Potato or Naked Chef

Potato (Williams-Sonoma Collection Series)

Author: Williams Sonoma

Layered in a creamy gratin, shaped into rustic gnocchi with pesto, or puréed into a comforting soup, potatoes are a versatile ingredient in any cook's kitchen. As a light summer dish or a hearty winter supper, potatoes lend themselves to nearly any means of preparation and can be served at any time of year.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Potato offers an array of more than 40 recipes for time-honored favorites as well as delicious new ideas. Whether you want to make perfectly crisp, golden French fries or try spicy roasted fingerling potatoes dipped in a tangy sauce, there are dishes in these pages to please everyone. A chapter of potato salads will help you find an innovative version of this classic using artichokes, feta cheese, or red bell pepper to take along on your next picnic. And, a chapter devoted entirely to breakfast will make your mornings brighter with offerings such as hash browns and sweet potato pancakes with orange-honey butter.

Enticing photographs help you decide which dish to prepare, and photographic side notes highlight key ingredients and techniques, making Potato much more than a fine collection of recipes. An informative basics section and extensive glossary round out all you need to know to make the versatile potato a delicious part of any meal.

Book review: Busy Peoples Slow Cooker Cookbook or 100 Best Vegetarian Recipes

Naked Chef

Author: Jamie Oliver

Now in paperback, the two cookbooks that introduced us to Jamie Oliver and his groundbreaking concept of paring down food to its bare essentials

Stop making reservations, and start cooking dinner! Jamie Oliver introduces us to his concept of "naked" food, and shares his simple, feisty, and delicious recipes that combine bold flavors with fresh ingredients. Oliver's cookbooks appeal to anyone who wants to prepare fantastic meals but doesn't want to spend all night cooking.

The Naked Chef, filled with more than 120 fuss-free recipes and with full-color photographs throughout, proves that even kitchen novices can make perfect foolproof roast chicken, homemade ravioli, five-star risotto, and a chocofreak's dream chocolate tart.

The Naked Chef is an international bestseller, and has sold more than 200,000 copies in hardcover in the U.S.

In The Naked Chef Takes Off, Oliver returns to offer readers more easy and delicious stripped-down recipes. Oliver features mouthwatering breakfasts, tapas, roasts, fish, and desserts. Each recipe is accompanied by Oliver's commentary, which will encourage and inspire cooks of all levels!

The Naked Chef Takes Off has sold more than 150,000 copies in hardcover in the U.S.

Jamie Oliver started cooking at his parents' pub, The Cricketers, in Clavering, Essex, at the age of eight and has since become an international culinary superstar. He is now running Fifteen, one of the best restaurants in London and the subject of the television series Jamie's Kitchen. Jamie has written for The Times, as well as for GQ and Marie Claire magazines. He currently writes for Delicious magazine in the UK and Australia. His shows Oliver's Twist and The Naked Chef can be seen on Food Network. He also started and continues to be involved with the charity Cheeky Chops, which provides training and mentoring for disadvantaged young people, allowing them to follow their dreams and become chefs. Jamie lives in London with his wife, Jools, and their daughters, Poppy and Daisy.

Publishers Weekly

With charming finesse, 24-year-old British chef and BBC television cooking show host Oliver argues a convincing case for "getting naked" in the kitchen. His home-cooking philosophy advocates "stripping down those [restaurant] recipes to something quite basic, and adapting them to what I had in cupboard, pantry, refrigerator or garden." The 120 recipes are organized into 12 chapters--herbs and spices, soups, salads and dressings, pasta, seafood, meats, vegetables, legumes, risotto and couscous, bread, desserts--with a concluding section on stocks and sauces. Oliver's suggested list of ingredient staples--English mustard, durum semolina, couscous, sea salt, soy sauce and capers, among others--reflects today's global pantry. His culinary approach synthesizes top-quality, fresh ingredients with fundamental culinary concepts (e.g., composed salads, soups from stock) upon which readers can build. Oliver dispenses helpful tips and advice with boyish enthusiasm: "the perfect risotto should slowly ooze across the plate--the fact that it isn't moving tells you that it's too dry. Yuck!" Succinct, user-friendly recipes range from traditional English home-cooking favorites, like Pot-roasted Rabbit with Rosemary, Thyme, Sage and Lemon, to international comfort foods, such as Fragrant Green Chicken Curry. A stellar pasta chapter showcases photogenic renditions of Beet Tagliatelle with Pesto, Mussels and White Wine, and Ravioli of Borage, Stinging Nettles, Marjoram and Fresh Ricotta. This is functional home cooking at its grooviest: Oliver delivers a hip classic that will appeal to a new generation of modern epicureans who face the challenge of cooking within the confines of tiny urban kitchens on time-pressed schedules. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

No, Oliver--who looks more like a 16-year-old soccer player than a well-known chef with a best-selling cookbook (in England) and a BBC series to his credit--is not naked; it's his recipes that have been stripped down to the basics and then adapted into a "repertoire of simple, delicious, and feisty" dishes, as he puts it. Writing in a casual, conversational style, Oliver, currently at London's acclaimed River Caf , comes across as as unpretentious and appealing as his recipes, from Ravioli of Smashed Fava Beans, Mint, and Ricotta to Asparagus with Any Interesting Melting Cheese to Fast-Roasted Cod with Parsley, Oregano, Chile, and Lime. There are mouthwatering color photographs of many of the dishes, and interesting kitchen observations are scattered throughout. Unusual but thoroughly engaging, this is strongly recommended. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

People

Oliver looks like Mick Jagger but keeps his apron on; it's the chow that's naked...Oliver's natural charm shines even brighter than the glossy pictures

GQ

Women love guys who can cook. Which explains why Jamie Oliver is as big in the UK as Oasis's Gallagher brothers...In other words, he is everything we-and our gourmet-loving girlfriends-wish we were.

Table of Contents:

Introduction ... 3
First Move ... 7
Herbs and Spices ... 11
Soups ... 14
Salads and Dressings ... 28
Pasta ... 44
Fish and Shellfish ... 82
Meat, Poultry and Game ... 106
Vegetables ... 134
Legumes ... 156
Risotto and Couscous ... 168
Bread ... 182
Desserts ... 196
Stocks, Sauces, Bits, Bobs, This, That and the Other ... 222
Index ... 240
Thanks ... 248