markbittman

I try to do MUCH of my scouting in advance – I 'meet' people in my destinations by e-mail, through friends or professional contacts, and I try not to go anyplace that isn't either recommended by two or three people or at least by someone I've come to trust. As you probably know 'the best place in town' is usually a lousy choice. And, increasingly, all cities serve a brand of international food that is completely uninteresting. So you need to either take a lot of chances or find someone who really knows good local food – and understands that's what you're looking for (not always easy).

I thought I'd done a rhubarb sauce for fish in one of the Minimalist books, but I can't find it. So maybe I need to do it. Jean-Georges' rhubarb soup (in Cooking at home with a 4*chef) is pretty terrific.

There are a few new recipes, but mostly these are books geared to people who find the sheer bulk of HTCE intimidating, and believe me there are plenty of them. Whenever I go on the road, there are people who say 'I don't want to know how to cook everything; I want to know how to cook something." These books are for those people – not, I think I can safely say, for e-gulleters…

I'm trying. And trying to learn. The answer is 'yes,' I'm sure it's possible. But I need to have a better feel for the cuisine, which is coming – but slowly. I don't want to kill authenticity, but I sometimes wonder what it means exactly. I'm quite careful about preserving, or trying to preserve, what I perceive to be the spirit of a recipe. But there are times I may get it wrong.

Good question. None of them is clueless. Some are looking for help, some for new ideas, some for (believe it or not) entertainment and proximity to a celebrity – I find this difficult to take in, but it's clearly true…

"Too expensive" is a personal decision. But I would say that foie gras takes a bit of practice to handle and cook, and for most people it's "too expensive" to fool around with. Truffles, on the other hand, are a no – brainer; you can hardly go wrong with them.

I've always loved Asian food, and I've long done Asian recipes. But the number of Asian recipes I feel comfortable doing has increased with my travels to Asia (in the last couple of years, for example, I've been to China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and India). I'm doing more Mexican recipes as I travel to Mexico more (twice in the last year). I do think many Asian (at least Chinese, Korean, and SE Asian) recipes are great for home cooks (less so Indian and Japanese). HOWEVER, there are many readers who consider these recipes 'too exotic' and I would like to avoid alienating them. Much as I hate to say it, there are plenty of people who are not ready for nam pla!

We evaluated every recipe after the book was done, and removed recipes that I considered to be too esoteric – foie gras, game, truffles, and the like. When I began, I did not know how basic the book would be. When I finished, those recipes seemed out of place. As for making your own vinegar – I couldn't part with it, because it was a pet project of mine. Probably it has no place in HTCE, but what the hell…

The first line in the duck leg recipe is "4 duck legs, trimmed of excess fat." Maybe it should read 'trimmed of all visible fat.' Everything, that is, that you can trim. In my experience, a great deal of the subcuteneous fat is rendered during the initial browning, and that which is rendered during the braising - and it is braising; most braised meats contain fat, after all - didn't seem excessive to me. But I suppose refrigerating and skimming the juices is an option. I did use supermarket ducks. (As you might suspect given my bent, I use supermarket ingredients for testing almost all of my recipes.) I've made that recipe since publishing it, and loved it. Maybe I have a higher fat tolerance? mb

Not to be entirely lazy, but there is an extensive section on exactly that question in How to Cook Everything.

I was asked to come up with a concept for a column in '94; The Minimalist began in '97. I don't have a firm concept, but I do think that to be 'minimalist' a recipe should meet two of these three requirements 1. it's fast – under an hour, preferably half that 2. it has few ingredients – certainly fewer than ten, more like 5 3. has little technique – just a couple of steps. 2 out of 3 ain't bad, if you think about it.

I would defer here; I don't know enough. It's not clear to me how it has changed, or how it will. I'm barely equipped to answer that question about American cuisine!

I'm not sure what I do is really 'new.' I think I do it in my own time, in my own style, and that's what makes it different. That and the fact that it was impossible to be quite as multi-national in previous generations as it is now.

