Product Description

Life holds a fundamental irony for four-star chef Eric Ripert--the more successful he becomes, the further he is taken from the love that made him a success in the first place. As his days get consumed with business decisions and staffing issues, the question arises--"But when do I get to cook?" A Return to Cooking is Ripert's personal quest for the answer: a journey in four different seasons to four different locales to "cook the landscape" and "cook from the guts," using local seasonal ingredients in home kitchens and experiencing the joys--and occasional disappointments--of this spontaneous, creative act. From California to Puerto Rico, Vermont to Long Island, Ripert was joined by Colombian artist Valentino Cortazar and photographers Tammar and Shimon Rothstein, who captured his journey in their artistry. Dozens of essays on subjects such as handling raw fish, the power of vinaigrette, the virtues of Tabasco, shallots, and lemon confit enhance this eminently practical book's richly flavorful recipes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480925 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Amazon.com
Eric Ripert, chef and part owner of New York's Le Bernadin, discovered that as his chef star rose he drifted far, far away from cooking. A Return to Cooking is his response to this sorry predicament, the result of a self-imposed challenge: to gather together disparate souls--a painter (Valentino Cortazar), a writer (Michael Ruhlman, author of The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef), photographers (Shimon and Tammar Rothstein), and a personal assistant (Andrea Glick, who would write and test the spontaneously created recipes)--and simply cook.

The settings (and fresh food ingredients) are spectacular. Sag Harbor in summer. Puerto Rico in winter. California's Napa Valley in spring. Vermont in fall. Rent a house, shop for food, and make the meals happen. For anyone who has ever wanted to understand how a great cook looks at ingredients and settles on a plan, A Return to Cooking is it. In Puerto Rico the reader is treated to Caramelized Pineapple Crepes with Crème Frâiche; Shrimp with Fresh Coconut Milk, Calabaza, and Avocado; and Seared Tuna with Escabeche of Pear Tomatoes.

What Ripert does with food, the Rothsteins do with photos, Cortazar does with paints, and Ruhlman does with words. The stimulating recipes rise out of a young lifetime of experience. This is a big, lush book (330 pages, 150 recipes, nearly 400 color photos and illustrations) dense with information, technique, and flavor. For anyone who has wandered far from the kitchen and the pleasures inherent in cooking, A Return to Cooking will bring you right back home. --Schuyler Ingle

From Publishers Weekly
What happens when chef Ripert exchanges the rarefied atmosphere of New York City's Le Bernardin for the sometimes melodramatic company of artistes- photographers Shimon and Tammar Rothstein, Valentino Cortazar, a Colombian painter who doesn't rise until noon and writer Ruhlman (Soul of a Chef) -to experiment in four locales and get back to his roots as a cook? Readers get a peek at the spontaneous inspiration behind such imaginative recipes as Halibut with Grapes and Red Wine-Port Sauce, along with tips for preparation, and colorful paintings and elegant photographs. Ripert cooks in four locales-Sag Harbor, N.Y., Puerto Rico, Napa Valley, and Cavendish, Vt.-though recipes do not always correspond to local produce (a lobster dish in Vermont, eels and frogs legs in Napa, and truffles in Puerto Rico). In Puerto Rico, Ripert's love for everything Latin shines in such recipes as Shrimp with Fresh Coconut Milk, Calabaza. In Napa, emphasizing mushrooms, Ripert makes Portobello and Eggplant Tart and Double-Cut Veal Chops with Morels and Herb Butter, and on Long Island he prepares Snapper with Caramelized and Braised Shallots and Shallot Jus. Ripert offers invaluable insights into sauces-practically everything has a sauce or a pesto. Interspersed throughout are sections on, for example, how to make Lemon Confit and how to humanely kill a lobster. The narrative can become precious: Ripert says "I touch an onion, and something happens inside me." Overall, however, this is a practical and rare look into what happens when a chef comes out of the industrial-sized kitchen and into the fire of his reativity.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Ripert, chef of New York City's four-star Le Bernardin, and food writer Ruhlman (The Soul of a Chef) collaborated on this handsome, oversized work, which could become the cookbook of the fall season. Filled with gorgeous illustrations and complex flavors common in celebrity chef cookbooks, it is also a meditation on what cooking means and its relationship to art. Ripert found that his success as a restaurateur ironically meant less time to cook, so he embarked on a journey to rediscover cooking, taking along Ruhlman and painter Valentino Cortazar, who provided the illustrations. Ripert selected four locations-Sag Harbor, Puerto Rico, Napa Valley, and Vermont-and at each, he chronicles his recipes and thoughts. Although Ripert initially struggled with being cut off from his New York suppliers, he soon found new connections among his cooking, his environment, and his friends. The recipes are doable for the experienced cook; many call for ingredients that may be hard to obtain, but substituting what's available and fresh is entirely in keeping with the book's philosophy. For all public libraries.
Devon Thomas, Hass MS&L, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.