Chris Santos - Share: delicious and surprising recipes to pass around your table

Copyright 2017 by Chris Santos

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Cover photography by Quentin Bacon.

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First ebook edition: February 2017

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Photography copyright 2017 by Quentin Bacon

Print book interior design by Gary Tooth / Empire Design Studio.

Food Stylist: Suzanne Lenzer

Food Stylist Assistants: Erica Clark, Kate Schmidt

ISBN 978-1-4555-3842-3

E3-20161219-JV-NF

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

MARY LOU

(MY SIBLINGS CALL HER MOM, BUT SHELL ALWAYS BE MARY LOU TO ME), WITHOUT WHOM NEITHER THIS BOOK, NOR MY AMAZING LIFE AS A CHEF, WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE.

For over 20 years, day in and day out (or, I should say, night in and night out), I have watched people socialize over my signature dishes at my restaurants. Ive always created food that is designed to be passed around the table, where forks and knives are often left untouched because much of the meal is comprised of fun finger foods. My vibrant dining rooms are filled with people creating memories over their shared dining experience.

Share: Delicious and Surprising Recipes to Pass Around Your Table extols the idea that communal eating is the best way to enjoy an amazing dinner while catching up with friends, celebrating a special occasion with family, or simply bringing people together for the sake of a party!

At-home entertaining is an even more intimate experience than dining out. The effort and love that go into hosting a dinner party or brunch are most clearly felt through the dishes you serve. For that reason, when it comes time to play host, I want to think you will use this book to impress your guestsand have funwith some of my favorite recipes.

I am one of four siblings. When I was growing up, both of my parents worked long hours at night and I was often left to fend for myself in the kitchen while my mom delivered babies at the nearby hospital. (Thats a true story.) But, when we did manage to have the rare family dinner, not sharing was not an option. Six sets of arms were reaching in every direction, clamoring for my moms famous Chourio and Pepper Sloppy Joes (), among many other dishes.

When I think of my life as an adult, I realize that Ive done a lot of laughing with my mouth full, and rarely at a fancy restaurant. My best memories have been of meals where the food was exciting and fun to eat, and was enjoyed with beloved company. Years ago, my business partner Rich Wolf and I started forgoing the entres when we ate out. Instead, we started ordering every appetizer on the menu. The appetizers were always our favorite part of the meal because they were much easier to share and we were able to taste a bunch of different flavors as opposed to the typical three-course format. We were always passing around a copious amount of dishes, yelling things like You have to try this! Its incredible! I realized that the flexibility and camaraderie of this shared style of dining was adding to my overall dining (and tasting) experience, and I embraced this communal format as the best way to serve my guests, both in my restaurants and in my home.

Share is about how to entertain your friends and family with creative food in the comfort of your home. When people think about entertaining, they often consider the drinks they are going to serve or the music they are going to play as the pivotal elements. For me, the food always comes first. I like my food to do the entertaining, and thats why I serve dishes that are delicious but that are also innovative enough to start conversations among my guestsabout the food and also about just how much they are enjoying every bite.

At the end of the day, life is too short for boring food. It sounds so simplistic, but its true! People come to my restaurants and to my home because they know that they are going to have a great meal and a good time. I hope Share will help you re-create a perennial party in your own kitchen.

And because brunch has become such a popular time for people to socialize, I am concluding this book with my brunch recipes, ranging from savory delights like baked eggs ().

While I have tweaked many of the recipes for easier home cooking, in some cases I have kept the original, restaurant version intact. These items are marked Santos Signature. Youll also find notes, dubbed Chef Talk, with some of my thoughts on various ingredients and culinary techniques.

These are the dishes that I come back to time and time again when I am hosting a party because I know that they are the ones everyone at the table is going to love. From the simplest of dishes to the most complex, you can be assured that all of the recipes in this book have been road tested as guaranteed crowd pleasers. My hope is that some of these recipes become incorporated into your go-to menu when it comes time to entertain.

My main goal for Share is to, well, share with you a different way of cooking for your friends and family by sharing (theres that word again) my favorite recipes with new twists on old favorites along the way.

Chris Santos

Eating is only partly about sustaining your body. It is also about