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Overview
Written as a series of interconnected essays—with recipes—Relæ provides a rare glimpse into the mind of a top chef, and the opportunity to learn the language of one of the world’s most pioneering and acclaimed restaurants.
Chef Christian F. Puglisi opened restaurant Relæ in 2010 on a rough, run-down stretch of one of Copenhagen’s most crime-ridden streets. His goal was simple: to serve impeccable, intelligent, sustainable, and plant-centric food of the highest quality—in a setting that was devoid of the pretention and frills of conventional high-end restaurant dining. Relæ was an immediate hit, and Puglisi’s “to the bone” ethos—which emphasized innovative, substantive cooking over crisp white tablecloths or legions of water-pouring, napkin-folding waiters—became a rallying cry for chefs around the world. Today the Jægersborggade—where Relæ and its more casual sister restaurant, Manfreds, are located—is one of Copenhagen’s most vibrant and exciting streets. And Puglisi continues to excite and surprise diners with his genre-defying, wildly inventive cooking.
Relæ is Puglisi’s much-anticipated debut: like his restaurants, the book is honest, unconventional, and challenges our expectations of what a cookbook should be. Rather than focusing on recipes, the core of the book is a series of interconnected “idea essays,” which reveal the ingredients, practical techniques, and philosophies that inform Puglisi’s cooking. Each essay is connected to one (or many) of the dishes he serves, and readers are invited to flip through the book in whatever sequence inspires them—from idea to dish and back to idea again. The result is a deeply personal, utterly unique reading experience.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781607746508 |
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Publisher: | Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed |
Publication date: | 11/11/2014 |
Sold by: | Random House |
Format: | eBook |
Pages: | 448 |
Sales rank: | 784,244 |
File size: | 29 MB |
Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
When I opened Relæ in 2010, the last thing I wanted was for it to be just another fine dining restaurant. Our entire philosophy is grounded in the idea that conventional fine dining—with its big round tables, waitstaff showing you the way to the toilet and constantly scraping the crumbs off the thick tablecloth, jazz music piping through the speakers—has little do with the way people actually want to eat. Rather, we want the dining experience at Relæ to be simple and unpretentious, focusing solely on gastronomy. Everything else—all those unnecessary details—is stripped away. We describe our restaurant’s philosophy as “cut to the bone.”
Similarly, when I sat down to write this book, I didn’t want it to be a conventional cookbook that readers were expected to page through from cover to cover. I could have written it the easy way: line up fifty to one hundred recipes and scatter some pictures throughout. But my goal was not just to give you an introduction to the food we do and make it possible for you to cook it yourself. I wanted to show you the creative process behind our work and the ideas that inform the fundamentals of our kitchen.
As I was thinking about this book, I realized that all our dishes are interconnected by the ideas behind them—the practical ideas, theoretical ideas, and technical ideas. The dishes themselves are the most superficial expression of our work. Rather than just list the ingredients and step-by-step methods for each dish, I felt it was more useful to actually articulate the concepts that underlie them.
To be honest, I rarely read cookbooks, though I love to buy them. I have shelves and shelves lined with colorful covers emblazoned with big chefs’ names writing about everything from nose-to-tail cooking to German fine dining. That said, I rarely have time to read them, and whenever I do grab one, I impatiently open it up, flip through a few pages, and then close it again. Maybe I’ll pick it up later and take another peek. Admittedly, I never cook from others’ recipes; I want to put my imprint on everything I do. I might be interested in how Fergus Henderson cooks trotters, but ultimately I will use his work as inspiration and find my own way of cooking them.
I want you to use the recipes in this book in the exact same way. Feel free to look up a dish and cook it exactly as it is written on the page. But I would be even happier if you plunged into this book just to see how we pickle mackerel, how we plate that dish with cauliflower, and then have a go at it yourself. I want you to grab this book, open it like a deck of cards, and flip to whatever attracts you. Once a dish has captured your attention, take a look at the handful of ideas listed at the bottom of the page; hopefully that sparks your curiosity and leads you to another spot in the book with another list of interconnected dishes and ideas. Each dish in this book is grounded on a set of ideas—and each idea is the basis for several other dishes, dishes you can then jump to and have a look at. Everything is connected in a sort of web in which one thing springs out of another in a big hot pot of inspiration, hard work, and craft. I want you to mix and match all these ideas and thoughts. Take what you can use, throw away what you don’t like, and make it your own. That is what the cooking at Relæ is about, and I hope that that’s what this book inspires you to do.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Chad RobertsonAcknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Groundwork
The Initial Idea
Jægersborggade
Staff
Locavorism: When It Makes Sense, and When It Does Not
Organic: Is a Certification All That?
