SPOTLIGHT on SUCCESS
Special Day Cooking: A Life Skills Cookbook by Beverly Worth Palomba
Special Day Publishing, San Francisco, 1st Edition (October 2013)
Review by: Catherine DeCenzo
F
ood, clothing and
shelter—all are necessities for living independently. Sounds pretty basic, right? But when it comes
to the food part—cooking a
meal or preparing a snack—
those with special needs can
be confronted with a dizzying array of challenges once
they step foot in a kitchen.
But if provided with simple,
concise and easy-to-read
instructions, learning to
handle and prepare food
can be a culinary coup that
provides individuals with
essential life skills and selfconfidence.
After developing a culinary
arts class for her students,
Palomba, a special education teacher, found that there
was a lack of cookbooks easy
enough for her students to
read and follow. She filled
the void by creating this book
with easy-to-follow instructions and tips to help parents
guide their children through
the minefield known as the
kitchen. She provides tips on
safety, such as using a plastic
knife, rubber backed cutting
boards that don’t slip, etc. She
provides consistent, step-bystep prompts for the reader to
first gather ingredients, second
gather equipment, and then
cook. And on every page is a reminder to put ingredients away,
wash and dry all dishes, and
wipe the cooking area.
The pages are clean with a lot of
white space and are color-coded
to easily locate breakfast, lunch,
and dinner recipes, with drinks
(Cool Orange Julius, anyone?)
snacks, soups, salads, and des-
60 Zoom Autism Through Many Lenses
serts (she had me at Cinnamon
Raisin Bread Pudding!) bringing up the rear. Large typefaces
and bolded first words in the
instructions (Open, Pour, Measure, etc.) allow the content to
flow and the reader to follow
along with ease.
This delightful cookbook can
be used all year round and
includes holiday recipes such as