Word: batali
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Their writing conveys excitement about how food happens. This interest takes them into the exclusive domains of chefs such as Marcus Samuelsson and Mario Batali. “You have to enjoy the process, the raw chemistry, the little petty drama of it,” says Matt. And, to a certain extent, you don’t even have to know exactly what’s being done: “It’s really important to come from an amateur’s point of view, to be amazed. You’re really defending the reader...
...Batali has had offers to open ristorantes in other cities, and he may one day, but he doesn't like to be more than an hour from his kitchens. He and his business partner do have a wine shop in New York (the Italian Wine Merchant, of course). Next summer, he may open an ice-cream shop, where the servers will use a flat spatula, not a scoop, just as they do in Italy...
...regular guy, in other words, Batali can get pretty fussy. And he has a rather extravagant sense of the role cooking can play in our lives. In Holiday Food, he talks of his family's joy at coming together to chop and blanch and bake and consume. When he was a kid, he says, "any meals served at our house were mapped out at least a month in advance." To many home cooks who can barely heat up a pizza after a long day, Batali's heavenly kitchen may sound like hell...
With all his ventures, does Batali have enough time to spend in his own kitchens? He says yes, and he proves it one day at Babbo when he gets in a quiver over a cardoon (sort of a cross between celery and artichoke). "Those great spiky leaves, that bitter, dirty-weed smell..." His voice trails off as though an ordinary vegetable has left him speechless with delight. But once again, it tastes wonderful when he puts a little vinegar and olive oil on it. That's the sign of a great chef: someone who takes a dirty weed and turns...
...half the time, on East Meets West, Tsai cooks expert fusion fare. The other half, on his new food-adventure show Ming's Quest, he's diving for sea urchins, falling off horses or staring down alligators like the Crocodile Hunter. Likewise, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali have taken their chef stars on the road in their own travel series. As Tsai puts it, "The network wanted to get us out of the kitchen." The few remaining hard-core cooking shows succeed because they have a gimmick, like Sara Moulton's stump-the-chef call-in show Cooking Live...