The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller

I've never been afraid of a book. Other than, perhaps, my statistics book first semester of graduate school. But a cookbook? I swear it sat on my dining room table for two weeks before I even cracked the spine. I took the paper cover off in hopes that the plain navy binding would reduce my dread. I mean, with an artsy, esoteric title like "French Laundry," how was I going to be able to identify with the contents? I can barely get through recipes in The Joy of Cooking.

The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller

The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller

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The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller

The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller

After reading the first few sections, I immediately appreciated two aspects of this book. First, if you ever need a justification to eat, and eat well, the church of Thomas Keller will give you the blessing. "Respect for Food is a respect for life," claims Keller.

However, his words didn'tinspire me to cook, it inspired me to eat. Specifically, eat at one of his restaurants. In fact, the recount of his conflict in writing a cookbook because a chef is "an evolving soul not easily transcribed in recipe form" made me wonder if I, a mere mortal, should even attempt to reproduce one of his dishes. Would it be insulting not only to him, but to all great chefs around the globe?
But I forged ahead.

The second thing I appreciated about this book was in the section entitled "Notes on How to Use this Book." There it was, my permission slip to proceed. "If the degree of difficulty of a dish exceeds your desire to make it, please remember, it's all right to only do part of a recipe." Okay, it was a matter of degree. Suddenly, I didn't feel so excluded from the inner circle ofculinary masters.

So I jumped ahead to the section entitled "Cheese." I can do cheese. Come on, cheese is already made. It's not like Thomas Keller is going to expect me to make my own cheese ... right?

What surprised me about the first dish I tackled, the Pecorino Toscano with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Arugula, Coulis was the number of words I had to look up on the internet. What is a coulis anyway? A tamis? The thoughta mandoline was a musical instruMent. I was beginning to realize that eating in fabulous fine dining establishMents didn't give me a culinary edge. All those restaurant tabs weren't necessarily an investMent in my culinary education. Whoa.

But I forged ahead.

I was consoled by the fact that I only needed to purchase a few ingredients for this firstrecipe. Good, less to screw up. No fool, I would buy in quantities that allowed me to do so a couple times. At least.

All went surprising well with the Pecorino. The roasted pepper instructions were a bit confusing (to me) because it was broken up into two sections on the page, and not in chronological order. So my peppers got marinated before they got roasted, and therefore, did not get de-skinned. Still turned out tasty.

The other perplexing eleMent of the recipe was the "completion." The Caprese salad with arugula and roasted peppers were to be presented under the crouton. How awkward. I did it, but my husband and I just piled everything on top of the crouton upon consuming. Then I thought ... perhaps it is designed to be eaten with a fork, and not your hands? Hmmm.

Encouraged bymy success, I jumped ahead to Canapes. (Okay, okay, I didn't try to make an entree. Baby steps, all right?)

I decided to tackle the Soft Poached Quail Eggs with Applewood-Smoked Bacon. Again, aside from the quail eggs, the ingredients were reasonably uncomplicated.

My brunoise veggies were wider than the 1/16 "recommended julienne because our mandoline (which I didn't even know we owned) only cut as thin as 1/8". The turnip went fine, but a word of advice on the carrots. Do not use cut-and-peeled mini carrots if you are going to attempt to use a mandoline to julienne. Hope no one minds a little blood in the brunoise.

I was able to successfully poach most of the intended quail eggs and pull together the presentation quite effectively. And it was delicious if I do say somyself.

Overall, I was impressed with myself. And impressed with the book.

The Novice Cook Book Reviews-The French Laundry, Thomas Keller