Peel Mark - The Food of Campanile: Recipes from the Famed Los Angeles Restaurant

C opyright 1997 by Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Villard Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

V ILLARD B OOKS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Peel, Mark.
The food of Campanile / Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-75726-5
1. Cookery. 2. Campanile (Restaurant) I. Silverton, Nancy.
II. Title.
TX714.P439 1997
641.50979494dc21 96-36962

Random House website address: http://www.randomhouse.com/

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Chapter 1

C OOKING and the communality of eatingis an important part of the glue that binds society together. A person eats to satisfy hunger, to survive, but a person cooks to please the senses, to make food more palatable and digestible. We do this not only because we have to but because we like to.

Almost everyone takes pleasure in eating; it is an experience common to every society and culture. People around the world smile much the same way when they bite into a perfectly ripened tomato, picked from the vine and still warm from the sun. Eating ensures survival; eating well provides the opportunity to slow down and enjoy life for a few hours out of the day.

The purpose of this book is not to document the latest fashion in food, or to dazzle people with food based on a school of architecture, but to illustrate that everyone, with a little concentration and passion, can prepare flavorful and deeply satisfying food. We wanted to write a book about the food that is important in our lives, meals made from only the best ingredients, and the techniques of cooking we use to enhance and combine these ingredients.

The common qualities in the food of Campanile cannot be traced back to a defined region or to a specific era. We prepare the food that we want to eat. Because California is blessed with a climate similar to that of the Mediterranean coast, much of our food is influenced by the cuisine of that region. Our cooking philosophy has very little to do with intricate plate arrangements, but is simply: Does it taste wonderful and look beautiful? For the recipes in this book we have tasted and tested and cooked and cooked again, until we can state that this is a book of food that pleases our senses.

If the chef at your favorite restaurant isnt actually tasting the food, something is sadly lacking. You want that chef to dip a spoon in the sauce from time to time, to sample a leaf of arugula drizzled with vinaigrette, to sneak a crumble of browned veal sausage as it goes from the saut pan to the plate. If the chef isnt always tasting the food, it probably isnt at the level it could be. He or she should be bursting with curiosity: Does that sauce obliterate the subtle flavor of the meat? How much is too much? Is the crushed black pepper a little too pungent on that pasta? Is the flavor of the fish too strong for the delicate flavor of the broth?

NANCY AT THE FARMERS MARKET: WE WANTED TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT THE FOOD THAT IS IMPORTANT IN OUR LIVES, MEALS MADE ONLY FROM THE BEST INGREDIENTS.

In our restaurant, we try to ensure that every dish is tasted before service, so that the flavors are genuine, the contrast of textures is balanced, and the realization of the dish is true to the concept. Throughout the evening, the chef should occasionally steal a little bite to taste the dish, in order to make sure its integrity is maintained. The same principles apply to the home cook as well. Blindly following recipes will help you learn to cook at first, but it will eventually hinder you as your confidence and knowledge develop. Most of the trouble with less-than-satisfying home cooking is from lack of self-confidence and attention. If you dont pay close attention to the flavors of what you cook, you wont develop the knowledge you need to be able to taste a dish and know exactly what its lacking.

You need some knowledge of flavor and the courage to trust your perceptions. Taste what you make; if it seems a little flat to you, try salting it a little more or adding a squeeze of lemon juice or some chopped herbs, just to push the flavor in what you think is the right direction. The knowledge to be adventurous in cooking will come with some time and practice, but if you care about what youre doing and pay attention, most of the mistakes you make along the way will not be disastrous. Make notes on the recipe so that the next time you will remember the changes you made. Use a pencil so you can change your mind.

If you hurry through a dish and dont taste it until it is on the table, its too latetheres nothing you can do. Think about what youre tasting, what the various ingredients contibute to the whole, and what effect the cooking technique has on those ingredients.

If a steak needs to be well browned for flavor, for example, brown it well; dont back off or pull the heat down. Pay attention: Dont burn it, but give it a good browning; there is a lot of flavor in that color. Even a prime, well-aged ribeye steak doesnt look good if its cooked to a pale gray, and it doesnt taste like much, either. The more familiar you become with the food you cook, the better you will be able to know when the flavors are perfect.

You might push too far sometimes and ruin something. Just try not to do it when youve got a dozen well-cocktailed guests seated in the dining room expecting the Meal of all Meals. At least some of the meal should be based on dishes you feel comfortable making. On the other hand, the greatest advances sometimes occur when working under intense pressure, and that can be a wonderful surprisenot only for your guests, but for yourself as well.

Different foods have different characteristics: flavor, texture, size, shape, fat content, moisture content, chemical composition, and so forth. Therefore it makes sense that certain foods respond better to some cooking techniques than others. A tender, well-marbled steak should not stew on the back of the stove all day long. Not coincidentally, if you quickly grill a steak-size portion of Select-grade beef brisket, you might be chewing all day long. Hamburgers exist because there is meat on a steer that needs to be ground, or at least cooked a very long time, to be palatable. At Campanile, we try to match our cooking techniques and our raw ingredients. We try to cook harmoniously with the food, not against it. Fresh fava beans need only the slightest cooking to brighten their flavor. Potatoes, however, need to be cooked through completely to be enjoyed. To reduce that cooking time, one could grate the potatoes into hash browns, much like hamburger, and saut them, or slice them in quarters and roast them with high heat until theyre well browned and crispy. The characteristics of the food itself are the best guide in determining the optimum ways of preparation.