Lambert Louis - Big ranch, big city cookbook: recipes from Lamberts Texas kitchens

Copyright 2011 by Louis Lambert and June Naylor
Photography copyright 2011 by Ralph Lauer
Foreword copyright 2011 by Robb Walsh

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lambert, Louis, 1958
Big ranch, big city cookbook: recipes from Lamberts Texas kitchens
/ Louis Lambert and June Naylor. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: A collection of more than 125 recipes by Texas chef and
restaurateur Lou Lambert, with an emphasis on regional specialties
and ingredients including game meat dishes and Tex-Mex
favorites Provided by publisher.
1. Cooking, AmericanSouthwestern style. 2. Mexican American
cooking. 3. Cooking (Game) 4. CookingTexas. 5. Cookbooks.
I. Naylor, June. II. Title.
TX715.2.S69L28 2011
641.5979dc22
2011004416

eISBN: 978-1-60774-070-4

v3.1

To all the strong women in my lifeJoann, Liz, Lucille, and Norma

T HE PROCESS OF WRITING affords you the chance to sit at your computer and think about what is important. For me, more than anything, its the people in my life who I value and who have made this book possible.

June Naylor, my good friend and coauthor, is the reason this book was written. Thank you for believing in me and leading me by the hand through this journey.

Im so thankful for Lisa Ekus, my agent, and her team for the behind the scenes work they have done in helping to create this book. I still owe all of you a trip to West Texas.

Thanks to all the folks at Ten Speed, especially Melissa Moore, who paved the way for me with such a warm welcome, designer Toni Tajima for a gorgeous layout, and our editor Veronica Randall, for sharing my vision and enthusiasm for the concept and feel of Big Ranch, Big City.

Ralph Lauer, our photographer, captured the majestic beauty of Texas and the simple and approachable feel of the foods that I love to cook and eat. Thank you Ralph.

Thanks to Cynthia Wahl and Meda Kessler for your hard work, insight, and friendship.

Thank you Larry McGuire and Tommy Morman, the guys who operate Lamberts in Austin, for your style and spot on sensibility. Im proud of you guys for the food you cook and the restaurants that you create and run.

Nate Watson, thanks for your friendship and hard work in testing recipes. The rest of the boys in the dinner club, Bill, Jace, and Joel, thanks for your appetites, opinions, and good humor.

All the McKnight cousins, especially Bob, thank you for putting up with all of us at the ranch during the production of this book.

Mom, thanks for always listening and giving me a shoulder. Dad, thanks for giving me an enthusiasm for food and the ability to tell a story. Liz, thanks for being the person I can call on for advice and council. James, thanks for standing by me and keeping me pointed in the right direction.

T HE PHOTO OF LOUIS LAMBERT leaning on a wall that appeared in Martha Stewart Living in 1996 first brought him to my attention. I had to wonder: How did this young grad from The Culinary Institute of America who worked for, among others, Wolfgang Puck, end up cooking at Reata in Fort Worth and hanging out with Martha Stewart in Marfa, Texas?

I was even more intrigued by the food I saw in the article. Double-cut rib eye steaks with chimmichurri sauce, grilled red potato salad with warm bacon vinaigrette, brined corn on the cobthis stuff was nothing like the Southwestern cuisine that was in vogue at the time.

Every other chef on the scene in the mid-1990s had a label. There were Southwestern Cuisine chefs and Cowboy Cuisine chefs and New Texas Cuisine chefs. Louis Lambert stuck out because he seemed to be a chef without a schtick.

I got to know Lambert better by cooking his recipes. I loved his Shiner Bock-beer battered Texas 1015 onion rings, I still make his spicy bread and butter pickles, and I thank him often for his onion jam.

Today Louis Lambert has a bunch of his own restaurants in Austin and Fort Worth, and they continue to reflect his simple and direct approach to Texas cooking. Theres a barbecue joint, a steakhouse, a hamburger stand, and a couple of coffee shops. An idea hes kicking around now is a coffee and fried pie trailer. The food at all of Louis Lamberts restaurants is amazingly tasty. It also manages to be both unpretentious and sophisticated, which is a tough thing to pull off.