Cooking with Curtis: Easy, Everyday and Adventurous Recipes for the Home Cook - Softcover

Stone, Curtis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552858170 ISBN 13: 9781552858172

Publisher: Whitecap Books, 2006

Synopsis

Three steps to astonishing meals.

Divided by season, Cooking with Curtis features such traditional ingredients as lamb, chocolate and rhubarb along with scallops, vanilla and even truffles. Professional chef Curtis Stone points out that his dishes are often chosen from a restaurant menu, but are rarely prepared at home. He selects 24 ingredients, then offers three different recipes for each: one for beginner cooks, one for the experienced and the last for the adventurous. This three-step approach ingeniously builds confidence in even the most timid cook. After all, cooking basics can be mastered by anyone -- and this book promises that a complex dish can successfully be prepared by following Chef Stone's expert directions.

Recipes include:
Tagliatelle of white truffles from Alba
King prawns with caramelized endive
Roasted sea scallop wrapped in pancetta with tomato and gremolata
Zuppa ribolita (lentil soup with vegetables)
Classic apple tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.

Cooking with Curtis serves up a remarkable repertoire of delightful dishes for cooks of all levels of expertise.

About this title

About the Author:

Curtis Stone was head chef at London's Quo Vadis for four years, where he received critical acclaim. He has also worked at Cafe Royal and Mirabelle. Filming has begun of Curtis Stone's 60-episode TV series, The Take Home Chef, for airing this fall on the Discovery Channel. He divides his time between London, England, and Sydney, Australia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction
I have written this book to try and pass on a little bit of knowledge about ingredients that I feel typify what each season has to offer. It's so important to eat food that's as locally grown as possible and in season. Do you remember when your mother used to say "strawberries don't taste like they used to." It comes as no surprise that the strawberries she missed were locally grown, in season and ripe. However, these days it's hard to keep track of what's in season and what's not. I think this is particularly so when you live in a big city and are dependant on supermarkets that for some reason think that it's necessary to stock every type of fruit and veg all year round. This means that we have to transport food long distances, in some cases around the world, which in turn results in over-priced produce that is not as fresh as it should be.
So in this book are 24 of my favorite ingredients split into their seasons, with 3 recipes for each ingredient. And because I completely understand that people are sometimes pushed for time I have split the recipes up into 3 categories to make it easier. The color key shown below appears at the top of each recipe and will tell you whether it is "easy," "everyday" or "adventurous."

Easy - represents recipes with only 5-6 ingredients and should take no more than 20 minutes to prepare and cook.
Everyday - these recipes should be achievable on an everyday basis, include about 6-8 ingredients and take less than 1 hour.
Adventurous - the type of recipe that you cook to impress someone. It may take an hour or more and even call for some exotic ingredients

For some reason, nowadays we are not listening to our instincts and I have no idea why. I think that MOther Nature did a pretty good job when she worked out which ingredients belong to which seasons and I'm hoping that by the time you get to the end of this book, you'll agree!
Ever since I was young I have always been fascinated with food. Whether it was making marmalade with my Nan and Granddad or fudge with my Granny, I look back now and think it was a little odd for a 5-year-old to be so obsessed with food. That obsession continued throughout my teenage years until I began to cook as an apprentice chef at the Savoy hotel in Melbourne. during my time there I was lucky enough tot work with a few European and British chefs who pointed out that you were no-one in the cooking world until you had made your way in Europe. So, as someone who loves a challenge, I packed my bags. After seeing a little of what Italy, France and Spain had to offer I arrived in London. When I first arrived I needed money pretty quickly as I had overspent on my travels, so day one in London was spent job hunting.
The first cookbook that I was ever given was called White Heat, written by Marco Pierre White, the infamous chef who was the youngest man in the world to be awarded 3 Michelin stars. His restaurant was the first door I knocked on that day and to my disbelief I began working that afternoon as his restaurant, The Grill Room, Cafe Royal. The first few months were trying to say the least. We worked from 9 am until midnight, with the occasional break in the afternoon, from Monday to Friday. On Saturdays I worked midday to midnight which meant I only had Sunday off. To top it off I didn't get paid for over a month and as a result had to sneak on the tube to get to work while sleeping on the floor of a mate's pub. This went on for around 9 months until Marco opened a new restaurant called the Mirabelle. I was sent there and after a couple of months we were awarded a Michelin star and I was made Sous Chef. I stayed at the Mirabelle for a further year before Marco decided to move me to Quo Vadis, on of his flagships in Soho, London. It was here that I was made Head Chef for the first time. In only a few years my life had kind of flashed past my eyes.
It was while I was at Quo Vadis that I was first approached by a publisher who phoned to say they were publishing a book about London's finest chefs. To my amazement they wanted to include me in it. I nearly fell over because to be included in the company of people I had always admired was not only a little surreal, but also incredibly humbling. When the book was published I had been at Quo Vadis for around 4 years. After the release of the book came a umber of opportunities within the media. To me, it was quite funny being asked to appear on television, but then it's like anything - the more you do the more comfortable you feel. I was then lucky enough to be asked to co-host a show called "Surfing The Menu" with my mate, Ben O'Donohue. In the show we got the opportunity to travel around Australia and meet loads of passionate food producers and cook with their produce. This was the first time in my adult life that I was not attached to a restaurant and cooking everyday for paying customers. It was a dream come true, being paid to travel and cook my way around a country that I love.
While this is a lot of fun, it has also enabled me to get in touch with the product at tis rawest form. To me the most important thing about cooking is not years of skill or practice, but understanding what you are cooking. I think you only need a little bit of knowledge about an ingredient and then you will understand how to handle it. I also firmly believe that if you use the right ingredient at the right time of year it's hard to go wrong. So get stuck in and get cooking!
C

About this edition

• Publisher: Whitecap Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1552858170
• ISBN 13: 9781552858172
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160