the moment when you stop following recipes to the letter and
start cooking based on what you know.
Maybe it’s because of all those cooking shows where angry
chefs rail against kitchen rookies for oversalting the cod or
underseasoning the étouffée, but we’ve become a nation of nervous
Nellies in the kitchen. Most people deal with their kitchen nerves
by slavishly following recipes to the point where if a recipe calls
for a half teaspoon of paprika and they only have a quarter
teaspoon, they’ll turn off the oven and order a pizza.
That’s no way to cook.
This book is an attempt to change all that. Consider this book
an insecurity killer, a confidence booster of epic proportions. For a
year, I cooked with the best chefs and home cooks in America. In
the process of visiting eleven cities and fifty kitchens, I learned a
thing or two about producing quality food at home. It has nothing
to do with recipes and everything to do with trusting yourself in
the kitchen.
Great cooks are confident people. In a restaurant setting, chefs
are leaders: they command roomfuls of fellow chefs and, through
their leadership, feed hordes of hungry masses night after night.
Great home cooks also project great confidence, as they often face
an even tougher crowd: picky spouses and cranky children.
And though I’m becoming more confident in the kitchen, my
status as a self-taught, amateur home cook with no formal training
makes me an ideal candidate to soak up all the knowledge and
wisdom that these chefs and cooks have to offer. Because, like