Review by Joshua Pittman

How to be an Everyday Kitchen Magician is a simple guide to waste-free cooking. This book assumes no prior experience in the kitchen and doubles up as an excellent resource for more experienced cooks who need some inspiration with their leftovers.

Written in a lighthearted and easy-to-follow manner, the author introduces a simple philosophy to sustainable cooking that leaves you capable of preparing a tasty meal in almost any kitchen, often with the most unlikely ingredients.

The recipes are all categorised according to the way ingredients are most commonly found. For example, recipes with eggs, milk and flour are all grouped together. This helpful system makes preparing food with what you have much easier.

However, the most useful aspect of this book is the recipe index for leftover vegetables. Once you have your leftover vegetables in front of you, all you have to do is find your way through the index and choose a recipe that appeals to you.

The recipes range from the ridiculously simple to the slightly more challenging. The most complicated recipe I came across was a butternut squash cheesecake, which took a mere twenty minutes to make. The instructions were easy to follow and the outcome exceeded my expectations.

The author encourages the use of free range eggs and organic meat, however also includes recipes using highly processed and unhealthy foods, for example the Pot Noodle omelette, ensuring that there is something to suit all tastes.

In a time when food prices are continuously rising and waste is so widespread in our society, this book will help any cook make the most of every available scrap.