Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food and founder of the Edible Schoolyard.
“The most convincing argument for eating fresh, organic, local food is discovering the peak ripeness of a fruit or vegetable at the farmer's market or in your own garden. Ripe teaches you how to choose your ingredients and cook them so their true flavor shines through.”
Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Every Day and 101 Cookbooks.com
”Ripe is first-and-foremost a celebration of all the wonderful facets of good produce (by a person who very clearly loves it). Cheryl's flavor combinations impress me—Pomegranate Clove Thumbprint Cookies, Radish Olive Crostini, Persimmon Apple Radicchio Stacks, and Maple Pomelo Parfaits. This is a beautiful cookbook full of wonderful, inspiring ideas that are sure to be warmly welcomed into many kitchens.”
Tara Mataraza Desmond, co-author of Almost Meatless
“Ripe has good looks and a great personality. Paulette's stunning photography seduces your appetite instantly and Cheryl's smart humor makes it feel like you're cooking alongside a comic writer with an amazing grasp of ingredients and mad skills in the kitchen.” The Wall Street Journal“entirely welcoming… beautifully illustrated… imaginatively organized.”
—-
BookPage
“Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables by Cheryl Sternman Rule, with fabulous color photos by Paulette Phlipot, is organized in a uniquely inviting and liberating way—by color. Cheryl figures that most of us know that we should be eating more fruits and veggies, and most of us understand why. So, her intent is not to preach about a peach, but to use Mother Nature's vivid paint box to spark your imagination. The photos alone will make you reach for that dark red head of radicchio, green-leafed bok choy or orange-hued papaya…"
Publishers Weekly
“Rule, a noted food writer and blogger, offers a lovely and gorgeous tribute to vegetables and fruits everywhere in this unusual cookbook… Chock-full of delectable photographs that whet the appetite, this collection will tantalize and educate on the many appealing ways vegetables and fruits can nourish and sustain.”
Idaho Mountain Express
“Ripe is the Playboy magazine of fruit-and-vegetable cookbooks. Phlipot's luscious, larger-than-life images of perfect peaches and alluring artichokes will draw you in, and, yes, you will actually stay to read the articles…”
—-
Concierge Q / UR Here Travel
“Ripe, a kaleidoscope of cultivars, was an idea that originally manifested with Paulette … and, in an unusual occurrence in the cookbook world, the photographer approached the food writer about coming on board…”
San Jose Mercury News
“When food blogger Cheryl Sternman Rule cruises the farmers market, produce comes to vividly described life…. Now the San Jose-based produce whisperer has teamed up with photographer Paulette Phlipot to create a mash note to farmers market finds in a colorful cookbook…”
Clean Eating Magazine
“Ripe is sure to engage your senses and teach you a thing or two about your favorite fruits and vegetables — all the while helping you become a more creative cook!”
T. Susan Chang, NPR Summer Top Ten List For 2012
"… treats of both fruits and vegetables. It's arranged, of all things, by color…your visually inclined friends will ooh and aah over its rainbow eye candy. The recipes are well-chosen representatives that make the most of their featured ingredient, and most deliver high flavor with an absolute minimum of stress. It makes a lovely gift for your hosts at lazy summer parties — one that neither assumes or demands anything."
—-
The Huffington Post
“Ripetreats produce to the same sense of naughty decadence usually associated with cupcakes and cocktails. Paired with Rule's awesome recipes, bite-sized essays, anecdotes and kitchen tips are Paulette Phlipot's glam photos…”
Serious Eats
“If Skittles hadn't already trademarked the slogan “taste the rainbow,” we would be nominating it for Ripe…”
TheKitchn.com
“There are over 150 photographs in [Ripe], with about 75 recipes. “Lavishly illustrated” does not even begin to describe it… This is a book to flip through and to savor, season by season, as colorful fruits and vegetables parade into your kitchen. It is a beautiful guide… ”
Library Journal
“A browser's mouthwatering delight, with gentle humor and appeal for cooks looking for specialty recipes with adventurous flavor combinations.”
Kiwi magazine
“Enjoy this color-coded journey through the world of produce, from bananas to pomelos. Explore new twists on fruits and vegetables, and combinations of ingredients to jolt awake your taste buds…”
—-
This produce cookbook, chock-full of juicy photographs, makes a humble head of cabbage into a work of art. Food writer and blogger (5secondrule.typepad.com) Rule sorts the 75 recipes by color; e.g., red is represented by beets and watermelon. The recipes assume modest familiarity with cooking techniques and utilize many everyday ingredients along with the occasional rarer addition, such as agave nectar, coconut water, Fuyu persimmons, and Medjool dates. The catalog of recipes is not extensive; there is one full recipe (a carefully crafted construction of flavors and textures) per produce item. Each entry begins with a striking artistic photograph, a story, and general notes on selecting or preparing the fruit or vegetable, along with three "Simple Uses" flavor pairings. The recipe follows, usually a dessert or hearty side dish, accompanied by another eye-popping photograph of the finished preparation. VERDICT A browser's mouthwatering delight, with gentle humor and appeal for cooks looking for specialty recipes with adventurous flavor combinations. [Another cookbook with the same title is also publishing in April 2012: Nigel Slater's Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard.—Ed.]—Margaret Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch. Lib., Fort Worth, TX
