Bissonnette Jamie - The new charcuterie cookbook: exceptional cured meats to make and serve at home

THE NEW CHARCUTERIE COOKBOOK

E XCEPTIONAL C URED M EATS TO MAKE AND S ERVE AT H OME

J AMIE B ISSONNETTE

CHEF/OWNER OF TORO NYC, COPPA AND TORO BOSTON
WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD BEST CHEF: NORTHEAST AWARD

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN GOODMAN

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I have been eating Jamie Bissonnettes food for a long time now. For years before I met him I had unknowingly been connected to him. Cooks cook. They plate. We eat. Its a pretty great relationship structure. Very one-sided. Non-committal. Perfect for most of us. Looking back in the rearview mirror I should have seen it coming. Love is like a fucking freight train when you dont see it coming, frozen on the rails like a deer in the headlights. I got greased. Bad.

Jamie is a brilliant young chef with decades of amazing work ahead of him. Hes been in charge of, and associated with, some of the best restaurants in America. He has cooked with all the greats, donated his time, selflessly helped with events big and small, lent his name to food festivals from coast to coast, raised money, contributed to our lives with passion and is a devoted mentor and leader.

There are a lot of real bastards in our business but Jamie is one of the most beloved guys I know. Why should you care? Whats that got to do with food? Well kids, you cant make great food; you cant put an experience in a bowl unless you have a gift for connecting with people on a deep level. Theres a great Russian saying that translates loosely to there arent any generals in the bath house. I love that idea. When were all naked sitting around in the steam room, there isnt a place to pin your medals. Comprende?

Jamie Bissonnette is a general in the bath house and we all know it. Heres the deal. Hes obsessive, committed and superbly talented. He doesnt show off. He doesnt talk a lot and never about himself unless you ask. He leads by example. He can cook his ass off. He is learned. He pays attention. He arrives early. He stays late. Shit, I love this guy.

Jamie has a curious strength, its his strongest suit and its ironically rare in our business. He can take ordinary food, even odd bits, fifth quarter stuff (the pluck, the viscera, the nasty to some), and make angels weep. Thats real cooking. And its why this book belongs stained and used, torn and beaten in the kitchen of every human being who owns a cutting board.

This guy will teach you about flavor, and composition and technique with only pork, salt and pepper if you want to learn how.

Lets not be ignorant, most cooking is eerily similar to the same dish down the street. Everyone has a Caesar salad on his or her menu. Kinda depressing. Jamie really cooks. 30 years ago, even in our best food cities, many of the great restaurants had chefs who were great shoppers, not necessarily soulful cooks. Hey, it happens! I like the chefs who get messy. Who really cook. Who are truly scratch. They can tell you the name of everyone who grows or raises their food. Its important. Buying great ham and slicing it thin is nice. Even I can do that. Making great ham? Another story. Different skill set. Boom.

For thousands of years everyone knew what to do with an animal. Muscles and bones, hoof to snout can be dealt with many ways. Hung to age, dried, cured, smoked or preserved. But the pluck, the organs, the blood has to be dealt with immediately, right away. To me thats the essence of great cooking. The original quick-fire challenge. The OG mystery basket of ingredients. I never liked the old quote about no one wanting to see laws or sausages get made. I think thats been our problem for generations. When you hide that stuff the quality suffers. Lets applaud it. Lets all see the sausage! Yup, I said that. Settle down, Jennings.

So the meat of the matter is that what got me punch-drunk sold on this kid was the first time I cut food with him, side-by-side, making some TV six years ago in Boston. Great, natural cook, who really understood food, and had a beautiful working methodology. Buttoned up in every way. I ate three meals at Toro then, day and night. Now Toro NYC is the hottest ticket in town.

Two years ago, Jamie cooked something for me to, as he put it, check it out and tell me what you really think. Its the first recipe in this book and it reminds me of Vietnam every time I eat it. Jamies cooked charcuterie is simple and approachable. His rabbit mortadella is a cult favorite in the chef world. I am thrilled to see it in this book so the gospel of rabbit and fat can be preached. A chapter to offal pleasure gives me goose bumps. To see hearts and chitterlings, and a trio of blood sausages in a contemporary, easy, simple to understand framework will advance the agenda of improving the family meal in homes all over America by leaps and bounds. Dont know how to cure meat? Neither did I until I was shown. I really hope you take the time to make every recipe in because I stole all these recipes and plan on passing them off as my own next week.

Enjoy this book. Cook from it. See why cooks fall for each other real bad. And dont ever forget to look both ways at the train tracks.

Andrew Zimmern

When I was traveling in Europe, especially France, I was blown away that so many different types of meat came out of various animals. Here, we go through so many pork loins and chicken breasts. Wheres the rest of the animal? I always wondered.

Back home, I started making things that other chefs dont typically cook. When I worked for chef Andy Husbands at Bostons Tremont 647, I began experimenting with charcuterie during my downtime. To me, this is the essence of being a chef: buying food, fixing it up and selling itand a big part of that is using every part of the animal.

I think you can teach anybody how to saut a piece of trout and toast some almonds, but it takes a lot more finesse to take something like, say, blood, and make it delicious. I get satisfaction out of cooking the kinds of things that other people might not.

Gradually, I began browsing old cookbooks and meeting other chefs who shared my passion. And because chefs are huge egomaniacs, I loved getting their feedback. Now its like we have our own support group. We trade recipes and share secrets. And sure enough, more and more odd bits are showing up on menus. Toro New York shares a building with several other restaurants. And guess what? Every single restaurant has bone marrow on the menu. People have become more adventurous.

It wasnt always this way. I definitely didnt come from a food-focused family. I started cooking very young because I loved food and my mom was a terrible cook. Shed always make some kind of chop suey. As a teenager, I became a vegetarian, and my mom said that was fine, but Id have to cook for myself. So I did. In high school, I was in a program where they let us out of school early to get a jump-start on our tradebasically, whatever crappy job they thought we were qualified for. So Id get out early and go home, make myself lunch and watch Discovery Channel cooking shows. My guidance counselor suggested a job in construction, but I knew from then on that I wanted to become a chef.