Just the name of Jonathan Reynolds’ Wrestling With Gravy: A Life, With Food (Random House, New York City; paperback, 335 pages; $16) should stop readers dead in their tracks. Gravy gained many fans when it came out in hardcover in 2005, and now the pocketbook-size edition of Reynolds’ adventures as a New York Times food columnist makes a nice stocking-stuffer for the culinary book-lover.
Many of the recipes that punctuate this
tome offer classical, and sometimes not-so-classical takes on familiar
dishes. Reynolds goes on and on, for instance, about the onion salad
created by Vincent Scotto, the Gonzo restaurant’s executive chef; he
compares it to “a modernist sculpture frequently worthy of the Museum
of Modern Art’s backyard.” In 2002 Scotto, who passed away in 2007 at
age 39, tipped off Reynolds on what to do if the sweet Vidalia onion is
not available: “I figured out that you get the same sweetness with a
yellow onion if you cook it long—40 minutes, don’t be impatient—over
low heat. And leave the skins on until they’re done, so as not to lose
extra layers.”
In addition to his Times column, Reynolds is also a playwright, actor, screenwriter (My Stepmother Is An Alien and the Razzie Award-winning Leonard Part 6)
and television producer, so it’s no surprise that he manages a bit of
name-dropping on movie stars, playwrights and authors. For his second
wedding reception in 2004 he dished with caterers who “hosted things
like J.Lo’s next three weddings and Madonna’s Kabbalah ordination. All
came up with menus that featured what I consider the teeny-tiny
fussies: little phylos with baby somethings, squirts of goat cheese,
pancakes folded nine ways and drizzled with trendiness, taquitoettes
stuffed with an emince of cedar-planked shrimp loin embedded in
a Meyer-lemon remoulade—the sort of preciosity that makes me want to
run around the corner for a good pulled pork.”
Instead, his reception featured sea
urchin cerviche infused with lemongrass, chiles and lime—although the
urchin was served with corn dogs, and Osetra caviar was paired to
mini-cheeseburgers. That’s the essence of Wrestling With Gravy,
a crafty culinary caper that comes with a surprise at every page turn.
Reynolds even offers a recipe on “The Perfect Shave,” although you may
want to pass on his Midnight Cracklin’ Oat Bran treatise. It’s
certainly easy to prepare, however: Just wait until 11:55 p.m., then
pour 2 cups of the cereal into a bowl and drown with a cup of heavy
cream, then turn on the TV. Yields 1 serving.
Serious cooks, working from both
restaurants or homes, treat their knives like the crown jewels, and
will not let anyone else use their culinary weapons. Losers of the TV
competition program Top Chef are told to “pack up your knives and go.” Knives Cooks Love
(Andrews McMeell Publishing, Kansas City, Mo.; hardcover, 180 pages;
$25), writer Sarah Jay’s collaboration with the cookware company Sur La
Table, is one of a handful of books devoted to the subject, and already
destined to be a classic.
Recipes in all cookbooks instruct
slicing, chopping, or mincing but give no information on what knives do
the best job. Jay addresses the stainless steel model, but feels that
the truly great carbon steel knife is tops. It can be honed to a fine
edge, although care must be taken to dry well after using to avoid
rusting.
Also discussed are ceramic knives, with
the apparent advantage being one of ultimate sharpness (ceramic is 50
percent harder than steel) and will stay that way for 10 times longer
than steel. The downside to ceramic is its brittleness: If it’s
dropped, a piece of the tip of edge can chip off. It’s great for
cutting vegetables, especially tomatoes, but is useless when attempting
to slice a chicken or winter squash.
The book even takes readers on a global
tour of knife-making capitals. Germany is home to the brands of Wusthod
and Zwiling and JA Henckels. Sabatier knives are popular French
imports. Out-of-the-way knife shops in Italy produce hand-crafted
beauties made by artisans. England’s Sheffield knife is still around,
while in the United States firms such as Dexter Russel and LamsonSharp
follow the German style. Like the early German knife, the Japanese
cooking knife evolved from swords for fighting in wars. Today, the
Japanese knife is thinner, lighter and much sharper than its western
counterparts, and must be used with care.
Knives Cooks Love maps out the best knife for every job, and also gives instructions on keeping the blades sharp, as well as the best method for
slicing and chopping, complete with full-color photographs. Finally,
test your knife prowess on the 20 knife-essential recipes in the back
of the book, like spicy steamed mussels with fennel and tomatoes, or
the proper way to carve a chicken or turkey, or how to fillet and skin
a fish.
James Beard: Purveyor of American eats brings his expertise to a 60th-anniversary cookbook.
The 60th anniversary collector’s edition of James Beard’s The Fireside Cookbook: A Complete Guide to Fine Cooking for Beginner and Expert
(Simon & Schuster, New York City; hardcover, 322 pages; $30) is
destined to find a prominent place in any modern-day cook’s library,
especially for the young and inexperienced. The original 1949 book by
Beard (1903-1985), which predated 1967’s The Joy of Cooking, brought him to national acclaim as his first comprehensive masterwork.
