!! 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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EMP is very special and very deserving of its numerous titles and accolades. It makes me so happy that in today’s world people can construct cathedrals to secular art forms like this.