Cooking Education & Reference
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Burnt Toast and Other Disasters: A Book of Heroic Hacks, Fabulous Fixes, and Secret Sauces
A gifty, funny, and practical guide to transforming the most lackluster of ingredients into a delicious meal, making bad food good and making good food even better, from the author of the New York Times bestselling and IACP Award–winning Twelve Recipes.
Dinner is looking meh. Maybe the stove was left unattended for just a second too long for your original plan; maybe the on-sale meat at the supermarket isn't looking quite worth the savings after two days in the fridge. Do you waste food and time trying to start from scratch, or money ordering takeout? No, you face up to the facts, step up your game, and transform that cooking conundrum into a delicious meal. The best way to do that? Follow the guidance of Cal Peternell, a chef coming out of the restaurant kitchen to meet cooks where they are with this funny, practical manual for making Bad Food Good.
Though many pro chefs may be able to get their sustainably sourced, locally grown, 100 percent grass-fed, organic ingredients and gently guide them through careful preparation to a simply sublime dish, most of us don't achieve farm-to-table perfection in every step of the process. From facing down third-day leftovers that have lost a little of their luster to the limits of their local supermarket's quality, many home cooks start at a disadvantage. With his signature dry wit and years of experience cooking for everyone from high-end restaurant patrons to his hungry family, Cal Peternell is here to level the playing field with this bag of tricks for turning standard (or substandard) fare into a meal to be proud of, troubleshooting such situations as:
Making the best of burned food (Burned your toast? Time to make Cheesy Onion Bread Pudding!) Hacking packaged food (including 5 variations on "Hackaroni and Cheese") Things restaurants often do wrong and you can do better (including pesto, queso, bean dip, ranch, and more) Spicing up lackluster vegetables (Brocco Tacos dazzle both in name and in flavor) Snazzing up dishes with "special sauces for the boring" (including vegetable purees and an infinite variety of savory butter sauces) Cal also includes a series of hilarious Old Man cocktails, ranging from the Bitter Old Man (one part bitter, one part brandy) to the Wise Old Man (8 ounces water and a good night's sleep).
Up your cooking game by learning how to spin anything in your pantry or fridge into something special with Burnt Toast and Other Disasters.
Dinner is looking meh. Maybe the stove was left unattended for just a second too long for your original plan; maybe the on-sale meat at the supermarket isn't looking quite worth the savings after two days in the fridge. Do you waste food and time trying to start from scratch, or money ordering takeout? No, you face up to the facts, step up your game, and transform that cooking conundrum into a delicious meal. The best way to do that? Follow the guidance of Cal Peternell, a chef coming out of the restaurant kitchen to meet cooks where they are with this funny, practical manual for making Bad Food Good.
Though many pro chefs may be able to get their sustainably sourced, locally grown, 100 percent grass-fed, organic ingredients and gently guide them through careful preparation to a simply sublime dish, most of us don't achieve farm-to-table perfection in every step of the process. From facing down third-day leftovers that have lost a little of their luster to the limits of their local supermarket's quality, many home cooks start at a disadvantage. With his signature dry wit and years of experience cooking for everyone from high-end restaurant patrons to his hungry family, Cal Peternell is here to level the playing field with this bag of tricks for turning standard (or substandard) fare into a meal to be proud of, troubleshooting such situations as:
Making the best of burned food (Burned your toast? Time to make Cheesy Onion Bread Pudding!) Hacking packaged food (including 5 variations on "Hackaroni and Cheese") Things restaurants often do wrong and you can do better (including pesto, queso, bean dip, ranch, and more) Spicing up lackluster vegetables (Brocco Tacos dazzle both in name and in flavor) Snazzing up dishes with "special sauces for the boring" (including vegetable purees and an infinite variety of savory butter sauces) Cal also includes a series of hilarious Old Man cocktails, ranging from the Bitter Old Man (one part bitter, one part brandy) to the Wise Old Man (8 ounces water and a good night's sleep).
