Graham Elliot - Cooking like a master chef : 100 recipes to make the everyday extraordinary

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To Allie, Mylo, Conrad, and Jedediahthe special seasoning that makes my life so darn tasty. Youre the reason I do what I do and am who I am; without you guys Im nada. XOXO

IVE KNOWN GRAHAM for more than two decadeswe met when he was a young chef starting out in the business. For the past six years weve worked together as judges on MasterChef , which has been an absolute pleasure thanks to his fun, engaging personality.

Graham is one of Americas most talented chefs, who cooks from the heart, and by making comfort food accessible his book will encourage budding home cooks to get into the kitchen and hone their cooking skills. The book has a wide range of delicious recipes to tempt every palate and give them the confidence to test out new techniques.

From healthy suppers for singles to cozy breakfasts for couples or full-on family feasts, its easy to see why this book has so much appeal. It confirms why Graham became one of Americas youngest four-star chefs.

Now theres no excuse. Get cooking.

Gordon Ramsay

Cooking Like a Master Chef is a collection of recipes that I especially like. Nothing fancier or more complex than that. These are kitchen-tested dishes that represent much of what I value most about cooking. Before you get started, please read my manifestoa highbrow way of saying I have three core beliefs to share. I first wrote this document when I was twenty-six and its held up ever since. This helps me identify my early named primary tenets. I know it helps me get through the nightmaybe it will help you, too.

First, I believe in letting food taste like itself and so, not surprisingly, I am pretty intense about eating fruits, vegetables, and herbs when they are at their flavorful peaks. To me, these are natures gifts to be cherished by everyone who enters a kitchen with the intention of preparing a meal. Because of this, I would rather eat food when its in season and when its grown close to where its cooked, rather than rely on produce shipped in from some faraway place.

Dont get me wrong. I am not a fanatic. Most of all, I want everyone to cook. To push up their sleeves and get some good food goin on, even if it means winging it now and then when it comes to the seasons. Throughout the book, I call out those recipes that are the most seasonal and make note of which veg and fruits are best bought from a farmers market, but this is not a seasonal book. I simply want to put the seasons on your radar.

You may decide you only want to make squash soup in the fall, slow-cooked pot roast in the winter, and grilled chicken in the summer. Sure, thats how I cook, but it may not be how someone else does. My manifesto is this: be aware of the seasons, be aware of whats ripe and grown locally, be aware of the farmers who labor late into a summer evening to bring their crops to market.

Second, while there is no right or wrong when it comes to creativity in the kitchen, there are timeworn and time-honored methods and techniques that enable a home cook to come up with tasty meals. Some involve cooking seasonally, many others do not. All enable good cooking.

I learned the rules at cooking school and when I worked under some great chefs. Because I know what these rules are, I can break themand I do. Before you decide to be as ornery as I am, understand that while Im all about all cooks finding their voice and style in the kitchen, I honestly believe they must be their own harshest critic. I know I am.

For example, when I was the executive chef at Avenues, the high-end restaurant in Chicagos Peninsula Hotel, I decided to turn my deconstructed into a soup. I thought: What a great idea! Well make a gazpacho-type soup with grated romaine and apples, garlic, and white anchovies and top it with a crispy Parmesan tuile. Guess what? It was way cooler in my head than it was in reality, and in the end I deep-sixed the whole idea.

This is just one example of why I believe that beyond passion, a good cook must have respect for the ingredients and how they interact with each otherand the courage to know when they miss the mark. This is what creativity is all about: trying, succeeding, failing, and recognizing it all . And then tying on a clean apron and trying again.

Third, keep on truckin. When cooking becomes a comfortable dance, we need to change the music to infuse our time in the kitchen with excitement and new energy. Are you with me?

I always tell the chefs who work for me that thinking outside the box is a significant part of the job. Were not manufacturing anything; we arent building cars in the kitchen. Instead, being a great chef or talented home cook means being a spontaneous freethinker, not unlike a jazz musician.

Recipes are nothing more than ideas, and for each one there are any number of riffs that allow the resourceful cook to have fun. As you read through the recipes on these pages, Ill point out where you might want to change things up a little to make a dish your own, and when you should stick to the written word.

And its always a good idea to cook the dish as I explain it at least once before you go out on a limb. Once you smell, see, touch, and taste it, youll be better able to customize it to your liking.

So, how did I get from writing my manifesto to writing a book? Its been a long, strange trip!

I dropped out of high school to join a punk rock band, which is as good a place as any to begin my story. Like most punk rock bands, we didnt make a lot of money, so I found work in restaurant kitchens as a dishwasher and busboy. When I lifted my head from the stacks of dirty dishes long enough to wipe the soap from my arms, I realized there was a heck of a lot of creativity going on in this hot and steamy place. In some ways, it rivaled the creativity of the band. This was a pretty cool surprise for me, and when I realized I couldnt stop thinking about food, I decided to get an education. And thats how I ended up at Johnson & Wales, where I trained to be a chef.

I never stopped loving music. To this day, it pretty much sustains me, and whenever I can, I write, play, and record it. You can hear these tunes at Graham Elliot Bistro, my Chicago restaurant, and also find them on our website. These days Im interested in acoustic-based music and put as much emotion into it as I put into my food.