Promotional photo via rogerebert.com.
Roger Ebert’s blog is consistently so smart, warm, and well-written — not just about movies, but about books, politics, biography (auto & regular), and more — that it didn’t surprise me in the slightest when he started writing about how much he loved his rice cooker. His rice cooker posts were likewise so funny, intelligent, and passionate that it doesn’t surprise me that Ebert’s written a cookbook, titled The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker. (You can preorder it now; it should be in stores later this month.)
Ebert’s 2008 post sporting the same title lays out the book’s program:
First, get the Pot. You need the simplest rice cooker made. It comes with two speeds: Cook, and Warm. Not expensive. Now you’re all set to cook meals for the rest of your life on two square feet of counter space, plus a chopping block. No, I am not putting you on the Rice Diet. Eat what you like. I am thinking of you, student in your dorm room. You, solitary writer, artist, musician, potter, plumber, builder, hermit. You, parents with kids. You, night watchman. You, obsessed computer programmer or weary web-worker. You, lovers who like to cook together but don’t want to put anything in the oven. You, in the witness protection program. You, nutritional wingnut. You, in a wheelchair.
Rice cookers really are ingenious, versatile little devices. They bring liquid to a boil, cook whatever’s inside, then shut themselves off. Add a microwave, crock pot, and toaster oven, and you can cook almost anything without cleaning a pan, reaching for an egg timer, or worrying about leaving something on too long ever again.
The Secrets of the Pot [Roger Ebert’s Journal/Chicago Sun-Times] and Roger Ebert: No Longer an Eater, Still a Cook [New York Times]
See Also:
- Sous Vide Supreme Countertop Immersion Circulator
- Wired 12.06: The Thermochemical Joy of Cooking
- Pixelated Grill for Close-Up Cooking
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- Touch-Sensitive Cooker Detect Pans, Changes Shape
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