Breaking Bread: The Cornerstone of an Ideal Meal
Chapter 2: Ideas on a Plate
Liquids
Water
Wine
Fruit Vinegars
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Animals
Lamb
Fat
Chicken
Hindsholm Pork
Butter
Buttermilk
Land
Jerusalem Artichokes
Carrots
Horseradish
Celery Root
Herbs
Cresses
Citrus
Unripe Strawberries
Elderflower
Crab Apple
Nuts
Seeds
Olives
Sea
Mussels
Coastal Fish
Mackerel
Sea Lettuce
Anchovy
Söl
Kelp
Manipulations
Fermentation
Pickling Fruits and Vegetables
Pickling Fish
Cooking in Butter Emulsion
Cooking Salads
Precision Cooking
Barely Cooking
Stocks
Nut Milks
Hiding on the Plate
Textures
Contrasting Temperatures
Crunch!
Chewy
Leathery
Dehydrating/Rehydrating
Vegetable Skins
Salting and Brining Vegetables
Salting and Brining Meats and Fish
Juiciness, the Natural Sauce
Flavor
Butter and Bitter
Charred and Grilled
Toasted and Nutty
A Touch of Umami
Meat with Seafood
Minerality
Theory
Building onto a Dish
Evolving a Technique
Snacks
Challenging the Guest
Vegetarian
Vegetables over Meat
Intertwining Flavors
Savory Desserts
Nose-to-Tail Cooking
Leaf-to-Stem Cooking
Acidity
Creativity Is in All of Us
Where Is the Cheese Trolley?
Inspirations
Italy
Denmark
France
elBulli
Thailand
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Chapter 3: Dishes 225
Snacks
Herb Bouquet
Celery Root Taco
Grilled Jerusalem Artichokes
Grilled Corn
Shallots and Nigella
Kornly Cracker
Oxalis Roots
Herbivorous Starters
Unripe Strawberries, Cress, and Buttermilk
Sheep’s Milk Yogurt, Radishes, and Nasturtium
Cucumber, Caraway, and Lemon Balm
Smoked Beet “Fish” and Elderflower
Beet, Crab Apple, and Söl
Cooked Onions, Buttermilk, and Nasturtium
Omnivorous Starters
Lumpfish Roe, Daikon, and Almonds
Oysters, Cabbage, and Capers
Mussels, Seaweed, and Allumettes
Squid, Mussels, and Seaweed
Raw Beef, Anchovies, and Ramsons
Lamb, Shrimp, and Dill
White Asparagus and Anchovies
Pickled Skate, Mussels, and Celery Root
Pickled Mackerel, Cauliflower, and Lemon
Cod, Kohlrabi, and Skins
White Onions, Crayfish, and Fennel
Herbivorous Seconds
Turnips, Chervil, and Horseradish
New Potatoes, Warm Berries, and Arugula
Potato, Seaweed, and Pecorino
Lettuce, Smoked Almond, and Olive Oil
Asparagus, Sunflower Seeds, and Mint
Jerusalem Artichoke, Quinoa, and Coffee
Sunflower Seeds, Kornly, and Pine
Baked Potato Puree, Two Ways
Barley, Cauliflower, and Black Trumpet
Herbivorous Mains
Carrot, Elderflower, and Sesame
Charred Cucumber and Fermented Juice
Romaine, Egg Yolk, and Nettles
Enoki, Kelp, and Seaweed
Fennel, Smoked Almond, and Parsley
Dried Zucchini and Bitter Leaves
Fried Salsify and Bergamot
Salted Carrot and Oxalis “Béarnaise”
Omnivorous Mains
Pork from Hindsholm and Rye
Lamb, Turnip, and Samphire
Cauliflower, Veal Sweetbread, and Basil
Chicken Wings, White Asparagus, and Anchovies
Wild Duck, Elderberries, and White Onions
Salad, Beef, and Brontë Pistachio
Veal, Grilled Sauce, and Anchovy
Cheese and Desserts
Whipped Goat Cheese and Parsley
Nordlys, Carrots, and Orange Zest
Chanterelles, Apple, and Granité
Mandarin, Buttermilk, and Egg Yolk
Milk, Kelp, and Caramel
Rhubarb Compote, Almond, and Vinegar
Jerusalem Artichoke, Malt, and Bread
Sheep’s Milk Yogurt, Beets, and Black Currant
Hokkaido Pumpkin and Mandarin
Corn, Bread Crumbs, and Marjoram
Elderflower and Rhubarb
Jerusalem Artichokes, Coffee, and Passion
Coffee Table
Appendix: Recipes
Index