On Reading A Recipe - “Turn off the television, don’t answer the phone, just sit and read it through. Make a mental inventory of the sort of equipment you need, the cooking techniques required, the ingredients you have on hand. Note the stages of preparation, and get a sense of appropriate timings.”

This is the kind of sage advice you find in Lauren Braun Costello’s new book called Notes on Cooking - A Short Guide to an Essential Craft.  The quote above comes from her chapter on Understanding the Recipe and is exactly the advice I try to give my readers at The Reluctant Gourmet web site and the Reluctant Gourmet blog all the time. Lauren just says it a little more succinctly than I do.

This is not a book full of wordy chapters but instead there are 217 short “notes on cooking”, like above, each filled with culinary insight that can help you be a better home cook. Here’s another one I like in The Cook’s Role chapter:

“Work from your Strength. Don’t try to master everything. Become known for a few dishes, perhaps even the near perfection of one. Discover your obsession, then make yourself a slave to it: the mastery of a traditional dish, the combination of ingredients that have never before met, precision in presentation, devotion to a culinary heritage, the introduction of color where it never before existed..”

Isn’t that just great advice?

The other 215 “notes” are broken down in categories titled:

• Tools & Equipment
• Procurement & Storage
• Mise en Place
• Building Blocks
• Temperature
• Pantry
• Stocks & Sauces
• Produce
• Seafood
• Poultry
• Meat
• Bread & Pastry
• Dairy & Eggs
• Wine & Spirits
• Repairing Food
• Presentation

The author, Lauren Braun Costello, developed her skills under some of the world’s most renowned chefs and is now a private chef and food stylist for television shows including The Early Show, The View and CNN’s dLife.

Lauren is a graduate of from The French Culinary Institute where she received a Grand Diploma in Culinary Arts with distinction and was awarded a Les Dames d’Escoffier Scholarship. Boy do I hope Lauren reads this and wants to be interviewed for my Novice2Pro page.

Dorothy Hamilton, the founder and CEO of The French Culinary Institute in New York City, wrote the Afterword. It’s short, just like the “notes” Lauren presents us, but if you are a foodie like me, her words will hit home.

In the marketing material sent to me with Notes On Cooking, Chef Lauren says, “There is a bounty of exceptionally good recipes out there. But the best recipes alone do not teach much. They just outline a procedure. We wanted to fill the gap. We wanted each reader to turn to any page in our book, follow any one of the notes and become a better, wiser, more skilled cook.”

I like that.

The reviews for Notes On Cooking come from some pretty big names in the industry.

• Jacques Pepin says, “Concise, focused and sensible…full of useful advice.”
• Chef Daniel Boulud says “Indispensable advice, experience, and know-how. A superb addition to the library of any passionate cook.”
• One of my favorite cookbook authors, James Peterson says “An abundance of tips, ideas and caveats. the list of food adjectives is one I’ll refer to myself and the list of recommendations is indispensable. the food airings are the most insightful I’ve ever seen. Work well done.”

Not bad press from the heavy hitters of the culinary industry.  Me, I keep a copy on my bed stand so I can read a few “notes” each night before going to sleep so I have dreams about cooking.

Let me leave you with one more “note” from Notes On Cooking -

On Repairing Foods

Dull Food? - “Brighten with acid or salt. Enrich with fat. Restaurants use animal fat and salt to enhance flavor. Vinegar, lemon jice, finishing oils, butter, and sugar are also old standbys.”

Il Viaggio di Vetri: A Culinary Journey, by Marc Vetri

I have not been this excited about a new cookbook in quite awhile. I was at the bookstore and noticed Marc Vetri’s new cookbook, Il Viaggio di Vetri, A Culinary Journey. I know of Chef Vetri through the reputation of his two very successful and popular restaurants here in Philadelphia, Vetri and Osteria.

For the past two years, I have had the opportunity to attend charity events for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, organized by Chef Vetri and hosted at Osteria. I have written about the event in past blogs, and it is always an incredible evening.

Chef Vetri invites his chef friends from around the country to each prepare a dish for the attendees to sample. You get the opportunity to try the most amazing food and speak with the chefs who have created the dishes. This year, I even had the opportunity to meet Chase Utley, the shortstop for the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. Next year I hope to meet Chef Vetri, tell him how much his cookbook inspires me and see if he will do a Novice2Pro interview.

Chef Vetri has been named one of the top 10 new chefs in the United States by the editors of Food and Wine, and his first restaurant, Vetri, was selected as one of the top 50 restaurants in the country by Gourmet Magazine in 2006. Alan Richman wrote in a 2005 issue of Bon Appetit that Vetri is “probably the best Italian restaurant in America.”

Incredible Photography

What caught my eye was the size and cover of Il Viaggio. It has a photograph of Chef Vetri in his whites with a bunch of other chefs. Everyone is smiling as if someone is telling a funny story. When you open the book, before you read one word of copy, you can’t help but notice the incredible photography.

