed Kathleen Flinn's first book, about going to Le Cordon Bleu. This one is close to home - and is inspiring to see how those who don't usually cook at home can transform their grocery lists into something delicious. I only wish this book had been narrated by the woman who did the first book. This narrator felt kind of snooty - I think it's her diction, but the other woman had me believing it was the author herself, with a lot of heartfelt emotion. This was a good listen anyway.