The flap copy of Craft of Cooking by award winning chef and cookbook author (Think Like a Chef) Tom Colicchio boldly claims that “Craft of Cooking is destined to become a staple of home cooks everywhere—the one ‘restaurant cookbook’ they can’t live without.” Turns out that while this boast may be slightly overstated, Craft of Cooking is certainly a restaurant book that we highly recommend for its bold recipes, crisp design, lush photography, and for inviting readers to step into the world of a highly acclaimed, truly bustling, and world class restaurant.
The approach to dining at Colicchio’s restaurant, Craft, is to present each dish as a shining singular ingredient from which to build a meal, as opposed to chefs and menus dictating what goes with what, the diner does so themselves. This is more in keeping with how one prepares a special meal at home, making this book more approachable and logical than many “restaurant” books. With recipes that are more or less ingredient driven, and neatly organized by cooking technique (braised, roasted, sauteed, marinated…), the home cook can plan each meal using ingredients they best love and in the style of cooking they prefer.
Sure, some of the dishes are over the top, both in number of ingredients required and length of preparation, but there are just a few these and they are creations to aspire to and dream about, or perhaps just pull one small element from. Besides, Colicchio conveniently sets them apart visually in the book so we may quickly recognize these extravagant, signature dishes (Porchetta, Foie Gras Torchon, Lobster Braised in Beurre Fondue) and either be happy to dream about trying them at Craft, or boldly dive in and stretch our culinary muscles.
There are more than enough easy-to-prepare, shining examples of understated, flavorful, and innovative dishes in Craft of Cooking to make this one restaurant book you won’t want to live without.
BUY IT HERE at super discount »
Posted by Food Junkie on October 28, 2006Categories - Celebrity Chef, Restaurant
