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Lisa
Messinger's
Cookbook Corner
The
Secrets of Success Cookbook:
Signature Recipes and Insider Tips
From San Francisco's Best Restaurants
by
Michael Bauer (Chronicle)
  The
secret of success for Michael Bauer's The Secrets
of Success Cookbook isn't that it is about San
Francisco's top restaurants. Although with gems like
portobello mushroom fritters with aioli from Rivoli;
black mussel soufflé from Aqua;
and grilled fillet of Pacific salmon with Thai red
curry sauce from Terra,
he has a good running start.
No,
the secrets of success are, in fact, the "Secrets
of Success"—more than 300 boxes (one accompanying
each recipe) that spell out exactly what make the
recipes sing. Few cookbook authors, and even dining
critics, do this. It's not often that we get escorted
beyond basic, overused words like "tasty"
and "delicious" to the nuts and bolts of
what really make a recipe tick. Yet Bauer, longtime
food editor and dining critic for the San Francisco
Chronicle, is clearly cut from another tablecloth.
He studied culinary arts in France and the U.S. with
famed chef-teacher Madeleine Kamman and his education
shows. Like a chef, he's not just in it for the final
result, but for the architecture behind it.
"Restaurant
kitchens are a storehouse of tricks and techniques
that can help the home cook," writes Bauer. "At
first glance, some of these secrets may not seem so
special, but they make a big difference in the finished
dish. I first realized that little things really do
mean a lot when I ate the fennel salad at Zinzino...With
only a half dozen ingredients-mint, lemon, olive oil,
Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper-I wondered why the
flavor was so much better than others I'd tasted.
The reason came down to one difference: slicing the
fennel paper thin, which allowed all the elements
to blend, creating a distinct and unified taste. When
I eat a dish this good, I remember it forever, which
is saying a lot...(since) I fork into more than 2,000
restaurant specialties a year."
If
you do nothing more than read through the simple "Secrets
of Success" boxes, it would be like taking a
mini cooking curriculum that could help not only with
the recipes at hand, but your overall cooking as well.
They are certainly translatable beyond the immediate
recipe and, paired with Bauer's enthusiastic recipe
introductions, serve to aid you in cracking culinary
mysteries.
In
the introduction to the portobello mushroom fritters
with aioli, for instance, Bauer writes, "The
fritters are a brilliant combination of sliced mushrooms
that are crunchy on the outside and juicy-soft on
the inside." The behind-the-kitchen-door secret:
"Two kinds of oil. Using both regular and extra-virgin
olive oil lends a bolder flavor to the vinaigrette."
For
the black mussel soufflé, we learn there are
a number of elements that set apart this light, yet
intensely flavored, treasure: "Proportion of
ingredients: The soufflé base has a higher
ratio of eggs and butter to milk than most soufflé
recipes. Layers of flavor: Although light in texture,
the soufflé has an extraordinarily intense
flavor because of the reduction of wine and shallots
added to the base. The addition of seasoned cooked
mussels adds another level of flavor. Briny juices:
The cream sauce incorporates the mussel liquid to
reinforce the seafaring flavors into the dish."
What
Bauer reinforces throughout the book is that it's
a lot more than luck or a stroke of momentary genius
that make such dishes stand out. Here is the prized
portobello mushroom fritters with aioli recipe, followed
by that unforgettable fennel and mint salad.
RECIPES
—Portobello
Mushroom Fritters with Aioli
—Fennel and
Mint Salad
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