It's the passionate
professional chef with a compulsion to explore whom we
should thank for
those extraordinary techniques and ideas that continually
find their
way into the home kitchen. Whether it's poaching in plastic
or using
vegetable waters instead of fat to enrich flavor, or new
tricks with
the inexpensive Japanese mandoline, professionals expand our
horizons.
And among his colleagues, Michel Richard is the
chef's chef, the one others look to for inspiration. "Why
didn't I think of that?" asks Thomas Keller, in his foreword
to Happy in the Kitchen,
about Richard's innovative technique. Michel Richard leads
the way and
always has�at his L.A. restaurants, Citrus and Citronelle,
and now in
Washington, D.C., at Michel Richard Citronelle and his newly
opened
Central. He never ceases to explore and his food never fails to
satisfy.
Happy in the Kitchen is teeming with
"Richard-esque" discoveries, whether it's an amazingly
simple technique
for dicing vegetables, a delicious [low-carb] carbonara made
with
onions rather than pasta, or a schnitzel made of pureed
squid. He's
playful�always�but also a perfectionist and an iconoclast.
What can you
say about a chef who makes risotto with potatoes, prefers frozen
Brussels sprouts, and whips up spectacular chocolate pudding and
b�chamel in the microwave? A chef who doesn't shock blanched
vegetables
in ice water, but uses his freezer as though it were a fifth
burner,
and turns raspberries and almonds into "salami"?
Enamored of
crispness, this master chef, who calls himself Captain
Crunch, makes a
potato gratin that is all crust and fries carrots until
crisp. Always
seeking to surprise, he stuffs onion shells and serves them
as pasta,
and he scrambles scallops and serves them as if they were
eggs. But the
surprise is not just in the form the ingredients take in
each dish, but
in the taste.
Richard offers recipes for the foods
we love, but
always looks for the twist that makes good things
great�whether it's
Lamburgers, Lobster Burgers, or Tuna Burgers, Turkey "Steak"
au Poivre,
or the chocolate reverie Michel calls Le Kit Cat. And with
recipe
titles such as Shrimp "Einstein," Jolly Green Brussels Sprouts,
Chicken= Faux Gras, Figgy Piggy, Chocolate Popcorn, and
Happy Kid
Pudding, Happy in the Kitchen lets you know you're
in for good tastes and good times.
Every delicious moment is captured in glorious images of
finished
dishes, as well as exceptional step-by-step photographs that
make easy
work of slicing, dicing, shaping, and other essential hand
skills. Happy in the Kitchen
is a book that will make you laugh and learn, and it will
delight you
every step of the way. Step-by-step photos demonstrate Richard�s
innovative technique that makes easy work of dicing,
shaping, ruffling,
and a plethora of other indispensable hand skills. With
recipe titles
such as Shrimp �Einstein,� Jackson Pollock Soup, Chicken
Faux Gras,
Figgy Piggy, and Happy Kid Pudding (made in the microwave),
Happy in the Kitchen�s promise is good tastes and
good times.
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