Cookbook+Analysis

__Contrast between Dean and Deluca Cookbooks and Martha Stewart Cookbooks __ The unique thing about cookbooks is that they are written with the intent of aiding a specific audience with making (usually) specific foods. However, cookbooks are almost always comprised of specific recipes and geared towards a specific target audience; between distinct presentations, writing styles, and claims, two cookbooks can be entirely contrasting books. An example of this contrast in two unalike cookbooks is the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook// by David Rosengarten, and //Entertaining// by Martha Stewart.

 When browsing through a book store and looking on the shelf at the cookbooks being sold, the cover of the cookbook attracts the eye the most. Many would walk right past the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook//, with its completely white cover, almost blank, with the title and authors written in large black text. However, those who are familiar with the Dean and Deluca brand would notice the large name on the front almost immediately. //The Dean and Deluca Cookbook// put the Dean and Deluca name in large and prominent text to appeal to those who are familiar with the Dean and Deluca stores and their reputation. Inside the book, there are no pictures at all, nothing of the dishes or ingredients or even writers. The effect can be quite jarring, even overwhelming, to the novice cook, as the cookbook is more or less intended for “foodies”, those with more experienced and thorough knowledge of food.

 Which is the opposite effect created by the presentation of //Entertaining//. Where the cover of Dean and Deluca was blank and intimidating, Martha Stewart goes out of her way to make her cover extravagantly homely with a homage to Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom from Want”. //Entertaining// presents itself as very welcoming to beginners in the field of cooking and preparing food, and nothing represents that more than Stewart’s presence in the middle of the cover, smiling and inviting her audience into (what is presumed to be) her home. Inside the cookbook are a plethora of lavish photos of the meals to go along with the recipes, as well as several photos of the house itself. Also included in the cookbook are specific plans for parties and events, directed towards wealthy hostesses and party-planners; one section of the book is devoted to a “sit-down country luncheon for 175” (279). The intended effect creates a warm and welcoming mood in the audience to encourage them that cooking a meal or preparing a house for a party are both simple tasks that any person could accomplish.

 Just with the presentation of their cookbooks, each writer utilizes a different style of writing for their respective cookbook to appeal to their targeted audience. Going with the refined nature of Dean and Deluca, Rosengarten employs in the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook// a matching concrete diction with much “foodie” jargon. The book dedicates space before recipes to extensive summaries of specific foods and their histories (largest sections of the book are categorized into types of food such as salads, soups, pizza, etc., and those sections are subdivided into smaller chapters detailing those foods in different regions, different ways to prepare them, etc.), while the actual recipes themselves contain nothing but a list of ingredients (often quite specific), and a list of instructions explaining what to do with the ingredients (often quite vague). Through the use of such a style, Rosengarten appeals to the individuals who have a firm grasp of what they are doing, and only need the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook// as a reference guide for dishes.

 An interesting technique //Entertaining// utilizes that the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook// does not is the use of stories that accompany the recipes and plans. These stories give Stewart’s cookbook an interesting sense of self overall. This, pared with the multitude of elegant photos of a resplendent house, works to achieve the goal of putting the reader into the role of the party-planner, to better take on the role for themselves. In comparison to the Dean and Deluca Cookbook, Entertaining includes very detailed recipes that go over every little step to end up with an ideal end result, and nonspecific ingredients (that could probably be purchased at a local supermarket).

 Ultimately, it is the two cookbooks’ opposing claims that make them so different from one another. Through its plain presentation and summaries of information before each recipe, Rosengarten makes the claim in the //Dean and Deluca Cookbook// that food is a worldly pleasure that is to be respected on all fronts and cherished. Through the use of glossy pictures and thorough recipes, Stewart makes the claim that anyone can plan a wonderful party or similar event if they have the right knowledge to organize it correctly.

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