Product Description

e runs one of the most successful restaurants in New York City. He is seen everywhere from David Letterman to Good Morning America to the Food Network. He has graced the cover of Gourmet magazine as 'America's Most Exciting Young Chef'-and Zagat calls him a 'rock star.' Now, Rocco DiSpirito unleashes his culinary magic with Flavor. In Flavor, DiSpirito shows readers how to create bold, intriguingly delicious food through combinations of ingredients both mundane and exotic. The cuisine is sophisticated but surprisingly easy for home chefs to replicate. Using the four flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, and salty) as basic building blocks, Rocco demonstrates how to combine and commingle flavors to create one-of-a-kind dishes. Some recipes included in Flavor are: nLemongrass Lobster Salad nBaby Lettuces with Pickled Squash Blossoms and Yogurt-Tahini Vinaigrette nCalamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya nBraised Veal Roulade with Root Vegetables nCinnamon Glazed Duck nLavender Crme Brle nPeach-Phyllo Strudel with Goat Cheese Cream and much more

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #378214 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-05
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.28" h x 8.88" w x 9.84" l, 3.42 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Before he was a television star (not just on the Food Network, but as the central character in the NBC reality show The Restaurant), DiSpirito was a rising star chef in New York with his high-end restaurant, Union Pacific. As Tom Colicchio did so ably in Think Like a Chef, here DiSpirito details the theory behind his cooking. In a nutshell, he seeks to balance sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes in savory dishes such as Ceviche of Tuna, Sweet Onions and Lime, and Pomegranate and Cinnamon-Lacquered Duck. Each recipe has colored dots to indicate which ingredients provide which flavors; they also bear prep times, level of difficulty, yield and a brief wine suggestion: e.g., Black Sea Bass with Chestnuts and Blood Oranges is paired with a "medium-bodied Chardonnay with no oak." As at Union Pacific, DiSpirito works magic with seafood in particular, with such dishes as Charred Spanish Mackerel with Pear and Sweet Spice, and Calamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya. DiSpirito translates a few restaurant techniques for the home cook, as with a suggestion for using plastic wrap instead of the vacuum-sealed packaging used for sous vide cooking when making Chicken with Eggplant Carpaccio and Turmeric Marmalade. Desserts such as Mango and Papaya Carpaccio with Cilantro Candy are in the same lively spirit as the rest of the book, and photographs are also energetic. DiSpirito has considerately cordoned off the more advanced recipes in their own chapter, and a guide to ingredients helpfully includes photographs. Some stars can still relate to the little people.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Rocco DiSpirito, chef and proprietor of Manhattan's Union Pacific and Rocco's restaurants, attended the Culinary Institute of America at age 16, then studied at the Jardin de Cygne in Paris for two years. In 1988 he went to work at the Adrienne, then later became chef de partie at Aujourd’hui in Boston, and eventually returned to New York, where he worked with David Bouley, Gilbert LeCoze, and Gray Kunz before joining Lespinasse’s opening team. In 1997, DiSpirito opened Union Pacific, where the "poetry and complexity" of his dishes earned three stars from the New York Times. He became a star this past summer when NBC aired the reality show The Restaurant, which is now in its second season, and he is the author of the cookbook Flavor, nominated for a 2004 James Beard Award. Rocco DiSpirito lives in New York City.