In the front of the book and spread throughout are photos of different chefs who have influenced Chef Vetri. You can see just from the pictures the bonds that were created while he was in Bergamo, Italy honing his craft. When it comes to the recipes, the photographs look so good you want to stick a fork in them. But, while beautiful enough for a coffee table book, Il Viaggio di Vetri is meant to be used.

Introduction

Most of the time when I pick up a cookbook, I immediately go to the recipes and look through them for something I might want to cook. When I picked up this cookbook, I immediately went to the introduction and read the first paragraph. When Chef Vetri writes about food perception and how it affects what we think about a meal, I was hooked. I started reading the Wine Notes by Jeff Benjamin and then the short biographies of the other chefs who influenced Marc.

I then checked out the recipes and realized these are the types of recipes I want to learn how to make. I love Italian cooking, and this book includes incredible recipes for appetizers, pastas, risotto, seafood, meats, poultry, game and desserts. Although many of the ingredients, including Chef Vetri’s use of organ meats, may be new to you, he typically offers alternatives for those hard-to-find items.

What really impressed me about these recipes is their simplicity and elegance. Simple ingredients combined in spectacular ways through cooking methods that Chef Vetri takes the time to teach is a hallmark of Il Viaggio di Vetri. Each recipe offers detailed, step-by-step instructions learned during the chef’s training in Italy.

I said to my wife when I was showing her this cookbook, "I would like to work my way through this book and make every recipe from cover to cover." I imagine if I did, my cooking skills would vastly improve.

My First Attempt

When I got the book home, I made an adapted version of his pork rib and cabbage stew recipe. It was one of the best meals I’ve ever prepared, and I will post it later this week. It was one of those comfort foods that are perfect on a cold weekend night with a glass of red wine. I could see serving this dish at a dinner party for a group of friends.

I can’t wait to try his Pecorino Crusted Lamb with Peas and Mint or Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Heirloom Tomato Salad or Grilled Chicken with Crispy Potatoes and Braised Escarole.

Each recipe offers a little story or history about the recipe, and suggestions for improvisation and wine pairings. Because many of the ingredients may be a little difficult to find, the “improv” is very helpful. If you can’t find squab, try guinea hens or even chicken.

This is a cookbook that you can really learn from. Whether you follow the recipe exactly as it is written or adapt it to the ingredients available to you, by following Chef Vetri’s techniques, you can learn a lot about how to cook. I highly recommend you check out Il Viaggio di Vetri as soon as possible. It will make a great gift this holiday season for any of your favorite cooking fans.

For more of my favorite cookbooks.

I wanted to share with you a brilliant cookbook from professional chef and recovering alcoholic Chef Liz Scott. People in recovery often ask how to make some of the recipes on my web site without wine or other spirits and I direct them to my page on alcohol substitutions but now I’m happy to refer them to this incredible cookbook, The Sober Kitchen.

Not only is this a great book filled with recipes and advice for “a Lifetime of Sobriety”, Chef Scott’s cookbook is filled with tips and chef secrets that all of us would be delighted reading whether we are in recovery or not. Glancing through the book, I couldn’t help but stop and read some of her explanations like “Demystifying Deglazing” or “A Collection of Crispy Coatings” for frying fish.
It is exactly the type of cookbooks I enjoy reading…plenty of excellent recipes and lots of cooking tips to help understand the cooking techniques involved.

For Those In Recovery

This is the first major cookbook I’ve seen that really looks at the link between food and recovery. Chef Scott, a graduate of The French Culinary Institute, offers up plenty of helpful advise from her own experiences and provides important information on nutrition, hydration and vitamins needed during recovery. It may sound like it’s not going to be much fun but Chef Scott has written this cookbook in a format that is easy to read with over 300 simple recipes to try.

The recipes and suggestions offered in The Sober Kitchen will help with “repairing your body from the damage of addiction by developing healthy eating and drinking habits” and “help you to cope with common cravings that require attention.”

Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More writes, “The recipes in this book are easy to prepare, tasty, filling, inexpensive, and especially good for my liver. The Sober Kitchen is a welcome addition to anyone’s library and kitchen – especially those of us recovering from chemical dependency and hepatitis C. “

Recipes and Interview with Chef Scott

I am hoping to interview Chef Scott in the near future for Novice2Pro and will be posting a few of her recipes and tips on this Blog. This is a great book for anyone in recovery but I would be happy to recommend to everyone who enjoys cooking.

Here’s an example of one of Chef Scott’s “Chef’s Notes” you will find for making clarified butter.

Making Clarified Butter

“Make clarified butter by slowly melting unsalted butter, allowing the milk solids to sink to the bottom. Skim off the top foam and carefully pour or ladle out the golden liquid. Without its milk solids, butter can safely reach a higher smoke point without burning, which makes it ideal for frying. You can keep clarified butter (also called ghee), tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to one month.”

This is the kind of information I love reading in cookbooks.

So if you are in recovery or know someone who is and are interested in cooking, I highly recommend Chef Liz Scott’s, The Sober Kitchen.