Book Review: The Guilt-Free Gourmet

(After consultation with Grandma Bonnie Peters)

A Book You Can Buy From Me (click here)

Book Title: The Guilt-Free Gourmet

Author: Vicki Griffin

Publisher: Remnant Publications

Date: 1999

Length: 400 pages

ISBN: 1891041258

Illustrations: lots of graphics
 
Buy it from Amazon:

Check out the "Best Price" field in the Amazon link above, readers. This book is already going "rare." Local readers can no longer buy it from me in real life, because I didn't check Amazon before selling a nice clean copy very cheap. I've tried to buy it back from the person who bought it from me. No such luck. Somebody has already bought it from him.

What makes this book so special? Here's Grandma Bonnie Peters' summary: "I have some other vegan cookbooks that I use. Some of their recipes taste better...but that's because they're longer recipes that use more ingredients and take more time. Vicki Griffin's recipes are easier to follow, and I usually have the ingredients I will need on hand. And a lot of them are easy to make gluten-free."

She knows what she's talking about, Gentle Readers. Grandma Bonnie's adaptations of Vicki Griffin's vegan "loaf" and "burger" recipes became the Veggie Burgers that launched the Allergy-Ease Foods company. When the Allergy-Ease Foods Test Kitchen was open, Vicki Griffin's video promotion for this book was frequently played for students who came to Grandma Bonnie's gluten-free vegan cooking classes.

When I read this book, I thought of lots of snarky comments on the relentlessly "upbeat and outgoing" (annoying) manner her Seventh-Day Adventist audience have obviously bullied Griffin into adopting, but that's because it presses my personal buttons; it may not bother you. Apart from the temperament discrimination issue, Griffin also tends to harp on the idea that eating animal products may be making you ill. I kept wanting to throw the book out the window and scream, "Eating all those grain products made me ill!" Grandma Bonnie Peters has even more food sensitivity issues than I have, but she has no problem adapting Griffin's recipes to meet her needs.

The important thing about a cookbook is whether the recipes are easy to follow by people wanting to cook something delicious. The important thing about a restricted-diet cookbook is whether the recipes are delectable enough to appeal to people who aren't restricted to the author's diet...and Griffin's recipes definitely rate. Even Grandma Bonnie's gluten-free adaptations have attracted repeat customers who are neither vegan, gluten-intolerant, nor even on a low-fat diet.

As mentioned by previous reviewers on Amazon, Griffin even offers nutrient information for each recipe, along with general good advice about health.

Although the "best used" price isn't far below the original "new" price for this book, The Guilt-Free Gourmet is still a good bargain if you're (a) new to vegan cooking, or (b) looking for vegan menus that will seduce non-vegan guests.