Home Cooking, Ikea-Style

by Naomi Shulman, Posted Sep 27th 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: Carl Kleiner Via Today and Tomorrow

Ikea, the Scandinavian home furnishings giant known for high design and low prices, has made an extremely successful foray into kitchen renovations in recent years. In some up-and-coming neighborhoods there's nary a non-Ikea cabinet to be found. Cunning, cheerful cookware, too, is a staple in youthful kitchens everywhere. Now the company has taken what seems like the obvious next step: They've created a cookbookwith the same spare, minimalist sensibility the brand is known for.

As with all Ikea products, the book has a distinctive Swedish name -- Hembakat är Bäst, or Homemade Is Best -- and it contains some thirty basic recipes for what one assumes are traditional Scandinavian treats, such as vanilijhorn (apparently similar to almond croissants) and pepperkakor (gingerbread cookies). Are the recipes any good? Who knows? The attention right now is focused on the styling and photography -- provided in this case by Carl Kleiner, a Stockholm-based photographer well known for his own minimalist, offbeat aesthetic.

Unfortunately for all of us stateside Swedish wannabes, Hembakat är Bäst isn't yet available in the U.S. If you've got Old World cousins -- or any pals doing their junior years abroad -- implore them to send a few copies across the Atlantic. Language barrier? No problem. Anyone who's ever figured out how to use one of those wordless Ikea instruction manuals will find this to be -- wait for it -- a piece of cake. (Oh yes we did!)

Filed Under: Books
Tags: cookbooks, IKEA, ikea cookbook, IkeaCookbook

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-27-2010 @4:38PM Pat said... I love IKEA just wish one was closer to my home. anytime i'm near one i go shopping. LOVE IT
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9-27-2010 @6:46PM Peggie said... I can imagine their instructions...
Take three chunks of white stuff, place on triangle of bread looking stuff, spread with green stuff, cover with brown sticks, then tpo with those white and brown balls.
you will have three chunks of yellow stuff extra, those are like all the extra screws they give you when you buy a bookcase, you can't do anything with them but you don't want to toss them out in case you might find you needed to use them someday
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9-27-2010 @8:15PM Kate said... Who cares if we can't get some more junk from over seas. Why can't AMERICANS make everything we need right here in the USA? We use to need very little from outsources, now we make very little in OUR OWN COUNTRY. And people wonder why there are NO JOBS. EVERYTHING WAS SENT OVER SEAS to be made for less money for the manufactures to pay to workers. They pay workers less, and WE THE PEOPLE get the junk that is made and sent over here that is worth about 2 cents, and we pay top dollar for it. As soon as we try to use what piece of crap we bought, it falls apart. Go ahead and try to get a good product from india, china, or mexico, you can't. WHY, because it is ALL garbage. Bring manufacturing back to the USA, and put AMERICANS back to work. I do not care about putting india, china, or mexicans to work, let them do for themselves.
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9-27-2010 @11:10PM Cheryl said... Sorry to say, Americans put themselves out of work with their constant demands and strikes for higher pay. Just look at the automobile factories; the union got greedy. There was no way that gravy train could last... employees being paid top dollar to stand around when the lines were down or to pump gas in cars when they came off the line. And even though they were MADE IN AMERICA, the cars were still junk a lot of the time. I've owned 2 American cars, a Chevy and a Saturn. Let's see, the Chevy's paint began to peel off after about 3 yrs. because of a faulty painting process. GM was aware of it, yet never made it right for their customers. To this day, you can see GM cars being driven around that are missing most of their paint. The Saturn's sunroof began to leak after a couple of years. So much for "American made". Next time I'll buy a KIA.