Today the culinary diversity is huge and yet the question of what to cook in everyday life seems like an impossible task. Tim Mälzer makes it easy for himself and publishes an entire cookbook that is about simple recipes for everyday life: “Cooking twenty-four seven” means good, uncomplicated food. Recipes for normal people: Then there’s porridge, for example (“It’s just oat flakes dissolved in water,” says Mälzer) or a tomato sauce made from grated tomatoes and a little oil (“a very banal recipe”) or bolo in a different way with shrimp (“It doesn’t always have to be mince lump”).
“I almost never cook my dishes twice,” the TV chef recently said in a big Stern interview. “There are days when I want to eat in a floral way, only slightly perfumed, very fresh. Then I just grate a few tomatoes with the pasta, add olive oil and basil. Then there are days when I need it really coarse. Same sauce, but neat Garlic. I add so many anchovies to it that you won’t be able to eat it anymore.”
Mälzer’s cookbook is intended to be inspiration, a variable meal plan for the whole day and the whole week, completely without regulations. A plea for simple cuisine. “We no longer appreciate simple cuisine. This book is a source of ideas for everyone who wants to cook at home – no matter when and for what occasion,” says Tim Mälzer. “I could eat spaghetti bolognese in the morning.” It is up to each person whether breakfast means pasta for some and oatmeal for others. Anyone who wants to eat a bowl of cereal in the evening will be encouraged by this book.
In terms of cuisine, the recipes are based on Italian and North German cuisine, with a bit of miso here and Asian influences there. Classics like mustard eggs and jacket potatoes are taken just as seriously as spaghetti with pesto or rigatoni with Gorgonzola sauce. What seems banal is complex in its simplicity. Because the recipes also depend on the quality of the ingredients. If they are of high quality, nothing stands in the way of the success of the dishes.
“Cooking Twenty-Four-Seven” is by no means a standard work, nor is it intended to be, but it is a cookbook that can become a constant companion at the stove. When you want things to be quick but still good. When everyday life kicks in and your head is empty. When you ask yourself what to cook today. A book that’s prone to grease and sauce stains and won’t gather dust on the shelf.
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