Craft of Cooking

Tom Colicchio reinvented the celebrity chef book with his award-winning Think Like a Chef. Now he's doing the same thing for the restaurant book with Craft, a look at the life and dishes of his acclaimed New York restaurant. Tom Colicchio's New York restaurant Craft is all about the food. Not food as a medium for feats of culinary sleight of hand, but foods that taste unmistakably like themselves-- only more so. This is simple food that is not simplistic, dishes whose purpose is to celebrate fresh, seasonal, usually local ingredients. Rarely do the 125 recipes in Craft require the skills of a professional chef, but they always call for the insight of someone who knows how to bring out the essential flavor and texture of top-quality ingredients. That is what Tom Colicchio offers in Craft, along with essays that bring us behind the scenes in his restaurant, from early-morning receiving to dinner service. Like The French Laundry Cookbook, it articulates a great chef's passions and fundamental approach to the enjoyment of superb food.