Thanks to Clever Pumpkin here is your chance to win one of 10 x The Cook's Toolkit valued at $89.95 each.

The Cook's Toolkit


What is it?

Sous chef to home cooks and lover to foodies, The Cook's Toolkit is the ultimate cook's diary and planner. Complementing the cook's library of recipe and reference books, The Cook's Toolkit is a suite of tools cooks use to create their own compendium. Not a cookbook but the cook's book, The Cook's Toolkit is the first fully comprehensive cook's compendium.


What does it do?

The Cook's Toolkit helps cooks to build a recipe index, plan menus, keep track of alterations made to recipes, plan nutritional enhancements, monitor diet, index helpful tips, compile a directory of specialty item stockists, explore their own recipe concepts, make the most of seasonal ingredients, record wine preferences, and... streamline shopping. Superman in a dinner suit!


Who is it for?

What shall I make for dinner? The tedium of that daily question is enough to bump the smile from the most enthusiastic cook's face. Yet, as has been amply evidenced by the global obesity and diabetes pandemics - brought on, in part, by a reliance on fast food - there is no satisfactory alternative to home cooking.

Most people don't get sick of cooking - they get sick of thinking about it. And the healthy diet/good health equation tends to add to the pressure of having to. The primary purpose of the Toolkit's first feature - The Central Recipe Index - is to lessen the thinking about it. Here, cooks create a personal roster of favoured recipes to cook on a regular basis. Consulting their custom built Central Recipe Index, cooks can, in a matter of minutes, have a whole week's worth of meals planned.The Central Recipe Index is the workhorse, but the Toolkit is a racehorse too, packed full of features to whet the appetite of weekend enthusiasts.

The second module holds everything I ever wished for in my cooking dreams: from The Cook's Diary, where I can record modifications made to recipes and more importantly, find them again, to a seasonal produce calendar which ensures my best efforts are commended by the best ingredients. Here I can create my own directory of specialty stockists, as well as making wine and drink notes. And then I have my menu planner, and a shopping planner designed to streamline that chore.

The Cook's Toolkit strength is that it offers a complete system, while its beauty lies in its flexibility. You, the cook, can utilise as many or as few features as you choose. It is for anyone who has to come up with the dinner menu as they bolt out the front door: cooks like me, who sometimes struggle, sometimes soar - and who occasionally set things on fire (sometimes on purpose) - for live-to-cook days and cook-to-live days.


How do I use it?

That's up to you. You'll find everything you need to know on the index dividers, where system guides and samples are printed. Follow your nose, then do as you please.


The Cook's Toolkit
Publisher: Clever Pumpkin
Author: Susan Bennett
RRP: $89.95
www.cleverpumpkin.com.au