Artisanal Cooking

Terrance Brennan shares with home cooks his love for the craft of cooking, so successfully displayed in his two top NYC restaurants. He applies an artisan's approach to cooking, with attention to detail, a reverence for good ingredients, and simple presentations. Brennan presents his vision clearly, a vision that hits all the hot buttons in the food world today. He believes: Food should be straightforward. A dish should add up to more than the sum of its parts. A good cook is a flexible and spontaneous cook. A cook should respect three forces greater than oneself: tradition, technique, and nature, especially the seasons. There are 150 deliciously appealing and accessible recipes. Recipes range from English Cheddar with Smoked Bacon and Apple Sandwich to Artisanal Blend Fondue, and include his Chocolate Soup with Orange Curd Napoleon in chapters from Hors d'Oeuvres through Main Courses, the Cheese Course (his specialty), Brunch, and Desserts. He offers expert information in recurring features: Embellishment: Ways to build on the recipes Seasonal Variations: Example, with Wild Mushroom and Duck Risotto, adding fava beans in Spring, corn in Summer, pumpkin in the Fall, and squash in Winter. The Reason: Chef's lessons on the whys of cooking: blanching vegetables in ice water, covering phyllo dough with a damp cloth. 70 lush color photos and black and white how-to shots by Christopher Hirsheimer are featured throughout the book.