The biggest challenge in working with JG was finding the time; we're both pretty busy. When we do, we cook together, with me scrambling from stove to laptop (I lost one laptop to vinegar spillage). Every recipe we've published was cooked by us, side by side, or at least by him with me by his side (and occasionally vice versa). Quite easy, actually, as long as he is willing to take the guidance of a home cook, which he always has been. If something is crazy difficult I tell him so and we either skip it – that is, discard the notion of doing the recipe – or try to figure out a way around it.

Having never worked in a restaurant, or had any desire to, I understand the sentiment. But there are only a few dozen people in the country making a living as food writers. Corny as it is, a lot of success is about persistence. If you want to write about food, start with a local paper and see if you can work your way into bigger venues. Don't expect to make a living for a long time, or big money ever. I'm working on a big international book, and have been since I finished How to Cook Everything. I'm at the stage where, frankly, I think it will stink. But every book has that stage, so I'm not too worried.

My kids are older – now 25 and 18. my younger daughter and I cooked together every Tuesday for quite a while (she called it The Tuesday Night Café) but my older one was never that interested in cooking with me and I didn't push (after all, this was not my hobby but my work). Now she is a great cook, and does occasionally cook for me.

I must be too old for this question. I go to bed at 10 or 11, too often on a very full stomach.

I began cooking from the standards of my generation: Craig Claiborne, Paula Peck, Julia Child, and of course Joy. I moved on to Marcella Hazan, Julie Sahni, and a continuing series of national and regional cookbooks – none of those was really more influential than any other. This is a current list of my ten favorites; I have to say I would probably make a different one tomorrow. 1. Simple French Food, Richard Olney 2. How to Bake, Nick Malgieri 3. Larousse Gastronomique, 1998 Edition 4. The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, Paula Wolfert 5. Italian Food, Elizabeth David 6. A Book of Middle Eastern Food, Claudia Roden 7. Classic Indian Cooking, Julie Sahni 8. 1000 Recipe Chinese Cookbook, by Gloria Bley Miller 9. Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food 10. The Thrill of the Grill, Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby (Morrow, 1990).

I'm sorry about that; it seems a pretty straightforward recipe to me. Normal ducks, normal utensils. Please explain the problem and I'll try to figure out the answer.

My kitchen was built in 1973; it has not changed. I have an electric stove and oven and formica countertops. I have painted the room so it looks nice. I have decent pots, pans, appliances, and knives, but they're not over the top by any means. I mostly work alone. I test an average of two recipes a day; there are days I do ten, and days I do none, of course. Organization is a constant challenge, but there is some economy of scale in cooking several dishes at once. For example – you cut up all the onions, then all the garlic, and so on. Fortunately, at this point, I kind of know what I'm doing.

Honestly, I don't know. And I think nutritional analyses are notoriously inaccurate anyway. You're the first!

Indian food is incredibly challenging; those of us who did not grow up there have NO intuitive feel for it, and it's not easy to develop one. So I'm currently obsessed by it.

Reviewing restaurants is overrated, believe me. Four out of five restaurants are not worth reviewing. I like good atmosphere, but the food has to be good for me to appreciate it. One of the reasons I'm so devoted to home cooking is that I truly believe good home cooking is better than most restaurant cooking, in almost every regard. The dynamite restaurants are the rare exceptions. To your second question: Being a writer, a cook, travel writer and a critique what do you think about the resaturant business in general and would you ever plan or dream of opening your restaurant, and if so what kind and what rating would you want to achieve? No.

I grew up eating everything that tasted good. When I went to college I could find nothing good to eat, so for about a year I drank Coke and ate vanilla ice cream. Then I started cooking. When it was time to write – I always wanted to be a writer - cooking was what I knew the most about. They say 'write about what you know' so I have. And since then I have continued to learn. And since I spend all my time doing this, I have had plenty of opportunities to learn a lot, and from the best people.

My 'favorite' cuisine changes from year to year. This year I'd have to say it's Indian. Last year Japanese. I retain my love for European food, and think its home cooking is the most appealing, but it has few surprises left for me. I have not eaten at Trio or WD50 so cannot comment. (Trio's menu did not appeal to me.) I have eaten at El Bulli and had a terrific time. Every major city should have one such restaurant, though I doubt that will happen, since Adria's imitators mostly do lousy work. But it's not "real" food – you couldn't eat it too often, could you?