Happy in the Kitchen [Hardcover]

Michel Richard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2006

It's the passionate professional chef with a compulsion to explore whom we should thank for those extraordinary techniques and ideas that continually find their way into the home kitchen. Whether it's poaching in plastic or using vegetable waters instead of fat to enrich flavor, or new tricks with the inexpensive Japanese mandoline, professionals expand our horizons. And among his colleagues, Michel Richard is the chef's chef, the one others look to for inspiration. "Why didn't I think of that?" asks Thomas Keller, in his foreword to Happy in the Kitchen, about Richard's innovative technique. Michel Richard leads the way and always has—at his L.A. restaurants, Citrus and Citronelle, and now in Washington, D.C., at Michel Richard Citronelle and his newly opened Central. He never ceases to explore and his food never fails to satisfy.

Happy in the Kitchen is teeming with "Richard-esque" discoveries, whether it's an amazingly simple technique for dicing vegetables, a delicious [low-carb] carbonara made with onions rather than pasta, or a schnitzel made of pureed squid. He's playful—always—but also a perfectionist and an iconoclast. What can you say about a chef who makes risotto with potatoes, prefers frozen Brussels sprouts, and whips up spectacular chocolate pudding and béchamel in the microwave? A chef who doesn't shock blanched vegetables in ice water, but uses his freezer as though it were a fifth burner, and turns raspberries and almonds into "salami"?

Enamored of crispness, this master chef, who calls himself Captain Crunch, makes a potato gratin that is all crust and fries carrots until crisp. Always seeking to surprise, he stuffs onion shells and serves them as pasta, and he scrambles scallops and serves them as if they were eggs. But the surprise is not just in the form the ingredients take in each dish, but in the taste.

Richard offers recipes for the foods we love, but always looks for the twist that makes good things great—whether it's Lamburgers, Lobster Burgers, or Tuna Burgers, Turkey "Steak" au Poivre, or the chocolate reverie Michel calls Le Kit Cat. And with recipe titles such as Shrimp "Einstein," Jolly Green Brussels Sprouts, Chicken Faux Gras, Figgy Piggy, Chocolate Popcorn, and Happy Kid Pudding, Happy in the Kitchen lets you know you're in for good tastes and good times.

Every delicious moment is captured in glorious images of finished dishes, as well as exceptional step-by-step photographs that make easy work of slicing, dicing, shaping, and other essential hand skills. Happy in the Kitchen is a book that will make you laugh and learn, and it will delight you every step of the way.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"In cooking as in love, you have to try new things to keep it interesting." So says chef Michel Richard in his cookbook Happy in the Kitchen, a collection of 150-plus recipes that more than make his point. Whether reinventing traditional recipes, often whimsically, as he does with dishes like Tomato Tartare, Cuttlefish Schnitzel, and Turkey "Steak" au Poivre, or presenting otherwise novel treats like Tuna Medallions with Passion Fruit Salsa; Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Honeydew Melon; and Lamb-Loin with Basil Crust and Fennel, Richard delights readers with creativity that can thrill. Vegetable dishes, including his spuds-for-rice Potato Risotto and Lo-Carb Carbonara, in which sliced onions sub for pasta, are particularly ingenious. Equally novel--and tempting--are sweets like Upside-Down Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake, Lemon-Lime Madeleine Muffins, and Raspberry Meringues with Raspberry Tuiles.

To pull off his particular sleight-of-hand, Richard has devised novel techniques--like using plastic film to shape and poach food, and gelatin to bind fatlessly--that all cooks should know about. Whether readers will tackle the often-exacting recipes will depend on their willingness to engage in kitchen workouts that also regularly require special equipment like a Japanese mandoline and electric meat slicer. Though there are a number of simpler, homier recipes like Tomato Soup with Fresh Mozzarella and Thyme-Glazed Baby Back Ribs--and the formulas themselves couldn't be more lucid--this handsome book will probably be best appreciated as an artful record of a great and wonderfully playful cooking intelligence. Replete with stunning photos, used generously to illustrate techniques, it's hard to imagine any serious cook who wouldn't want to join Richard, dig in, and learn. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this hefty follow-up to his 1993 debut (Home Cooking with a French Accent), Richard imparts culinary wisdom of the highest order in cheerful nursery tones. Humpty Dumpty, Captain Crunch and a vegetable called Mr. Beet are a few of the merry characters who populate his kitchen. Goofiness apart, the book is filled with clever, innovative techniques and little-known time-savers (microwave béchamel, anybody? food processor sorbet?). Most of the recipes hinge on Richard's unconventional methods, and their successful execution does require a certain level of skill. Attention-grabbers like Asparagus Salmon (in which asparagus spears are slipped inside the pocket of a salmon fillet which is then sliced like a terrine), and Red Snapper in a Spinach Coating are elegant enough to serve to a Michelin inspector, yet are corralled and fenced within the range of ability of a competent home cook. Other dishes are more demanding—the superlative Lamb Loin with White Bean Sauce, for example. In any case, professional cooks and serious amateurs will find this volume an essential resource. (Oct. 31)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Artisan; First Edition edition (August 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579652999
• ISBN-13: 978-1579652999
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 1.3 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The master chefs cooks in your home with you! January 13, 2007

