Peternell - Twelve Recipes

T o Mom and Dad, who showed me, night
after night, the subtle, profound, and lasting
value of gathering around the table for a
family meal

The simple act of cooking a meal has become so thickly crusted with pretension and anxiety that its no wonder so few Americans feel comfortable in the kitchen anymore. But who would have thought that exactly the antidote we needthis bookwould come out of one of the most storied restaurant kitchens in America?

Actually, its not completely surprising. Alice Waters has made a habit of hiring cooks who are not professional chefs but rather various kinds of quasi-normal people who just happen to have a passion for cooking. Artists, for example, which is what Cal Peternell was before he was hired to cook at Chez on the strength of the little zucchini frittatas he pan-fried for his tryout lunch. The place might be a temple of gastronomy, but its always been infused with the spirit of the amateur.

Anyway, this is the book I have been waiting for, the one Ill be giving to all those friends who tell me they cant cook. Twelve Recipes is a resolutely informal, handwritten invitation to come back into the kitchen and learn the basics from a dude so chill that you will quickly forget hes also a brilliant cook. Its just not that big a deal, Cal quickly has you thinking, whether youre braising a quick sugo for pasta or making a pot of beans or simply boiling some vegetables because theyre so fresh you just need to get out of their way. Have you ever called your mother or father to have them walk you step-by-step through a cherished-but-not-yet-mastered family recipe? This book reads a lot like that phone call in its ideal formconversational, patient, calming, and lucid.

In fact, it was a flurry of such phone calls, long-distance from Cals oldest son off at college, that inspired this book. Cal realized he had neglected to equip his son with one of the critical life skills everyone must have in order to live a healthy and happy life: how to cook a basic repertoire of dishes and a handful of sauces. Hence Twelve Recipes, a meal manual for my sons leaving home, and all sons and daughters, to learn to cook and eat simply and well, with pleasure and good health.

Yet if the book is intended as a handbook for beginners, it has much to offer the more experienced cook, too. If anything, Twelve Recipes underpromises and overdelivers: beyond the big twelve, Cal proposes a great many delicious variations on the basic themes, plus a handful of clutch sauces that will improve anything they touch, whether a plate of pasta, a grilled piece of fish, or a boiled naked vegetable. If the recipes in this book constituted your entire repertoire, you would not be in bad shape at all.

But thats probably not how it will go. Because one of the best things about this deceptively simple, gracefully written book is just how competent and adventurous it will make you feel, not to mention hungry. Im betting you will finish Twelve Recipes inspired to try all kinds of new dishes and to crack your neglected old cookbooks, bringing to them a whole new chill attitude: Its just not that big a deal.

It is a rare and beautiful thing to pick up a book, thumb through the opening pages, and know without a doubt that you will love it from beginning to end. Twelve Recipes is one of those books. From the first few sentences, I was smilingnot only because of Cals distinctive voice and wonderfully dry sense of humor, but because I knew I was in the best of hands.

Cal tells us that the germ of this book began when his oldest son, Henderson, moved away for college, and would call home for cooking guidance. I remember when my own daughter, Fanny, went away for school. I sent her off with recipes for all her favorite meals, but in those first few months I fielded the very same phone calls that Cal describes getting from his son. How, Fanny would ask me, am I supposed to roast a chicken? The funny thing was, I suspected she already knew how to roast a chickenbut she wanted to hear me tell it again. There is something both sweet and important about the passing of recipes from mother to daughter, or from father to son. It is not just technique, but the comfort of home that you are passing along in those dishes and recipes, a comfort that kids are so in need of when they light out on their own for the first time and start learning to live as adults.

The foundation of Twelve Recipes is built on those sorts of universal foods that would-be cooks (young and old) know and love: toast, eggs, pasta, vegetables, and, yes, roast chicken. Learn your way around one simple recipe from each category, Cal reasons, and you are well on your way to knowing how to cook. Each of these foods comes alive through Cals vivid writing and stories of his familys gustatory adventures, and with a casual, light touch he shows how to take these ingredients and make them shine. Take marinara sauce, for example: We often do make a plain and satisfying sauce from just onions, a little garlic, and a can of tomatoes. I will give you that recipe and its very good indeed, and great with meatballs but... if it is summer, and maybe you grew some tomatoes, or a friend did, or you found some irresistible and ripe at the market, there is also a fresh marinara that can be profoundly good, like the summer sun itself came down, put on an apron, and made you lunch. Okay, Ill give you that recipe, too. (I have had it, a basil and garlic-inflected five-minute affair with swirls of fresh ricotta, and can attest to its sublimity.)

I have always admired the simplicity, clarity, and deliciousness of the food Cal createshe has brought tremendous talent and creativity to the kitchen at Chez Panisse over the years. He has a background in painting, and his extraordinary artistry extends to the beautiful way he assembles a plate. But perhaps just as extraordinary is the way young cooks learn from Cal. He is one of the greatest teachers I know, and it is because he knows how to empower the cooksnot dictating to them but encouraging them, allowing them to go at their own pace, quietly instilling in them the important principles of aliveness and beauty in food.

Twelve Recipes perfectly captures Cals subtle, relaxed teaching style. He applies his artists sense of flavor and proportion to create a practical road map for cooking at homethe sort of robust, soul-satisfying meals you want to make for your family and friends, the kind of cooking that brings everyone to the table. For Cal, cooking is an appealingly malleable thing. He shows that to be a cook involves not only making mistakes sometimes, but having fun making themand that openness leads to surprising discoveries. One night, midrag finto making, I suddenly turned Thai-ward, he writes, inspired, for some reason, to leave the pasta for another time. (The happy result of this detour is a Thai larb of ground pork.) This is one of his most crucial lessons: a meal doesnt need to be a fixed and anchored affair. You can change course halfway through, break some rules while sticking by a few others, make the best of whatever you have on hand, and let your instincts and your senses guide you to what is delicious. What better way to bring our children into the kitchen?