Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes

We're excited to offer copies of Umma signed by Sarah and Nam Soon Ahn!

Umma means Mom in Korean. Working with her mother, who immigrated from South Korea to the US, Sarah Ahn began an ambitious project to record and preserve how a traditional Korean cook thinks and works.

Produced under the meticulous auspices of America’s Test Kitchen, this is an almost relentlessly informative book, packed with lists, tips, aphorisms from Umma, and step-by-step photographs. It might seem overwhelming, but it’s also very informative if you’re willing to relax into it.

While there is a list of 5 Easy Recipes to Get Started, this is not a once-over-lightly intro to Korean cuisine. It works best as an immersion. Under the Top 10 Reasons Why Umma’s Cooking is Special, reason 1 is “Umma spends a lot of time examining produce before purchase–I mean a lot.”  Reason 3 begins, “Umma never sacrifices flavor for convenience or shortcuts.”  Time and carefulness are significant to Umma’s way of cooking.

There is a photograph of each dish; recipe names appear in English, in transliterated Korean, and in Hangul, the Korean writing system. Extensive headnotes for the recipes place the dishes in context of both the Ahn family and broader Korean culture. And they reflect an appealingly deep affection between daughter and mother.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.