Urban Italian Cookbook - Andrew Carmellini

Additional Details

Description: In 2003, while he waited for construction to finish on his new restaurant, acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini found himself faced with a challenge. In the midst of a brilliant career in professional kitchens (including a six-year tour as chef de cuisine at Cafe Boulud), he was suddenly up against the harsh reality of life as a civilian cook: no prep cooks, no saucier, no daily deliveries -- just him and his wife in their tiny Manhattan apartment kitchen. 

Urban Italian cookbook is a collection of the recipes that result when a great chef has to use the same resources as the rest of us. In these hundred recipes -- covering four distinct courses, side dishes, and base recipes -- Carmellini shows how to make stunning, soulful food with nothing more than the ingredients, techniques, and time available to the ordinary home cook. Full of sophisticated flavors, this food is also amazingly easy to make: lamb meatballs stuffed with goat cheese; veal, beef, and pork ravioli; roast pork with Italian plums and grappa; fennel with Sambuca and orange; an irresistible lemon-flavored pine nut cake. It's all surprisingly simple, and often make-it-on-a-weeknight fast. 

Along with the recipes is a hilarious narrative of Carmellini's culinary education: a series of outrageous behind-the-scenes tales from some of the world's most (and least) esteemed kitchens. And throughout the book you'll find short pieces on ingredients and culinary destinations, matched with recipes to shed light on the history and practice of simple, beautiful cooking. This is a book you'll find yourself turning to all the time -- for special-occasion cooking; for everyday meals; and to read for pleasure, for laughs, and for insight into how an American chef learned the secrets of great Italian cooking. 

---- 

Condition: Very good condition.