Pat My Butter

it was a couple weeks ago that i saw thomas keller at bastille.  i didn’t attend the (pricey) cooks and books dinner he hosted (but didn’t cook), but i did go all the way to ballard for the media event beforehand.  i wasn’t especially familiar with media events, but it turns out i like them – free wine, free crab cakes, discounted books, and…thomas keller.

a speech was given, wine was drunk, the back bar chandelier was admired, my book was bought and signed.  five to seven margaritas were drunk afterward at ocho and la carta and it was a good night all around.

but in the time since, i’ve been flipping through keller’s new book, ad hoc.  the book, like two of his other books (bouchon and the french laundry), is named after one of his restaurants and the recipes reflect the food served there.  ad hoc, in yountville, ca, is keller’s most casual restaurant, serving family style meals for manageable prices – there might be skirt steak or grilled quail or roast chicken.

i’ll willingly admit i bought the thing (it’s heavy) because i wanted him to sign it and because i thought would look nice on the bookshelf.  it hasn’t yet left my kitchen table, though, and it’s usually splayed open (its large, heavy pages make this easy to do).  i’ve certainly flipped through the french laundry a few hundred times, too, but my focus is always on the pictures (a recipe title like “sautéed monkfish tail with braised oxtails, salsify, and cèpes” makes me want to go to the french laundry, not start cooking).

ad hoc is different.  there’s a recipe for caramelized fennel, one for iceberg lettuce slices, split pea soup, and chicken pot pie.  they’re things i want to eat now, tonight, on a seattle day when it gets dark 3 pm.  the recipes are detailed enough that the cooking is entertaining, but not to the extent that you need to start three days ahead.

maybe it’s the season, or that i love pretty things in a jar with a ribbon for gifts, but my favorite section is the one called “lifesavers”.  this includes nut butters, chutneys, compotes, and easy to make jams.  next year everyone’s getting wine-steeped golden raisins.

the pictures are beautiful, big, colorful.  it’s a playful book, too, as far as serious chef thomas keller goes.  recipe ingredients are shown in their pre-mixed state – a sieve of flour, a couple cracked eggs, an inverted cup of sugar and a lump of chocolate show the simplicity of chocolate chip cookies.  there are light bulbs hung next to helpful hints and pictures of keller doing things like holding his finger to his lips because the lamb is resting.

i like to fondle pretty cookbooks in barnes and noble as much as the next person – but for ad hoc, just spend the 50 bucks (or $31.50 on amazon) and bring it home.