Photo: Hyperion

'Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals'
by Jamie Oliver
Hyperion -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

The revolution will not be supersized. Jamie Oliver is a man on a mission to reclaim traditional home cooking from the fast and processed food purveyors of the world via simple, inexpensive, appealing recipes.

The book kicks off with a rah-rah manifesto that dovetails with Oliver's televised traveling roadshows geared toward getting the least healthy eaters in the UK and the USA to back out of the drive-thru and drive home healthier eating habits, centered around the debatably lost art of home cooking. He presents a compelling argument with solid, satisfying building-block recipes and oddly heartstring-plucking photo profiles of plain ol' folks cooking at home.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Takeaway tips: You can do this. Yes, YOU. Doesn't matter if you don't know a tartine from tartar sauce -- you can make healthy, delicious food for yourself and your family, from scratch and it doesn't have to break the bank or take all day. These recipes may not be health food, per se -- Chef Oliver has seemingly never met a dish that didn't need lashings of butter, creme fraîche, heavy cream or oil -- but they're free of mystery ingredients, likely less expensive than takeout, quick and simple to prepare, and you just might learn your way around the kitchen while you're at it.

Quality of pictures: Alternately kitschy and effectively illustrative. Grinning, giddy normal folks pose for in-kitchen portraits, proudly holding forth platters and casseroles laden with food they presumably made with their own, non-manicured hands. It's surprisingly endearing. Recipes get easy-to-follow process pix paired with hero shots of the finished dish. It's all quite hunger-inducing, and just sloppy enough to stop short of intimidation.

We tested: Evolution Tomato Salad and Macaroni and Cauliflower Cheese Bake

I'm kicking myself for not having thought of this before. Oliver's mac & cheese recipe calls for blending sour cream or creme fraîche with the cheese blend in a heat-proof bowl atop the boiling pot of macaroni and cauliflower -- essentially creating a double boiler. The resultant sauce is smooth, tangy (in further executions, I subbed in low-fat Greek-style yogurt for the cream, upping the tangy factor and lowering the calorie content exponentially), a cinch to blend and incredibly easy to clean up after.

A few minutes under the broiler brings forth a savory top crunch, quite pleasing in combination with the added snap of blanched cauliflower. A small amount of reserved pasta cooking water keeps things moist under the broiler's high heat, and any leftovers are even more flavorful the next day.

The evolution salads, while on the surface, quite simple, are an excellent exercise in celebrating fresh ingredients and building complex flavors. Each recipe starts with a produce base -- in this case, tomatoes -- and Oliver includes buying and prepping guidelines for each ingredient. First, it gets a basic dressing, and can be enjoyed as-is. But, if you'd care to take it to the next level, pit some black olives (he shares his favorite method, of course). Kick it up another notch? Drained cannellini beans. Crest the summit with the addition of canned tuna.

Worth the investment: Buy this for every college kid or kitchen-phobic grown-up you know. Heck -- share it with the little ones. Kitchen pros and seasoned home cooks might find the recipes a tad too ground floor, but everyone's got to start somewhere. I say, Viva Jamie!