Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks

From the Introduction to Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks, second edition I got into trouble in high school chemistry. I never memorized the hallowed periodic table. Lacking that foundation, just as the teacher predicted, I was good for nothing for the rest of the term I did, however, manage to enjoy myself (wasn’t that the point?) on the days the class moved into the chemistry lab—perhaps a bit of foreshadowing for my future career. It wasn’t until I got to cooking school that I began to grasp and appreciate some of the science I’d missed twelve years earlier. Indeed, many of the recipes in this book are based on principles, techniques, and secrets to success I learned at the California Culinary Academy. These days, as a cooking instructor, on-call chef, and enthusiastic home cook, I read everything I can get my hands on about food chemistry. As the saying goes, there’s no one more fervent than a convert. In fact, many years after graduating from cooking school, I married a chemical engineer, my own personal Mister Science, whose counsel I value tremendously in sleuthing out the hows and whys of chemistry as it applies to day-to-day coking. After all, when we talk about cooking, or applying heat to change the physical properties of food, we’re talking about chemistry. So, what does all this have to do with this book? For starters, I think it’s only fair that you know my frame of reference before we saunter into the kitchen together. The recipes and methods in this book are based on the foundation of classical French cooking that was drilled into me in cooking school. I wasn’t exactly a blank slate when I got there, however. Nor did I stop learning the day I graduated. The granddaughter of an Italian cheesemaker, my first apprenticeship was cooking at my grandmother’s side in the kitchen of my family’s five-room ranch house in Massachusetts. We made linguine aglio e olio and pizza fritt’, and pulled loaves of soft, dense “grandma bread” from the oven. These early influences shaped my palate as well as my patience. I grew up eating simple, robust Italian American food, and I just assumed everyone else did, too. In my house, it was a foregone conclusion that it takes time to cook. Few activities (outside of working hard—it was New England, after all) were more important than food. I’d be remiss not to acknowledge how living in Northern California has helped shape the cook I am today. Living in a state that’s often referred to as the nation’s salad bowl has taught me a healthy respect for ingredients and the seasonality of foods. While I do admit to some strong opinions about this, I assure you I’m not one of those food snobs who brags about using “only-all-fresh-ingredients-all-the-time.” Having been raised in New England, and being a practical cook with a southern Italian background, I know how dull my cooking would be if that were the case. If you don’t believe me that good things come in cans, too, let me prove it through a nice bowl of Rigatoni with Sausage and Mushroom Ragu (page 118), with an unctuous sauce made from terrific canned tomatoes. Or how about Grilled Leg of Lamb with Pomegranate Marinade (page 221), which owes its assertive personality to a bottle of antioxidant-rich concentrated pomegranate molasses. Flavorful ingredients—both fresh and prepared—will always be welcome in my kitchen. In this book, I’m on a mission to allay new cooks’ apprehensions and answer experienced cooks’ most vexing questions. It all starts with a substantial Cooking Basics section where you’ll learn about the most appropriate equipment for the job; which cooking methods to use with which foods and why; how to cut, chop, dice, julienne, and chiffonade; and more. There’s information on seasoning to taste and how to bring out the inherent flavors in certain foods, as well as pointers on creative cooking and menu planning. Throughout the book you’ll find numerous drawings that illustrate everything from how to butterfly a chicken breast and strip leaves from a sprig of fresh thyme to how to remove the skin from a fish fillet. You’ll also find twelve sample seasonal menus for casual and special-occasion dinners, a list of recipes arranged by season, and reliable internal-temperature doneness charts to ensure that your Rack of Lamb with Garlicky Bread Crumbs (page 224) will be cooked to perfection every time. One of my recipe testers calls Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks “the Talmud of cookbooks, the version with the commentary on the side.” The heart and should of this cookbook are its 100 recipes. Most of them are my personal favorites that have withstood the test of time. But each and every recipe has also been prepared by at least three home cooks who live in small towns and big cities across the U.S. They run the gamut from Shortcut Chicken Broth with a Dividend (page 61) to Devil’s Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache or Chocolate Fudge Frosting (page 298). Main dishes include both quick-fix weeknight recipes such as Cracker-Crusted Nubble Point Scallops (page 142) and special recipes to prepare when you have more time, such as Braised Short Ribs with Frizzled Leeks (page 237). Each recipe begins with “Secrets,” where I offer guidelines on potential stumbling blocks, which steps can be prepared in advance, and tips on specific ingredients. It’s as if you have your own personal kitchen buttinsky. I wrote Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks because my students asked for a reliable kitchen go-to guide with more than just recipes. I hope you’ll give this book a good workout and that, in the process, it will become your trusted kitchen companion. Please let me know what you think of it via my website www.cookingschoolsecrets.com. Here’s to lots of fun in the kitchen!