“Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure” is a rare offering from authors Cheryl and Bill Jamison — it’s not a cookbook. The four-time James Beard award winners, well known for their “The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining,” as well as many contributions to Bon Appetit and Cooking Light, needed a break from recipe development, so they decided to cash in their 440,000 frequent-flyer miles and take a three-month, 10-country trip. The result is “Around the World in 80 Dinners”($24.95, William Morrow), part travelogue, part foodie commentary, and also the Jamisons couldn’t resist throwing in a few recipes along the way. Their writing is casual and informative, and places, people and dishes are descriptively detailed, with a few lodging and restaurant suggestions offered too. The only odd thing is that, because they are both writing, the book is sometimes narrated by the Jamisons as the royal “we,” but then they quote each other, and so it sometimes has the disjointed quality of being written by multiple people and then seemingly by some other person with whom we’re not acquainted. Fans of their congenial style, however, simply will feel as though they’re along for the ride.
Kyle Wagner
