A lot of chefs in restaurants, when they create their tasting menus, don't seem to consider that. They're trying to impress with too many rich items.
A lot of people love the idea of improvising but are terrified of it, so I tried to make a book that was not a chef's book about improvising but a real home cook's book with a real home cook's pantry, supermarket ingredients, that sort of thing.
A lot of people who want to cook with less fat are surprised by that. You can cook vegetables in a little water in a covered pan and then throw the fat into the residual liquid to coat them.
Although I love to throw thyme into cooking plumbs and berries, it would only be a whisper because I don't want to overtly replay a flavor.
But all that being said about modulation, if you're serving people delicious food, they won't complain.
Caramelized onions or garlic, these are things you can repeat infinitely if you're not featuring them.
Confit is the ultimate comfort food, and trendy or not, it is dazzling stuff.
Everybody thinks it's just setting things up, but it's cooking and it's also finding the foods that best express that dish.
Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.
I also think it's very important to consider how the food will feel to the person eating it.
I had all kinds of food issues, including health concerns and weight concerns.
I love to cook wherever I am, and I've found that if you open your mind a little, you can get away with almost no equipment.
I realized I didn't want to be a photographer. I gave it up, but I still worked that job in the restaurant and I found myself constantly hanging out in the kitchen.
I was aiming for the cooks that I've talked to by teaching an online course and by traveling, listening to people who are really busy and harried but want to be cooking.
I was doing the food for photography. I had an eye for it. But I was always writing, and the writing took over.
I was working in restaurants as a captain and as a waiter.
I'm a serious eater and a seriously hungry person, so I set out on that path to figure it out for myself, and of course it really resonated with other people.
I've been to Spain many times, and I'm always knocked out by the markets and the restaurants I've stumbled upon.
It was as though I found the language I'd wanted from photography; the expression that I got partly from photography, I got completely from cooking.
Often for hors d'oeuvres, I serve room temperature vegetables, something like that, so that the main course might be quite rich but the first course has balanced it out.
One of my greatest joys is when someone like your wife takes one idea or one piece of a recipe and does it her way. That's what I'm encouraging.
Salt is a preservative. It really holds flavor. For example, if you chop up some fresh herbs, or even just garlic, the salt will extract the moisture and preserve the flavor.
So I was making a lot of money, and I was also doing my photography and studying.
So many people think they need to have serious equipment. In the magazines and the media, they see all this stylish stuff, especially on TV, and they think, That's what I need to make it work. You don't. I'm attempting a little bit of liberation here.
That being said, I often write into recipes techniques I learned in the restaurant kitchen. There are ways of organizing your prep and so on that are immensely useful. Those are woven into all the recipes I do.
The modulation between something rich and something refreshing is really effective.
The problem with chefs and culinary schools is that they're geared toward professional kitchens, which are totally different.
The restaurant chefs in Spain are breaking ground, but in terms of the everyday cooking in Spain I still hear people coming back and saying they were disappointed. I think it's because they're expecting the chef stuff.
There are a lot of very simple recipes in the book, and there's a huge amount of material to help people understand how things work.
There are a wealth of flavorings you can put in a salt, and if you're in a hurry that's your seasoning. That's all you have to do.
There are so many things that come into writing a recipe, and it's really important if you're writing for home cooks to be cooking like you are at home.
This book is pointing the way into it for people that see it as daunting or a mystery. Some people just do it, but others need help with the mindset, permission almost to listen to themselves. Understanding how things work is the key.
To write a book about improvisation is partly a contradiction in terms. Improvisation is spontaneous. It's in the moment.
Using lots of fresh foods, fruits and vegetables, helps to keep the menu buoyant - I don't know if that's the right word, but it keeps a balance of freshness and health.
When I was a stylist, when we would photograph restaurants I was often hired to clean up the chef's stuff if they hadn't already done it.
Years down the line, I became a food stylist.
You can buy some amazing salts now, and they're completely easy to make. In fact you can smoke salt, yourself; there's a very easy way to do it.
You don't have to stick with these recipes. They're guides. As I say, they're a way in. Have fun with them. It's an easier way to cook in a busy life, once you get the hang of it.
You know, this is really a way of cooking. It's not my way. I'm deeply influenced by the Mediterranean way of being. I've spent a lot of time there. And I've sort of translated it; I've tried to make it available to people in this country to whom it might not be familiar.
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