Richard Blais - Try This at Home: Recipes from My Head to Your Plate

OF ALL THE CONTESTANTS ON TOP CHEF, RICHARD BLAIS WAS EASILY THE MOST FASCINATING TO WATCH. His food pays solid respect to the past while looking fearlessly to the future. Try This at Home takes Richards years of thinking, experimenting, trying and failing, and trying and succeeding, and brings it all home in thrilling and decidedly useful ways. This is the fast, accessible route to looking like a genius at your next dinner.

ANTHONY BOURDAIN

IVE KNOWN RICHARD FOR A LONG TIME NOW AND HIS COOKING HAS ALWAYS BEEN A HUGE INSPIRATION. Try This at Home totally captures his creativity, his talent, and his awesome sense of humor.

SEAN BROCK

THE MOST INNOVATIVE CHEF ON TOP CHEF, Richard Blais brings us creative, thought-provoking recipes for the home cook. Let him make you look like a rock star.

GRANT ACHATZ

IVE BEEN ROOTING FOR RICHARD BLAIS SINCE HIS FIRST SEASON ON TOP CHEF and always wondered, Howd he do that? Now I finally have the answers and I will definitely try these recipes at home!

ZOOEY DESCHANEL

RICHARD HAS CREATED A BOOK THAT I WISH I HAD WRITTEN a book that will inspire not only professionals to look at food technique and flavor in a different way, but that any casual cook can work out of each and every day. For a guy whos not even Jewish to teach me about better brisket was a welcome miracle, and the potato chip omelet shouldnt be dismissed as gimmickry. We make it every week now in our house! Richards genuine passion as a chef, innovator, and artist comes shining through, but his influence as a father and husband makes this book truly special. Try This at Home is a must for anyone who enjoys cooking.

ANDREW ZIMMERN

THIS IS A COOKBOOK FROM A SERIOUS CHEF WHO KNOWS HOW TO MAKE FUN OF HIMSELF AND LIGHTEN UP THE WHOLE PROCESS. Cooking need not be an overly complicated, overwrought process with eighteen ingredients and fourteen pans. Though you can try using a good iSi siphon and a smoking gun (not that kind of smoking gun). And occasionally some nitrous oxide. Oh, and good ingredients, of course. Plus a spirit of fun. You have the cookbook. Now, as your mother would say, Go play!

TOM COLICCHIO
FROM THE FOREWORD

SOME OF MY RECIPES CALL FOR LIQUID NITROGEN. USE CAUTION AND WEAR GLOVES, AS THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE.

Copyright 2013 by Trail Blais, Inc.
Photographs copyright 2013 by John Lee

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

eISBN: 978-0-307-98528-6

Design by Laura Palese
Cover photographs by John Lee

v3.1

There are many people who have helped me in my career, but only one who has changed my life for the better at every turn. Before her, frankly, my character was a bit questionable. Ive become better in many ways and good at many things, as a husband, a dad, a businessman, a winner, and now, an author. All of those are because of her support, friendship, and guidance. THANK YOU, JAZMIN BLAIS, FOR MY LIFE AS I KNOW IT. YOU MAKE IT TRULY SPECIAL.

DONT PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD! EAT IT!

How often did we hear that refrain from our moms while growing up?

But why not play with our food and then eat it?

I think this is the question that greets Richard Blais when he wakes each morning and that then rides on his shoulder throughout the day, muttering in his ear. Its the notion that keeps him in his notebooks and in the kitchen.

It was clear to me from my first encounters with Richard and his food that he was a very talented guy with a very different way of looking at food. Like most successful chefs, he definitely marches to his own beat and has his own style. There is a reason Richard considers himself the Willy Wonka of cooking: He has the ability to find something fun and unusual and amusing to riff off of in a bowl of macaroni. Hence, his successful marriage of artistic creativity and scientific curiosity that lets him take playing with your food to new heights, as he wields his microplane and reimagines dishes in new, delightfully inventive, flavorful ways.

But, like Wonka, Richards ability to find the whimsy in food goes hand in hand with a seriousness of purpose. In his sojourns on Top Chef, he maintained a staunch professionalism and kept his engagement in the competition solely about the food. I saw him push himself, and, as a result, I saw him grow in his craft. Kids learn through playwhy cant chefs, too?

Luckily for the rest of us, Richard didnt heed his mom, nor does he plan to cease playing with his food any time soon. And now, in Try This at Home, he has managed to cleanly and clearly break down his process so that you can have a good time trying out some of his methods in your own kitchen. This is a cookbook from a serious chef who knows how to make fun of himself and lighten up the whole process. Cooking need not be an overly complicated, overwrought process with eighteen ingredients and fourteen pans. Though you can try using a good iSi siphon and a smoking gun (not that kind of smoking gun). And occasionally some nitrous oxide. Oh, and good ingredients, of course. Plus a spirit of fun.

YOU HAVE THE COOKBOOK. NOW, AS YOUR MOTHER WOULD SAY, GO PLAY!

is making people happy. I often start imagining a dish before I even step into the kitchen. Its taking a classic preparationlike the linguine and clams I grew up eating at Long Island Italian restaurantsand tweaking it, or remixing it, so it still resembles the original but is a more interesting and flavorful version. I embrace food that is different and unique. Thats who I am as a professional chef and as a home cook. I like to put a dish through the wringer by reimagining it, adjusting textures, temperature, and taste along the way. No matter how refined a dish I may create, no matter what manner of luxurious or unusual ingredient I might work with, at the end of the day, I know that what I do is about pleasing people and satisfying my guests in a special and profound way.

What I love about cooking is re-creating traditional dishes to make them delicious and an experience. I prod my diners for an emotional reactiona chance to revisit childhood, or a special time and place, or to find whimsy in overwrought dishes that we sometimes eat. When I competed on Top Chef , I made linguine and clams in front of a national audience. But my dish was a plate of linguine fashioned out of thinly shaved sweet potato and paired with conch and oregano. As the judges praised my dish, I said, I pretty much hate everything I cook.