Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2010 The husband-and-wife culinary team of H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa use chemistry, biology, and a host of creative cooking techniques to produce the uniquely delicious recipes found in
Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work. Building their book around the science of food preparation, Kamozawa and Talbot cleverly explain why quickly freezing fruits and vegetables best preserves their texture, which woods produce the most flavorful smoke, and why folding dough, rather than kneading it, is the key to making easy artisan bread. The recipes encompass the traditional and the exotic--from Roast Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese, to Grilled Potato Ice Cream and Red Cabbage Kimchi Cracklings. Prefacing every section with a fascinating look at the science behind the scenes, Kamozawa and Talbot's thoughtful and tantalizing book allows foodies, chefs, and home cooks of all skill levels to cook with intelligence and confidence.
--Lynette Mong
Q&A with Authors Aki and Alex What inspired you to write Ideas in Food? Aki: We were out in a remote corner of Colorado opening a boutique hotel and restaurant and it was taking longer than expected to get things going. We were doing some cooking but lacked that inspiration that you get from cooking for a restaurant full of people. Our GM at the time introduced us to the idea of a blog and suggested it might be something we would be interested in exploring. I checked it out first and thought it would be fun. Six years later, here we are.
Who’s your favorite author? Chef? Aki: That’s an impossible question because there are so many of both. Some of our favorite chefs are people we’ve been lucky enough to work with or get to know like Tony Maws, Spike Gjerde, Wylie Dufresne, David Chang, Johnny Iuzzini, Daniel Patterson, Michael Laiskonis, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, Marco Canora, Tony Conte, I could go on and on. Beyond that we are inspired by chefs around the world, we are inspired by reading menus and websites, places we’ve eaten and so many different things. Frankly there’s no list we could put together that would be long enough to cover everyone who we find inspiring although the people listed above are incredibly generous and forthcoming with their knowledge and experience and that is always a gift.
As for writers, that list is equally long. I can say that in my youth, before I ever worked in a restaurant, the writers who I read first and stayed with me the longest include MFK Fisher, Laurie Colwin, John Thorne, James Villas, John T Edge, Roy Andries de Groot, Jane Grigson, Pierre Franey, James Beard, Nicholas Freeling, Madeleine Kamman, Calvin Trilling, Raymond Sokolov and Mimi Sheraton. I’ve always been a reader.
You can only cook from three cookbooks for the rest of your life. What are they and why? Alex: Madeleine Kamman’s
The New Making of a Chef, Shirley O. Corriher’s
Cookwise, and to be totally immodest I would choose our book. We’ve actually been cooking from it since we got a copy of the galley.
What’s your favorite book? Why? Alex: The latest edition of
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.
Aki: It’s the one book to rule them all.
How do you come up with your recipes? Alex: Recipes come together in a variety of ways and they are not always calculated. Our past, present and future are essential in directing the paths we take. Flavor memories and life experience guide our inspirations. Think about grilled lobster. I remember sea breezes and too much sun, the smell of seaweed and the aroma of drawn butter. All of these memories are touchstones in the creation of a new dish. Today we know about the different muscle fibers in a lobster and we can use this knowledge to cook each part to delicious succulence. So we combine our inspiration and technical knowledge to come up with something new and delicious.
What’s one food item or implement you couldn’t live without? Alex: Since there are two of us we will take salt and a sharp knife. We share pretty well.
What does your kitchen look like? Aki: It’s a traditional home kitchen with all the usual suspects from a great coffee maker to an electric range (can’t have gas where we live) but tucked away in what used to be our garage is our workshop and library stacked with books and more unusual cooking equipment from immersion circulators to nitrogen tanks and a CVap.
What’s your favorite childhood meal? Adult meal? Alex: Childhood meal would be mac and cheese and my favorite adult meal would be macaroni and cheese with truffles.
Aki: I had a lot of favorite childhood meals and unsurprisingly there is a list in my head without one particular meal standing out in my mind. I was lucky to have a lot of good food in my life and for me the best meals were almost always occasions shared with people I loved and was very comfortable with so the company was as important as the food. That is equally true of my adult meals, great company can overcome bad food and the most amazing meal cannot triumph over an uncomfortable atmosphere at the table.
If you could cook for one person, who would it be? Alex: Steve Jobs
What has been your biggest kitchen mishap? Alex: Depends on the day.
Fill in the blank: My guilty pleasure is ________ Alex: Starbucks Eggnog Latte
Aki: Haagen Daaz Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream, straight from the carton with a spoon.
My superpower wish is: ________ Alex: I would not need any sleep. That would make me a heck of a lot more productive in my day.
Aki: The ability to motivate and inspire the people around me to stay on track and not lose focus because that only makes them stronger.
I need more: ________ Alex: Shelf Space in the kitchen to store all my junk.
Aki: Time to get things done.
Though it's not an all-purpose cookbook, this volume by Kamozawa and Talbot, the Ideas in Food bloggers and "Kitchen Alchemy" columnists for Popular Science, could easily be an everyday reference tool and a source of go-to recipes for anyone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. The authors break down the science behind correctly and deliciously preparing everything from bread, pasta, and eggs (including soft scrambled eggs; hard-boiled eggs, and brown butter hollandaise sauce) to homemade butter and yogurt. Most recipes fall into the "Ideas for Everyone" category, which composes about the first three-quarters of the book; the final section is "Ideas for Professionals," which explores trendy molecular gastronomy topics like liquid nitrogen--used to make popcorn gelato--and carbon dioxide, a necessary tool for making coffee onion rings. Straightforward prose and anecdotes with personality keep this from being a dry food science tome. And accessible recipes for such dishes as a simple roast chicken, green beans almondine, and root beer-braised short ribs mean it never gets too lofty. (Dec.)
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