Craig will never think of parsnips the same way again after Molly’s Chicken Breasts Braised with Hard Cider and Parsnips–Molly can transform anything with the flick of her magical wrist. I love this book because the recipes are flawless and, not only that, the results always exceed my expectations. I wanted to say that because Molly Stevens’ book, All About Braising, is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. “Now is the winter of our Molly Stevens,” I wanted to say at the start of this winter. Or maybe we’ll realize we have no natural talent and quit cooking and become accordion players. Maybe, after a few months, we’ll be master chefs and we’ll open a restaurant. Each Tuesday we will attempt a new technique from this book and hopefully, through my own experimentation, you will be inspired to try them too. My Colicchio revelation–that you can teach yourself French techniques by practicing from this book at home (“I used to cut up stalks and stalks of celery practicing my knife skills,” he said on the show) leads me to declare Tuesdays to be Technique Tuesdays. The answers–maybe, no and Dorothy–suggest that I embrace my lack of experience while showing an absolute willingness to advance. I get asked all the time: “Are you always going to be an amateur? Are you ever going to go to cooking school? Who’s your favorite Golden Girl?” They’re at the core of all great cooking they are the wings that allow the greatest dishes to soar. That’s why fundamentals are so, well, fundamental. When that squab shows up at the kitchen door, does the chef shriek and moan: “How in the world will I clean this domesticated pigeon?” No: he knows his technique. For example, just opening the book randomly, I find Technique 158: “Cleaning Squab and Other Poultry.” Most of us don’t find ourselves with a dead squab on our kitchen counter on a regular basis but many of us have dined in restaurants that serve squab. Underneath that surface are the core fundamentals of French cooking, fundamentals that have launched thousands of careers, that are responsible for some of the finest food being prepared in this country and around the world. There’s something musty about this book, something incredibly dated (there are chapters on making orange baskets and apple swans). book would break down a jumping jack: Stand legs apart (photo), lift hands over head (photo), leap in the air (photo), spread arms and legs (photo), land (photo) and repeat. Every technique is broken down photographically the same way that an old P.E. When you open it, you feel like you’re looking at a physical fitness textbook from 1965. Yes, this is THE book that Tom Colicchio worked his way through to become the toppiest of Top Chefs. The answer was a resounding “no.” No, I wouldn’t have to buy two books I’d only have to buy one–those two books have been consolidated! “To cook on the level of Tom Colicchio, to be that formidable, all I have to do is buy two books by Jacques Pepin?” Tom Colicchio, that most formidable of judges on “Top Chef,” shocked me the other night when, during an interview on PBS’s series Chef’s Story (with Dorothy Hamilton) he revealed that he hadn’t gone to cooking school, he taught himself everything he knows using Jacques Pepin’s “La Technique” and “La Méthode.” (This is corroborated on his Top Chef bio page.) “Let me get this straight,” I said to myself.
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