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 Almost a year ago “Happy in the Kitchen” by Michel Richard arrived on the Project Foodie doorstep. I eagerly read it, raved about it, and told Husband “read this – you’ll love it”. In typical husband-speed he did. About two months ago he began reading it, and reading it, and reading it. When he got done in mid-December, dozens of pages had turned corners for recipes he wanted to cook and we started talking about actually cooking many of them. Lest you think he would behave this way for just any cookbook, I asked him to explain his excitement over Happy in the Kitchen:
“Rarely do I read through a whole cookbook and every so often I pick out recipes that we should try in the Project Foodie kitchen. That changed when I read Michel Richard’s, “Happy in the Kitchen”. I thought that we had received another coffee table book from a famous chef. How wrong I was. Not only did I read through the book from cover to cover, but I picked out dozens of recipes that I’d like to make. Michel’s cooking is certainly not ordinary. He’s an avid fan of saran wrap, freezing, meat slicers, and many other techniques that I rarely have used in the kitchen. His recipes are approachable, very well written and well edited, with pictures that look like they actually match the recipe they reflect! Many of the recipes use techniques that I would have never have thought of using on my own, but turn out to be fairly simple in the end. Though many of the recipes require multiple days, the end result looks to be worth the effort.”
Famous last words that we’re going to put to the test because, over ambitious foodies that we are, we’ve decided to cook the book, or at least some of it. Based on Husband’s selections, and liberal pruning on my part, we have about 30 Happy in the Kitchen recipes selected to make. Now, if you are familiar with Happy in the Kitchen you’ll know that is a lot of cooking because many of the recipes, require multiple days to cook. As a result, our plan is to make one meal every month or so over the next year. We’ll reevaluate next year to see if we want to continue, but 12 meals should give us a pretty good introduction into Michel Richard’s style. First up we’re making Silky Syrah Short Ribs. Check back next week to see how it turned out. In the mean time, if you are a Happy in the Kitchen fan then join the fun with us and share your thoughts on the recipes. We’ve added the cookbook into Project Foodie Track & Tag (check it out here) which means you can save a summary of each individual recipe, rate the recipes, and add comments on the recipes. The recipes themselves are accessible only through the print book, but this way everyone who enjoys Happy in the Kitchen can share their experiences. Join the fun and become Happy in the Kitchen! PS: We’re still looking for a skills/technique based cookbook to cook through and I’ll be writing about that in the weeks to come!
Disclosure: Samples of products discussed in this post may have been provided to Project Foodie by publicists and/or manufacturers.
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