Ruhlman's Twenty (58 page)

This book is dedicated to Marlene Newell, of Oakville, Ontario, whose invaluable thoughts, organization, and apparently ceaseless, always intelligent work in the kitchen made this book possible in the short time I had to write it. I am a compulsive writer—I’m compelled to write in the way sharks are compelled to swim. Marlene runs a cooking site called CooksKorner (www.cookskorner.com) and is a compulsive cook, a good one, self-taught. What defines her is that elusive descriptor whose ultimate source is rarely known: passion. Marlene is a passionate cook. Ask any chef what they look for in a new young cook, and the answer is never a good education, pedigree, résumé, intelligence, good hands, speed. It’s almost always passion. Passion cannot be taught. Everything else can.

Throughout the writing of this book, Marlene took on the responsibility of testing, retesting, commenting, and revising recipes. In more than one instance, she took a recipe that was simply not working and figured out how to fix it. She tracked every change we made in the kitchen to ensure it actually made it into the revised manuscript. When all the recipes were ready to be sent out into the world, she enlisted a small core of cooks to further test and comment, and to address issues we were uncertain about. If any of the recipes here don’t work, we know who to blame. (Kidding, Marlene! I bow to you with deep gratitude. You’ve done an amazing job. I couldn’t have done it without you.)

Marlene’s testers, to whom I am also indebted: Barbara Laidlaw, Matthew Kayahara, Dana Noffsinger, and Kim Shook. Thank you all.

Thank you, Bill LeBlond, the editor at Chronicle Books who said, in a flash of inspiration, “Now that’s a book I could really get behind,” before I could blink (Wait a minute, what did I say?!).

I’m enormously grateful to Vanessa Dina, who has brought such an elegant presentation to the black-and-white paragraphs I delivered.

Judith Dunham, this book’s copy editor, brought clarity where there was confusion, and accuracy to the recipes and instructions where there were faults and inconsistenies, always invisibly, leaving me to take the credit. Thank you, Judith.

I leaned on many chefs when I had questions or needed feedback on ideas in this book. I am very lucky to be able to call on them and very grateful for their friendship: Michael Pardus, Bob DelGrosso, Dave Cruz, Shuna Fish Lydon, Cory Barrett, Michael Symon, Doug Katz, and Eric Ripert.

I’ve learned so much from Thomas Keller— everything from details (curing salmon with citrus) to technique (cooking, puréeing, and straining vegetables for soups and sauces) to kitchen philosophy (finesse)—I scarcely know in my mind where he ends and I begin.

And last, boundless thanks to my wife, Donna Turner, for the photography that fills this book. Donna spent many years working as a newspaper and magazine photographer, with side interests in fine art but not food. She was instead forced by the circumstance of her marriage into the world of food photography and, to my delight and pride, covers it like a journalist, understanding that my interest in food photography is in conveying information, and in showing food the way it really should look in a home kitchen. I was your biggest liability, Donna, and you never let it show. For that, for everything, thank you.

Food styling by
Donna Turner Ruhlman

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

eISBN 978-1-4521-1045-5

Chronicle Books LLC

680 Second Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.chroniclebooks.com