!! Celebration day for food nerds: new Keller cookbook!
The first French Laundry cookbook (from ’99) was a revelation to me. Cooking through it taught me more than any other resource has. I was shocked how makeable it was in a home kitchen—very few unusual supplies needed.
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The follow-up, Under Pressure, included dishes from Per Se. The style was barely recognizable! The dishes now included many modernist techniques and daring flairs. Fascinating to read, but much less suitable for home cooking: the components didn’t generalize very well.
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I’m so happy that this book looks like it’s landed somewhere in between. Under Pressure was explicitly centered around technique (sous vide), but this one’s not; and a decade’s passed, so the enthusiasm for whiz-bang modernism has faded a bit.
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As usual, the best part is the essays, which unpack tacit knowledge from eminent practitioners.
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Oddly, the second-most-valuable cookbook in my library went through the same evolution: the Eleven Madison Park cookbook is super makeable! Such a valuable guide to composition and vegetable cookery. Its successor is inspiring, astonishing—and alas, much less useful in the home.
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However: the essays in the second EMP book are wonderful and very bloody!
I was served this dish when I visited in 2017, and it was one of the most stirring things I’d ever eaten. I was excited to see it in the book! But… the essay associated with it showed the cost (see pic).
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“Lovers fell asleep waiting for me to return home at night … I did not have time to read bedtime stories to my children … I am divorced … I still hurt … A dish ilke this is drawn from the long hours and years in the kitchen … There are no steps to skip.” Remarkable.
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The temptation is to say: gosh, is Humm just making excuses for sociopathy and workaholism? Surely this isn’t necessary? But it’s really not clear. Few dishes have ever shocked me the way this one did. I don’t think it’s an accident that this essay is paired with this dish.
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I just learned that apparently that cabbage+foie dish was available on their a la carte *bar* menu for $28 a few years ago! Astonishing that this kind of artistry was available so accessibly on a walk-in basis—I figured it was a tasting menu loss leader. Restaurants are amazing.
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I don’t think it’s necessary, but it’s definitely the dominant culture. , who knows that restaurant group from within, can elaborate at length.
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100% true. Literal blood, sweat and tears. I missed weddings, funerals, couldn't pay both student loan and rent. I eventually had to quit to save my relationships and health. People who stay in the industry at that level do so thanks to an invisible network of support.
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I’m trying to think of something I’d appreciate this much. ;)
I’m also struck by how he couldn’t ever escape the restaurant schedule? Surely there’s a way for an artisan to get out of the day-to-holiday?
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Then again, I find the atmosphere of the classroom irreplaceable