As one of the pioneers of promoting
American cuisine to the masses, Beard’s original 1,217 recipes offer a
potpourri of old-school specialties, with variations on meats, poultry,
vegetables, soups, breads and much more. The glossary of culinary
terms, replete with definitions on such cooking flourishes as bake,
barbecue and baste, add to the vintage appeal. And the more than 400
cutesy illustrations by the husband-and-wife artistic tandem of Martin
and Alice Provensen may offer some chuckles to lighten up the mood when
the hoped-for souffle falls or the roast is overdone.
And finally, today’s concerns about obesity and fitness have prompted Tosca Reno to write a follow-up to The Eat-Clean Diet, aimed at the adult population. The Eat-Clean Diet for Family & Kids,
(Robert Kennedy Publishing, Mississagua, Ontario, Canada; paperback,
307 pages; $19.95) offers simple strategies for lasting health and
fitness and features more than 60 quick and easy kid-friendly recipes.
Oldies But Goodies
Delving into the 21st century’s
food-related publications, there are a host of cooking memoirs that
have hit the best-seller lists. Bill Buford’s 2006 Heat (An Amateur’s Adventures As Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany)
(Alfred A. Knopf, New York City; hardcover, 318 pages; $25.95) is a
hilarious, many-years-long journey into what it takes to be a chef. A
staff writer for The New Yorker, Buford’s dream of being a bona
fide chef began with a grunt job at Mario Batali’s three-star Big Apple
restaurant Babbo. The apprentice was initially relegated to whacking
away at whole ducks and separating the pieces into prescribed pans,
then slowly rose through the ranks. Following in guru Batali’s
footsteps, he spent nearly four years learning the basics from dedicated journeymen
who toiled in out-of-the way villages in Italy. He garnered a stint
with Dario Ceccini, reputed to be the best butcher in all of Italy, and
soon Buford was dissecting animals to the strains of Mozart’s “Requiem”
and recitations of Dante’s Inferno by Ceccini. Buford’s story
is told with grace and wit, augmented with detailed explanations of the
daunting task of earning the title of “chef.”
The 2004 book Cooking With My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes, from Bari to Big Stone Gap
(Random House, New York City; hardcover, 167 pages; $24.95) is a
sisterly collaboration between business consultant Mary Yolanda
Trigiani and playwright and documentarian Adriana Trigiani. Their book
laces generations of memories with recipes that helped to mold the
Italian clan’s identity. Adriana Trigiani recalled, “We learned that
eating what was prepared for us was a sign of respect for the person
who cooked it, and the breadwinner who made it possible. To waste food
was to waste goodwill.”
Following is a cherished recipe from Mary Falcone, their “grandpop’s” cousin also known as ZiZi Mary:
ZiZi Mary’s Chicken and Rice Soup
1 plump, 4- to 5-pound chicken, cut into pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 quarts cold water
4 cups cooked rice
½ cup chopped Italian parsley.
Place the chicken, salt and pepper in a large pot
containing the water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer
for about 2 hours. The broth is done when the meat is falling off the
bone. Remove the meat and bones, reserving the meat for another dish.
If you are serving this as a lunch entree, you can leave some meat in
the broth. Add the rice and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes on very low
heat. Add the parsley just before serving.
Anthony Bourdain is executive chef at
Les Halles, the very upscale French restaurant in Manhattan, and he’s
probably better known for his culinary program on the Travel Channel.
But he really came into prominence with his 2000 side-splitter, Kitchen Confidential, Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
(Bloomsbury, New York City; paperback, 307 pages; $14.95), which takes
the reader into the hitherto unknown reaches of restaurant kitchens.
The book has since found its way into the professional and amateur
cook’s libraries.
Bourdain talks about kitchen staffs at
upscale restaurants, especially in Manhattan, a veritable South and
Central American enclave, and even throws in a few bon mots about his
own culinary history. His writing style, which is breezy and droll,
also accentuates the hidden secrets that only restaurateurs know—and
now readers do, too. He cautions to never order fish on Monday, because
most seafood is about four to five days old by then. (Two words that
should leap out when you navigate the menu: “Monday” and “special.”)
And Sunday brunch menus are an open invitation to the cost-conscious
chef, a dumping ground for the leftovers from Friday and Saturday
nights. The ubiquitous hollandaise sauce, for instance, that masks an
eggs Benedict is also a favorite environment for bacteria reproduction
because it must be held at a temperature not too hot nor too cold. If
the temperature wavers, you’re in trouble. And how long has that
Canadian bacon been festering in the walk-in freezer? Brunch translates
into “old, nasty odds and ends, and $12 for two eggs with a free Bloody
Mary,” and it’s also a punishment block for the “B” team cooks, or
where the farm team of recent dishwashers learn their chops. Consider
that before ordering the seafood frittata.
—Lorraine Smorol
