Cookbooks and Math

I read cookbooks for fun. Who are we kidding? I read cereal boxes and toothpaste packages for fun. But anyway, I found this review of a cookbook on why you don't need cookbooks also a fun read, although I won't be giving up my cookbook collection.

The book is Ratio, and the author is Michael Ruhlman. The reviewer calls it both fascinating, and pompus. Ruhlman says we not only don't need cookbooks, they can hinder us from freedom in the kitchen:

"In fact, they may hurt you as a cook by keeping you chained to recipes." Ruhlman calls Ratio an "anti recipe book, a book that teaches you and frees you from the need to follow." He argues that once you've memorized certain "bedrock" culinary ratios, you can cook virtually anything without resorting to a cookbook.

The reviewer found it fun to use the information in the book for some incredible variations in a shortbread cookie and several other things, but she's not sure she wants to give up her other cookbooks. It sounds like Ratio would be a fun one to add to the stash, though.