Alice begins, “My delicious revolution began when, young and naïve, I started a restaurant and went looking for good-tasting food to cook…When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.” And there you have it folks, simply put, the secret to Alice Waters and her extraordinary achievements.
Largely credited with spurring the movement towards supporting organic, local produce way back before it was a popular movement, Waters is the creator/sometimes chef of one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world, Chez Panisse. In The Art of Simple Food, Waters spells it out for us. No need for fancy gimmicks, food trends, or technology; it’s all about the carrot. Or the tuna. Or the plum. Whatever the ingredient may be, it has got to be straight-from-the-source-fresh, organic, and at its seasonal peak. That’s the hard part, the sourcing —from there, the recipes are just what they claim to be, simple and yet artful. Carrot Soup, Buckwheat Pancakes, Buttered Turnips, Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Onions, and moving on to something sweet, Pear Sherbert, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Lemon Curd Tart. She covers the Four Essential Sauces; devotes a chapter to bread, custards, and beans; breaks down the omelette and the souffle; and takes us step-by-step through slow cooking, cooking over coals, frying, and roasting.
The book is encyclopedic in scope, but Waters’ poetic, whimsical, and light-hearted approach to food makes it all digestible. In fact, you might, as I did, love the prose of this cookbook so much you read it in bed like a novel —dog-earring the pages on Chard Frittatas and Apple Tarts for breakfast.
Available at fine bookstores around BC.
See this week’s recipe box for Spring Minestrone with Peas and Asparagus from The Art of Simple Food.