By I. Seligman

Format:Hardcover

This is one cookbook to cook with, ahead of your other cookbooks, and then just let your friends or guests rave..over your cookery skills.

This is as if a master chef, genie like, comes to your home and dispensed countless pearls of cookery knowledge..elevating a simple recipe to one that has you say "Oh my Gawd, why didn't I think of that...it's SO good".

He tells how to get certain foods "crunchy" to excite the experiences of taste..making vegetables and meats alike crunchy with flavor, yet not overdoing it. At the same time, he tells how to heat vegetables so they are soft and tasty, without overdoing it and giving that overcooked taste to them. Try his All-Crust Potato Gratin to see.

He "works" a vegetable to bring out it's best...with carrots, he braises whole carrots in chicken stock and orange juice, to give body, brightness and intense flavor, then finished off with touches of unusual spice combinations, and sprinkles the end product with orange zest. Heck, outside of glazing carrots, or eating baby ones raw, I didn't realize the fun I could have with the crispy critters. And onions..what magic he conjures up with cooked onions, as their soft sweetness, sometimes heightened with caramelization, are used as stuffed shells, a pasta-less pasta, a tart, and as a delicious component of a burger!

Have you read about trendy sous-vide cooking and the $2000 thermal circulator set-ups? Get a Foodsaver* to vacuum pack your food in plastic bags, or just wrap it in Saran-wrap* or other cellophane to keep in the flavors while cooking it at ~ 160 F. A steady burner/range, thermometer and some ice cubes will get you through most any sous-vide recipe in your home.

Want to WOW your guests, try his pureed sea scallops, and cook on low temperature as he describes, or make Chicken Faux Gras, Corn Nugget Crab Cakes, or various desserts even.

Try even his version of a lobster roll as a burger, for a fun appearance, and all the luscious taste of lobster.

I cook "higher end" meals for 8-24 people at a time, and often wonder how to serve something new and stunning...well, here's my source of ideas for the next few years! It's easy to see his recipe, and dream up another use for his technique with a different food or other variation. This is the measure of a great teacher..you are not bound to one recipe...he opens your eyes to all sorts of riffs, or variations you can do, and it's not too involved at all.

By the way, this is his second book, the first, Michel Richard's Home Cooking with a French Accent (1993), is a wonderful collection of fairly easy to make recipes with excellent general advice on preparation. Back then, he "tweaked" foods to reveal their best, i.e. adding a little mushroom to enhance a curry sauce, and possibly adding a little cayenne, for a different variation. These hints are even better in Happy in the Kitchen.

There are stunning photographs, and each recipe is well written.

BUY this book and start cooking and eating, and find yourself also Happy in the Kitchen.

62 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars With a bullet! Superb techniques and insights. Buy it NOW! October 13, 2006

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

`Happy in the Kitchen' by the outstanding French / American chef, Michel Richard is a book all foodies should immediately buy and read from cover to cover, twice. If you are a card-carrying cooking amateur or professional, stop wasting your time reading this review, go to the top of the page, and click yourself an order for this volume. Now! At the very worst, put this book on the top of your Christmas wish list and give it to your best, or best-heeled friend.

