Bruce Weinstein - The Ultimate Cook Book: 900 New Recipes, Thousands of Ideas

I T TOOK US A YEAR TO DEVELOP NINE HUNDRED NEW RECIPES. AND NO ONE can keep up that pacealmost three a day, every day, seven days a week!without a lot of help.

Our greatest debt is twofold: to Harriet Bell, our editor and publisher at William Morrow; and to Susan Ginsburg, our agent at Writers House. Harriet pushes us to avoid clich, to see the modern food scene through the lens of the modern supermarket, and to forgo the obvious in favor of originality. Susan has championed us and our work over many years, helping us understand the dynamics of the market and making sure we were poised when the door opened. Both of them (along with their husbands, Charlie Allenson and Jerry Webman) have also proven wonderful dinner companions over the years.

Several people took chapters in draft, overlooked the typos, and tested the recipes. These brave folks all had the same assignment: make what ever you want and tell us what happened. Their notes have proven invaluable; weve learned lots by seeing what they madeand what they didnt! Many thanks to Esther Lou Scarbrough, Debbie Weinstein, Julie Weinstein, Amy Kull, Dale Brown, Suzie Hukill, and Jo Booher.

Where would we be without our dedicated coterie of New York eaters? Theyve been game to taste anythingand have rarely turned down a late afternoon invitation to dinner. They offered notes, encouragement, and good humor in the face of the daunting task of eating the six chicken dishes from today. Were so lucky to have Steve Rodgers, Marianne Macy, Leora Perlman and Meredith Green-burg, Steve and Melanie Schwartz, Eric Darton and Katie Kehrig as well as their fabulous daughter Gwen, Paula and Benny Yarkoni, Bill Poock and Felix Lao-Batiz, David Sisson and Scott Stevens, and Phyllis Howe and Richard Brad-spies at our dinner table and thus in our lives. Special thanks to Jennifer Chang, who has eaten more of this book than anyone else and who, when she tasted the Autumn Lasagna, said, You ought to make a years worth of these things.

We cant say enough about the generosity of Ariane Daguin at DArtagnan. She sent boxes of meat, fowl, and even foie gras. When they showed up at our apartment, we were briefly the envy of every foodie we know.

Thanks as well to Oliviers & Co. for a wonderful range of aromatic olive oils that have become an outright addiction. And thanks to Serendipi Tea for a big box of exotic teas. Stephanie Teuwen at Teuwen One Image arranged all these marvels; her support has proved invaluable.

Rival provided us with rice cookers, slow cookers, vacuum sealers, and a range of kitchen appliances that have never left our counters. Thanks to Diane Coffey at The Holmes Group for making that possible.

And OXO offered us kitchen tools that proved indispensable in preparing these recipes. Thanks to Gretchen Holt and Stephanie Karlis for sending us so many goodies.

Finally, we have gorgeous KitchenAid equipment and appliances thanks to Brian Maynard and to Kim Roman at Digitas. Sometimes, it seems we live in a dream.

Over the years, the apparently tireless Beth Shepard at Beth Shepard Communications has worked to provide us with many spokespeople opportunities, among them those with the California Milk Advisory Board, JIF, Smuckers, Splenda, the National Honey Board, and the U. S. Potato Board.

Weve had a blast cooking recipes from this book at various cooking schools around the country. Our thanks to Cynthia Liu and Kathleen Taggart at Draegers Markets in San Mateo and Menlo Park, California; Phyllis Vaccarelli at Lets Get Cookin in Los Angeles; and the wonderful staff at the Publix Cooking Schools in Tampa and Sarasota, Florida. Thanks to Alicia Laury at Kaplow Communications who helped set up the Florida classes.

Ron and Debbie Eisenberg have given us boundless opportunities. We have great fun at our regular cooking demos in their stores, the Chefs Centrals in Hartsdale, New York, and in Paramus, New Jersey. We are indulged by their staff and made welcome by all the people who come back time and again to see us.

In honing our craft, wed be lost without our magazine editors: Jim Romanoff at Eating Well, Tim Cebula and Ann Pittman at Cooking Light, Lisa Chernick at weightwatchers.com, Jill Melton and Candace Floyd at Relish, and Clare Lewis at Todays Health and Wellness. They have spurred us on to write the best. Plus, Jim brings the best maple syrup from Vermont when he meets us for Chinatown runs.

Were also grateful to Dave Durian and Mallory Pinkard at WBAL in Baltimore for giving us a chance to strut our stuff on air every Tuesday morning at 7:55.

A book is not only an authors work; its also the work of a publishing house. Lucy Baker and Stephanie Fraser handled all the rarefied and not-so-rarefied details. Sonia Greenbaum did a wonderful job catching all of our pesky errors and straightening out any contorted prose. Once again, Leah Carlson-Stanisic designed a winner and Ann Cahn, as always, kept the whole production schedule moving along. Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich has kept the entire Ultimate series looking beautiful in its design; Carrie Bachman and Milena Perez have worked tirelessly promoting this book and its series. Ken Berger has done wonders with special sales. And many thanks to Emily Saladino, our agents assistant, who has the most underrated job in the business. How many panicked author calls can one person field and still remain cool and professional?

And finally, our deep gratitude to our parents who taught us that the good life is always in reachand, like an apple, to be relished.

W HAT, BESIDES CHUTZPAH, MAKES A COOKBOOK THE ULTIMATE? SIX kinds of deviled eggs, a year of lasagne, or a way to make just about every fruit pie? The sheer weight of nine hundred recipes and thousands of variations? Or the fact that two food writers said, to blazes with our waistlines, and spent two years cooking and eating our way through the modern supermarket?

No, what makes this cookbook the ultimate is the philosophy we developed in 1999 with The Ultimate Ice Cream Book . In a nutshell, this book takes solid, basic recipes and allows you to customize them endlessly to your taste. You get the best of both worlds: hundreds of recipes from two established food writers, combined with thousands of ways to make the dishes exactly as you want them.

We dont have employees, we dont farm the recipes out, and we dont subcontract their development. We work in our small New York City kitchen (its four feet wide, including the appliances) and test every recipe ourselves. Needless to say, our friends eat well.

And the recipes in this book are all original content. Weve written plenty of single-subject ultimate books. Ten, to be exactfrom brownies to chocolate cookies, ice cream to peanut butter, shrimp to potatoes. But this volume isnt a compilation. Rather, The Ultimate Cook Book picks up where the other single-subject ultimate books left off.

Its the ultimate expression of our ultimate philosophy: hundreds of base recipes, thousands of variations, nothing complicated, a compendium for all your cooking needsand a way to take just about every dish and either follow our lead or turn it into something that reflects your taste.

How Did This Ultimate Philosophy Get Started?

It got started (where else?) in New York City. We were talking about (what else?) food. More specifically, our first cookbook. How would we choose between Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream, German Chocolate Ice Cream, and Chocolate Banana Chip Ice Cream?