This
book will enable even the novice to cook expertly on his or her
own, enjoy the heck out of it, and beat the pants off most restaurants
- all things that too many people think takes an expert or a schooled
chef to do.
We
will show how understanding and creating dishes based upon simple
recipes from one culture will allow you to evolve easily and naturally
into recipes from another culture; building upon the former to
create the latter.
Learn
to make a perfect spaghetti with simple tomato sauce and evolve
it simply into a French dish, Chicken Nicoise or a Moroccan Tagine
with Fish Filets or a Thai dish: Noodles with shrimps.
When
you've accomplished the foregoing you will have made four entirely
different (but basically similar) ethnic dishes better than lost
Italian, French, Moroccan and Thai restaurants.
Look,
there are a lot of good restaurants
out there and some really great ones in most cities (I'm not here
to put down restaurant cooking - I love to go to restaurants!)
but let's start with a simple premise: most restaurants are really
not very good. We may continue to patronize them but probably
for the social aspects and the convenience of not having to cook
ourselves.
Even
here, in the south of France, one is hard pressed to get a good
meal at a decent price. Just recently I ate at a lauded (and expensive)
one-star restaurant. At the end of the meal all four of us agreed
that the food was second rate and not worth the outrageous price.
There was no question that we could have prepared a much better
meal at a fraction of the price.
The
imperious chef arrived at the end of the meal - properly stiff-toqued
and white-aproned. He token-bowed, false-smiled and asked us if
we had enjoyed our meal and we all gushed about how excellent
it was. As he moved off to accept his verbal applause at the next
table we all realized how hypocritical we had just been. No one
wanted to tell him the truth: that the fish was dry, the sauce
cold, the vegetables overcooked, the fois gras - blah. I'm sure
you've been there.
The
fact is that we're probably are all intimidated by uniforms! He
wears all that stuff - he must know what he's doing. Right? Wrong!
Let
me give you a simple down to earth example:
Would
you agree with this?: Too many Italian restaurants serve lousy
pasta. You've said that yourself, haven't you?
"How
come this place is Italian and they can't even put a decent bowl
of spaghetti with tomato sauce on the table?" What's going
on here?
There is no question that: with a little effort and attention
you can cook better than most restaurants. Pay attention here
- we're not saying that you will magically cook better than all
restaurants - just 95% of them (okay, I'm exaggerating - let's
say 85%). Not bad for a start.
This
book is about the why's and how-to's - presented in a simple,
straightforward way that you can both follow and rely upon to
work!
No,
you'll probably never be able to slice and dice an onion as impressively
as a professional chef - or toss around that flaming pan (in which
the oil is probably becoming toxic from the heat!) but that's
not the point.
The
point is the end result...and understanding the process that gets
you there!
You'll
know that you've achieved success when your friends say: "Instead
of going out, why don't you cook?"
If
you already cook better than most restaurants I hope you'll find
some new ideas and techniques to add to your repertoire.
