Who is this book for? themselves and want to lift their cooking to the next level up without breaking
the bank account and without necessarily needing to spend more time in the
kitchen. If you like hosting dinners, lunches or brunches, this book will give
you ways of creating a more memorable experience for your guests. You will
learn about different principles and practices to make the not only the dish
flavorful and visually beautiful, but also give it stories that enhance the experience
of the dish. So anyone who enjoys cooking and likes to create memorable
experiences may enjoy this book.
professional experience. I am very lucky that my parents took us to eat all
over the world. They took us to three Michelin star restaurants as well as tiny
mom and pop hole in the wall in the mountains of Nepal. I grew up eating food
from all over the world and from all socio-economic level. This gave me an
appreciation for what is common to everyone around the world and what is
different and unique to each culture and group.
was in self catered halls so I cooked for myself two to three times a day. Then
I spend most of the last 15 years self employed, which means I worked from home
and generally cooked two to three meals a day for myself. I also always enjoyed
having friends over for dinner, so I liked cooking three course meals or big
meal with lots of small dishes.
well as I cook now. It was never the plan to make a long lasting restaurant. I
just had problems with the internet so I couldn’t do my business coaching and I
thought that my cooking was good enough to do a creative 7 course dinner for
locals who are tired of always eating the same thing. I thought it would be a
fun thing to do for a few months but never that guests would be so happy and
that I would receive such amazing reviews and awards. I am still blown away. I
still expect guests to tell me it’s just pretentious and doesn’t actually taste
good… and every time, people give us the most amazing compliments. It’s so
wonderfully rewarding and humbling. It also makes me appreciate “real” chefs
who run restaurants that serve 200 people per night. I couldn’t do that and it
wouldn’t interest me. I love serving a maximum of 12 people per night because
it feels like a family dinner. That’s also part of why I relate so much to home
cooks.
culinary education or experience working in a professional kitchen, how is this
possible?
Everyone told me I was crazy and it was a stupid idea. I completely understand
why: starting a fine dining restaurant with no culinary background, 30 minutes
away from the closest tourist town and without a car seems like a crazy idea.
situations, and I knew what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at. I designed
the entire experience to focus on my strengths and avoid my weaknesses.
time and if one person wants a steak well done, another a steak medium rare and
another wants salmon medium, I would screw up. I don’t have that kind of
experience and developing that skill would take me years of working in a
kitchen.
knew that I could create 7 small nice dishes, and if everyone eats the same
thing at the same time and they’re not rushed, then it’s fairly easy: I prepare
one dish before they arrive so that it can be served quickly, and while they
eat I have time to prepare the next one. With 3h30, it gives me 30 min per
dish. Knowing that everyone is planned in advance and that you have the whole
day to prepare the different bits, it becomes possible to do completely alone.
something I had practiced for many times, and I knew everything I was doing
throughout the day. With time, my dishes evolved and I often can’t believe what
I serve.
dining?
food only to zoom out and focus on the entire experience. Fine dining is not
just about the food, it’s also about stories, about the search for unique
ingredients and unexpected combinations. To elevate home cooking to fine dining,
you want to think of your dinner in courses and about the story you’re telling
through the evening. Each dish then has to have one to three unique components
that surprise guests. You want to visually present and introduce each dish in a
way that makes it appealing and memorable. Finally, you want to express who you
are through your dinner because it will make your food authentic and exciting.
Category: Adult Non-fiction , 128 pages
Genre: Creative Cookbook / Fine Dining
Publisher: Amazon
Release date: Dec 10, 2018
Tour dates: Jan 7 to 31, 2019
Content Rating: G
Book Description:
Six months after opening my first restaurant, one of my dishes was selected as “25 dishes to travel around the world”, featuring me next to culinary legend Heston Blumenthal.
Exciting and healthy food doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Over the years, I have seen some of the most exciting dishes come from the simplest kitchens and the most modest ingredients. The purpose of this book is to focus our attention away from the distractions of fancy kitchen equipment and luxury produce and instead focus our attention towards ingenuity in the kitchen and culinary innovation.
For some strange reason, cooking is taught in books as a series of mechanical steps to follow and repeat with precision. I see cooking as a creative art like painting or playing music: it is the freedom of expression that is most interesting to me. When we create from an artistic perspective, we give birth to something new and potentially magical.
The purpose of this book is not to teach you specific recipes, because the ingredients you will find in your local organic food market will likely not be the same as the ones we see here. Nor is the purpose to show you how to imitate us. The purpose of this book is to guide you into thinking about your dishes in a way that elevates them to a fine dining level, from ingredients which are easily accessible to you. Naturally, you will find a few recipes, but most importantly you will find a new way to look at food.
We will share how we think about food shopping, searching for unusual ingredients, the combinations of flavors, techniques, textures, nutritional value, and of course, plating. The purpose of this book is to guide you to become a more exciting, creative and adventurous version of yourself in the kitchen. What separates a craft from an art form is the story behind it; cooking is a craft, while fine dining is an art form.
If you want to create fine dining dishes, start to focus your attention on the different stories a dish can tell. Some stories can be told through your cooking, and others are told through words. Taking the time to present your dishes before people eat is crucial to creating anticipation for the food they will eat.
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