Up your cooking game by learning how to spin anything in your pantry or fridge into something special with Burnt Toast and Other Disasters.
Editorial Reviews
"Peternell applies his Chez Panisse pedigree . . . to easily prove that 'the humblest can be delicious, the good made great.' . . . Peternell's dry sense of humor is the main ingredient. . . . To err is human but to repair divine in this handy and hilarious manual." -- Publishers Weekly
"Along with great recipes…Peternell shows readers that burnt food is nothing to fear and is just another step-perhaps even a new beginning-in the culinary journey." -- Booklist
"There's enough to worry about these days. Cooking, Peternell assures through each carefully written but not-too-serious recipe, shouldn't be one of those things. So burn your vegetables, overcook the rice, and eat a tin of fish for dinner. It will be fine. Actually, it will probably be great." -- Eater
"[Peternell's] personal anecdotes and casual preparation instructions . . . give home cooks permission to tap into their own culinary ingenuity, especially when the situations seem far from perfect. . . . Peternell reminds us that with enough confidence and finesse, these scrappy Quickfire Challenge-like moments in the kitchen can actually be the ones that bring out our most creative inner chefs." -- Fine Cooking
"A clever and useful guide to making messed-up food taste delicious. . . . [a] funny and highly giftable lemonade-out-of-lemons collection." -- Daily Democrat
"The best beginner's cookbook of the year, if not the decade. In addition to being warm, funny and smart, Twelve Recipes will actually teach you to cook… [Peternell] can nudge anyone, from novice to expert, to want to be a better cook… His wit and intelligence are apparent throughout." -- New York Times Book Review on Twelve Recipes
"Full of useful building blocks (like an entire chapter on sauces) that can fit in any modern cook's repertoire…The balance of foundational French technique with American practicality make A Recipe for Cooking a simple yet modern classic." -- Saveur (Best New Cookbooks of Winter 2016) on A Recipe for Cooking
"What makes this book special-…Combine the rambling prose with Peternell's practical advice and delicious flavor combinations and cooking through the recipes feels like having a personal cooking lesson-and a long chat-with the chef himself." -- Bon Appetit (November Cookbook Club Pick) on Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta
"Along with great recipes…Peternell shows readers that burnt food is nothing to fear and is just another step-perhaps even a new beginning-in the culinary journey." -- Booklist
"There's enough to worry about these days. Cooking, Peternell assures through each carefully written but not-too-serious recipe, shouldn't be one of those things. So burn your vegetables, overcook the rice, and eat a tin of fish for dinner. It will be fine. Actually, it will probably be great." -- Eater
"[Peternell's] personal anecdotes and casual preparation instructions . . . give home cooks permission to tap into their own culinary ingenuity, especially when the situations seem far from perfect. . . . Peternell reminds us that with enough confidence and finesse, these scrappy Quickfire Challenge-like moments in the kitchen can actually be the ones that bring out our most creative inner chefs." -- Fine Cooking
"A clever and useful guide to making messed-up food taste delicious. . . . [a] funny and highly giftable lemonade-out-of-lemons collection." -- Daily Democrat
"The best beginner's cookbook of the year, if not the decade. In addition to being warm, funny and smart, Twelve Recipes will actually teach you to cook… [Peternell] can nudge anyone, from novice to expert, to want to be a better cook… His wit and intelligence are apparent throughout." -- New York Times Book Review on Twelve Recipes
"Full of useful building blocks (like an entire chapter on sauces) that can fit in any modern cook's repertoire…The balance of foundational French technique with American practicality make A Recipe for Cooking a simple yet modern classic." -- Saveur (Best New Cookbooks of Winter 2016) on A Recipe for Cooking
"What makes this book special-…Combine the rambling prose with Peternell's practical advice and delicious flavor combinations and cooking through the recipes feels like having a personal cooking lesson-and a long chat-with the chef himself." -- Bon Appetit (November Cookbook Club Pick) on Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta
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