Mentioning Christmas reminds us that Monsieur Richard looks remarkably like old St. Nick himself, and this book is simply chocked full of goodies for the adventuresome chef. I immediately place this among the few exceptional books by leading American restaurant chefs, such as Thomas Keller's `The French Laundry Cookbook', Judy Rodgers' `The Zuni Café Cookbook', Eric Ripert's `A Return to Cooking' and Paul Bertolli's `Cooking by Hand'. I've read several `good' restaurant books, all with their fair share of useful recipes for the home kitchen. But, I've also read many restaurant cookbooks which have very little value for the average home cook, even for the serious amateur cook, since they teach relatively little which adds to our basic understanding of cooking and less to our arsenal of useful techniques. Monsieur Richard does all of these things, and he does them well.

I may even go so far as to say that Michel Richard may be America's answer to Spain's inventive Ferran Adria, if it were not for the equally inventive Thomas Keller. The thing is, however, that Richard has done better than Keller of communicating his techniques to us mere mortals in the kitchen. At the very least, he has done a much better job (witness the title of the book) of communicating the joy of inventive cooking in the kitchen. And, this is a level of inventiveness which goes far beyond the ability to cook without a recipe and come up with good dishes from a selection of ingredients found in the refrigerator on any given day.

For starters, Michel makes us aware of the value of many old, but uncommon or new but formerly expensive kitchen tools. The most surprising on this list is the home version of a deli food slicer, Michel is pointing out that there are now small, inexpensive home models which will work very well, thank you. My favorite is the old food mill which has clearly NOT been replaced by the food processor, and which does several important tasks in Richard's techniques.

The book's main section of recipes is organized very much like a graduate level text on cooking ingredients and techniques. The first main section, `Vegetables' is organized around eight (8) very important vegetables (one, the tomato, is actually a fruit), techniques used with these vegetables, and a few very interesting dishes to illustrate what you can do with these foods.

What is so immediately great about some of the techniques in this book is that they are sound, easy solutions to major cooking problems. My favorite example is the problem of poaching chicken or any other dryish low fat meat such as `the new pork'. I commonly use a venerable James Beard method for poaching chicken breasts when I need chicken meat for a salad. The paradox is that if you leave the chicken in the poaching liquid for too long or at too high a heat, it will literally dry out while surrounded with a water-based liquid. So, it will become too tough and stringy when you cut it up and mix it with the usual mayonnaise, onions, and celery. Richard's solution in retrospect is so simple and obvious, one may be ashamed that they didn't think of it themselves. The trick, used in several different recipes, is to wrap the raw meat in plastic wrap (be sure to avoid plastic which includes PVC) and poach the chicken breast `sausage' at a moderate temperature, somewhere around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of Richard's other major techniques is in the use of packaged gelatin as an intermediate ingredient in forming ingredients before or during cooking, and in maintaining moisture. But wait, haven't French chefs been using gelatin for centuries in creating aspics and the like. Of course they have. What we have here is Michel Richard's putting old wine in very new, and delightfully friendly bottles, and making it all feel like great fun.

In spite of the fact that most of this book is best suited for the advanced amateur or professional (if only because there is nothing here which is quick or easy on the first few tries), it still has some remarkably well illustrated presentations of some really basic techniques. As always, I pay close attention to an author's treatment of lamb. And, lo and behold, Richard has a superbly illustrated technique for preparing my favorite lamb shoulder for braising, following a superior recipe for braised lamb shoulder or `melon'.

A third seemingly novel technique is Richard's use of `waters', the natural juices retrieved from some vegetables, most notably tomatoes. The fact is that this is not new with Richard. Paul Bertolli discusses this material at great length, but I have seen practically no mention of it in even the most complete and authoritative Italian cookbooks. What I have seen is Deborah Madison's excellent advice to use similar resources in general in stock making to make the stock match the main ingredient in a dish.

With the great quality of this book, one wonders why Richard took so long to bring it to us. But now we have it and I for one am enormously grateful. Look for a discount, but it is truly worth every penny to someone who is serious about having fun in the kitchen!

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun cooking again! November 9, 2006

By Sushi

Format:Hardcover

This book actually had me excited about cooking again. The recipes are

interesting and not so complicated, that just reading them makes you want to run right out and get the ingrediants to try them. You can tell from reading the book that Chef Michel Richard loves cooking and his enthusiasm

is infectious! His anecdotes and stories are very funny and you can see he has a great sense of humor which come out in his recipes. I have over 700 cookbooks, but this is one I actually use, especially for inspiration and some new techniques that the chef teaches in this fab cookbook.

The photos are stunning also.