Book Review: The Kitchen Witch Companion

The Kitchen Witch Companion: Simple and Sublime Culinary Magic by Patricia Telesco

Straight up, this is an AWESOME book. The first few chapters deal with the mythology of the kitchen and the magic of cooking. Things like how the Scottish avoid singing while baking bread, and the myth of faeries churning butter. There are awesome quotes, like the following:

"And, indeed, is there not something holy about a great kitchen? The scoured gleam of row upon row of metal vessels dangling from hooks or reposing on their shelves till needed with the air of so many chalices waiting for the celebration of the sacrament of food. And the range...like an altar, yes, before which my mother bowed in perpetual homage, a fringe of sweat upon her upper lip and the fire glowing on her cheeks." - Angela Carter

 or

"A dining room table with children's eager, hungry faces around it ceases to be a mere dining room table and becomes an altar." - Simeon Strunsky

Part 2 of this book gets into the real meat of the thing (pardon my pun!) - it's full of recipes. Useful recipes for many occasions. With small additions such as stirring a certain way, or saying a short incantation over one step. Really, it serves to make you more aware of the cooking process. You're not just creating something to subsist on; by infusing it with intent, with love for those who you'll be serving it to, it becomes something magical. I highly recommend this book; whether you are a witch who loves to cook, a witch who'd like to bring a little bit of magic to a mundane task, or a cook who is beginning to learn magic, this is a wonderful book.