Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen: A Cookbook

by Tom Colicchio

Overview

Tom Colicchio, chef/co-owner of New York’s acclaimed Gramercy Tavern, offers inspriation to cooks of any skill level with 140 simple recipes and technical tips.

Realizing that his own culinary style had grown increasingly unembellished, and gambling that New York diners were experiencing that same kind of culinary fatigue (brought on by too much “fancy food”), Colicchio set out to prove that the finest food didn’t have to be the most complicated. So in March 2001 he opened a new restaurant, Craft, that offered diners simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients that went on to shake up many people’s ideas of what “restaurant food” should be like.

Craft of Cooking leads you through Colicchio’s thought process in choosing raw materials—like what to look for in fresh fish, or how to choose the perfect mushroom—to show that good food is available to anyone with access to a good supermarket, farm stand, or gourmet grocery. The book also features “Day-in-the-Life-of-Craft” portraits, which offer a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse at areas of the restaurant beyond the dining room. These segments allow you to peer into the fast-paced prep kitchen, to witness the high drama of reservations, and to get a taste of the humor and empathy necessary to serve New York’s colorful visitors and foodies.

Using Tom’s straightforward and friendly voice, Craft of Cooking offers recipes suited to any purpose—from a quick family meal to a festive dinner party for twelve.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780609610503
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	10/28/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	491,219
Product dimensions:	7.73(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

TOM COLICCHIO was named Best New Chef by Food & Wine before opening the acclaimed Gramercy Tavern in 1994. He received the 2000 James Beard Award for Best Chef in New York City and for Best General Cookbook in 2001 for his first book, Think Like a Chef. His groundbreaking restaurant, Craft, was awarded three stars by the New York Times and named the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Restaurant in America in 2002. The Craft restaurant family has grown to include Craftbar, Craftsteak, and ’wichcraft sandwich shops in New York City, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Colicchio is also the head judge of the hit Bravo reality show Top Chef and an avid lover of sandwiches. He lives in New York City.

Read an Excerpt

PORCINI RISOTTO

Although I can get dogmatic at Craft about using fresh ingredients, in this recipe we use dried porcini. After reconstituting, you're left with a wonderful mushroom-flavored stock, which is then used in cooking the risotto; this adds just one more layer of flavor to the finished dish.

Serves 6

9 cups chicken stock
1 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese to taste

Bring 1 cup of the chicken stock to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms. Remove from the heat and set the mushrooms aside until they soften. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the stock. Strain the reserved stock through a fine strainer, then finely chop the mushrooms. Add the chopped mushrooms to the mushroom-flavored stock.

Bring the remaining 8 cups of chicken stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Allow the stock to reduce by about 1 cup, then keep warm over low heat.

Combine the oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large, high-sided skillet. Heat over medium heat until the butter foams. Add the onion and cook until it is translucent, about 15 minutes. Stir in the rice, thoroughly coating it with the onion, butter, and oil. Cook the rice until it is no longer chalky looking and begins to pop, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and simmer, stirring constantly until it has evaporated.

Add 1 cup of the warm chicken stock. Simmer, stirring, until the rice is almost dry. Repeat twice more. Stir the mushroom-flavored stock into the rice. Cook, stirring, until the rice is dry again.

Finish cooking the rice by stirring in enough additional warm chicken stock, a cup at a time, so the rice is just barely tender. Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and add cheese to taste.

Editorial Reviews

"I haven't tried to simplify these recipes for the sake of the home cook," writes Colicchio (Think Like a Chef). "Simple food doesn't mean simplistic. It requires a healthy dose of skill and hard work." And with that caveat, he offers up 125 uneven dishes. While there are plenty of recipes that are simple to prepare, most of the book's recipes require time, patience and, occasionally, deep pockets: Duck Ham must hang in the refrigerator for three weeks; Braised Monkfish calls for 17 ingredients, three of which are sub-recipes; and foie gras and black truffles make several appearances. Colicchio is unapologetic in including "behemoth" recipes-restaurant dishes that he admits may be out reach of most home cooks. Uncompromisingly fresh flavors are his touchstone, and squeamish cooks may find it disquieting to discover that many ingredient animals such as soft shell crabs and lobster meet their end at the cook's hand. Colicchio has subdivided the chapters into sections according to technique-roasting, saut ing, braising, pur eing, marinating. Each chapter includes ingredient portraits, as well as essays, that give a sneak peek behind Craft's doors. (While the photos throughout are nicely placed, the extreme close-up of carrots and celery on the cover is a kind of culinary Rorschach test.) The essays, though, are a jarring interlude because the book, which is written from Colicchio's point of view, suddenly does an about face by quoting the chef, and the disembodied narrator is never revealed. But will all this dampen sales? Certainly not. The Colicchio name is enough to sell this book, and the clear, simply written recipes will quell even the worst case of kitchen anxiety. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The food of New York City's upscale Gramercy Tavern, where Colicchio is chef/ co-owner, was featured in his unusual first cookbook, Think Like a Chef, which provided a glimpse into how a creative chef develops his recipes. Since then, Colicchio has opened several of his own restaurants, including Craft, where he serves what he describes as "simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients," served family-style. With the sauces, condiments, and other such accompaniments listed separately, the choice of putting together a dish left to a certain extent up to the diner, the menu there at first stymied some, including restaurant critics, but Craft has since become one of the most popular restaurants in the city. Here Colicchio offers his favorites of its "ingredients-driven dishes": Pan-Roasted Chicken with Chicken Jus, Pan-Roasted Asparagus, Porcini in Parchment. As in the first book, there are thoughtful explanations of technique and why the recipes work; for the more adventurous cook, there is also a selection of more elaborate or labor-intensive dishes. Mini-essays on "Family Meal," "Lunch Service," etc., provide a behind-the-scenes look at the Craft kitchen. For most collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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