What's Cooking

What’s Cooking (1989) is an eclectic cookbook by American writer, TV food reporter and producer, entrepreneur, and chef, Burt Wolf. Along with recipes and information about cooking, the book provides nutritional facts and health tips. Wolf also includes historical and geographical information as well as folklore inspired by his recipes. Wolf grew up in the food business. As a child he helped out at his grandmother’s household equipment store; he put himself through college by working restaurant jobs; and he eventually went on to edit more than 60 cookbooks, including The Cook’s Catalogue, a respected guide to cooking tools and utensils. Wolf gained early fame for his What’s Cooking television series and received the first James Beard Foundation Award for Best Television Food Journalism.

The recipes and articles in What’s Cooking are based on materials from Wolf’s television reports from January through April 1989. The book includes a What’s Cooking Calendar, matching the original air date of each television episode to the corresponding page of its featured recipe. In an introductory note, Wolf explains that he has eliminated salt from his cooking and is following doctor’s orders to limit his intake of cholesterol and saturated fats. An avid proponent of healthy eating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, Wolf encourages moderation in diet, suggesting that if one is going to cook a recipe with a food that has a “bad reputation,” to be sure to make it count, saying, “If the doctors think it’s bad, it had better taste good.” What’s Cooking also includes Wolf’s original line drawings, which help illustrate different culinary techniques and capture a sense of place of some of the locales he visits.

What’s Cooking is divided into three major components: a large section of recipes broken down by food category, a section on the folklore of food, and a collection of short essays on food and health.



Wolf’s recipes run the gamut from soup to scones. Within each category of recipes, Wolf adds snippets of history and unique facts. A list of “Soup-er Moments in the History of Soup” features a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte and a look at the origins of the word “soup.” In his set of fish recipes, Wolf offers a look at the early methods of preserving Swedish salmon. He shares the “sinister reputation” of dill in his Gravlax recipe: those who grew the herb were thought to be witches. Nova Scotia’s Blomidon Inn inspires recipes like Apple-Currant Pork Chops as well as the story of the Inn’s original owner, the famous sea captain, Rufus Burgess, whose lost treasure might be hidden in the Inn. The section on pasta and rice teaches readers that Thomas Jefferson introduced spaghetti to the United States. Wolf explains the origins of the Swedish smorgasbord in the recipe for Lacy Potato Pancakes. His Sardinian Eggplant recipe features a brief history of Sardinia. Wolf describes how 18th-century Spanish missionaries in early California would sow mustard seeds as they walked, leaving a trail of yellow mustard plants to show other missionaries their path: this became the Mission Trail. Wolf pairs this information with a recipe for Mustard Sauce. He also includes multiple recipes based on the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, featuring Orange Angel Cake, Ruby Tea Biscuits, and Gingersnaps.

In the brief “Food Folklore” segment, Wolf writes about everything from how filled candies are made, to the anniversary of the Campbell Soup Kids. He also discusses the history of Corn Flakes and the legend behind St. Valentine’s Day and the holiday’s connection to chocolate.

Wolf is highly conscious of the fact that he recently turned fifty years old. His short articles in “Food & Good Health” focus on providing advice for healthy eating and healthful living. He offers information on the importance of monitoring one’s triglycerides, watching out for vitamin D deficiency, and keeping an eye on calcium levels. Wolf also recommends consuming the bulk of one’s daily food intake before 3:00 p.m., to avoid weight gain. A strong advocate for daily exercise, Wolf details a doable, consistent walking program to help lose weight, noting that diet needs to be combined with exercise in order to lose fat. He extolls the benefits of oat bran, antioxidants, and dried fruit. He examines the age-old beliefs that chicken soup and hot brandy are good cold remedies. Wolf reveals that chicken soup does help one breathe better, but brandy dilates blood vessels, resulting in the cold sufferer feeling even more stuffed up. Recommending a low-sodium diet to help control high blood pressure, Wolf maintains that limiting fat, cholesterol, and sodium in the diet is even more important than worrying about chemical contaminants in our food. If we limit our intake of these three unhealthy dietary elements, he declares, it could “keep us alive long enough to actually see the government do something” about cleaning up the food supply.



Wolf went on to produce additional television food and travel shows including the popular half-hour Travels & Traditions series. He organized travel tours based on the programs and donated the proceeds to help support public television.