The Alcoholian

Posted by johngl

I admit it, I watch Iron Chef America and oddly enough, I have some pretty strong opinions about the chefs on the show. Cat Cora? She gets a rating somewhere between bleh and meh. Michael Symon? Same thing, but probably due to his personality more than his cooking skills.  Bobby Flay gets something between meh and ok.  He is less arrogant than he used to be and I learn stuff occasionally.

Note:  I suppose I should say that learning stuff is the biggest reason I watch the show. I haven’t learned a thing about cooking from Cat Cora or Michael Symon.  I’ve learned a few things from Bobby Flay.

Mario Batali. This guy knows his stuff.  Even Tony Bourdain likes him. Batali rates a solid.

Then there is Masaharu Morimoto. I will drop everything to watch this guy. His moves, his knife skills, the way he fries a fish by ladling boiling oil over it; this guy is serious.

So, as I was strolling though Barnes & Noble one day, I noticed Morimoto’s cookbook. I had to have it. When I got home, I started reading it immediately — not just thumbing through it looking at the awesome photography by Quentin Bacon — actually reading it.

After reading just the first few pages, I knew I had a winner.

The introduction provides a lot of background information on Morimoto and his rise to fame and fortune. I suppose it’s necessary to put this out there, but all that someone interested in cooking has to do is watch him. You will know then and there that he is a cut above the rest.

The closest I’ve ever been to this kind of talent is when I used to sit across the counter from Tyson Cole at his now-famous restaurant, Uchi.  Interestingly, Chef Cole chose to take on Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America. Guess who won?

Back to the cookbook.

Besides Morimoto’s 125 approachable recipes, the photography by Quentin Bacon makes this book visually stunning as well as informative.

I hardly do Mr. Bacon justice here with the snapshot of a Lamb Carpaccio from the book. I’m probably violating some copyright laws by putting that shot in the post, but sometimes one has to take a chance now and then.

Even here, I learned something. If you freeze the lamb for about an hour, it is much easier to slice it thinly. I’ll try this trick with some beef sometime.

Here is another shot from the book. This is a Chocolate Covered Sweetfish Liver.

Before everyone gets their undies in a bunch and start uttering the blech word, this is Morimoto’s take on a French dish of foie gras with a chocolate-infused sauce. It’s really not that unusual.  But just look at the presentation.  The French could take a lesson or two from this.

Earlier I said that these recipes are approachable. That is, all of us home cooks out there can probably do these — or some variation of them — in our own kitchens.

No really, not kidding.

Unlike other cookbooks, Morimoto takes the extra steps of putting in things like step-by-step instructions on how to slice sashimi and sushi, how to cure fish, how to open a clam, how to prepare octopus, etc, etc.

This book is a home cook’s treasure trove; I simply cannot say enough good things about it.

So, whether you watch Iron Chef America on FooNet or not (or is that FoNe — pronounced: phoney? — sadly, there aren’t that many good cooking shows left), if you are serious about cooking, you should buy this book!

The best things in life should be shared!

Tags: Reviews

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Cookbooks, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.