A Hilarious Cookbook Review from Young @ Heart Book Group

18 August 2026

At the August get-together, the book that sparked this month’s most enthusiastic review was chosen as a TUTH challenge – ‘read a book that teaches you something new’. Enter…. Frying Solo by Denise Smart.

Our reader, an air-frying veteran of 8 weeks now, was captivated from beginning to end. Like an airline stewardess demonstrating the safety card she talked us through each one of the book’s wonderful features. Here’s what she thought:

“That pun on Frying/Flying Solo works beautifully, especially with the upward slant on the cover.  It’s like a plane taking you off somewhere wonderful, a holiday full of culinary adventure. The plane windows each have a dish in them giving you a glimpse of what’s to come. There’s also a picture of the thing itself (the air fryer) so you know exactly what you’re getting into, if you didn’t already and came here by mistake.

The cover uses these lovely crisp colours that are repeated through the book to guide you to the different sections. Look at that bright red standing out on the yellow background – thoroughly modern but also gives you a cosy retro feel with that shadow lettering. Do you remember doing that at school?

Then they really start selling it to you. All those words – Quick and Healthy. 65 Recipes. For One. Every Day of the Week. Splendid. That’s what we all want to hear.

Now let’s open the book and see something else clever. The cover has a fold out flap that doubles as a bookmark for your favourite recipes. Brillant. And they’ve done the same on the back!

Everything is colour coded like the cover too. Lunches, Evening Meals, Sweet Treats – each section is always the same colour, so you know exactly where you are. Even in the index so you never get lost.

Now, listen to this one – Soft-boiled Egg with Pancetta-Wrapped Asparagus (when is asparagus season?). According to this, you put the egg, shell and all, into the air fryer. No cracking it first or making a little hole in it. Nothing. Just…. the whole egg. Extraordinary.  I’m too nervous to try it myself, but don’t those pictures of each dish look so inviting!”

It wasn’t all plain flying though. She continued,

“I did try the Crispy Chilli Pork with Noodles when I wasn’t wearing my glasses and the pork strips turned out like leather. You could have tied a knot in it and used it as a belt. 

And the Vietnamese Sea Bass……. again, I wasn’t wearing my glasses and where it said, ‘done in 18 minutes’ I read ‘28’ and it was a disaster. Turned out like a floorboard. I couldn’t even get a knife in.” 

Dear reader, I don’t think the cookbook or the air fryer were the problem. Happy Travels, all.

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