The celebrity of chefs was near peak pre-pandemic and now when we’re all cooking at home and lusting after restaurant quality meals, the celebration of foodies is at an all-time high. How often do we catch ourselves listening to/watching/reaching about our favorite chefs? With front of house closed, professional kitchens are more open to us than ever before and I for one couldn’t be more excited.
In this month of love, we’re taking a minute to recognize a few of our favorite chefs and their go to ingredients.
Yotam Ottolenghi
Known for recipes that run the gambit from adventurous to aspirational, Yotam Ottolenghi reminds us the importance of savoring process and patience in the kitchen. Elevated family food is the core of his cooking and it’s carried him into two London based restaurants and the homes of many thanks to his celebrated collection of cookbooks.
We especially love this article by Yotam published in the New York Times this summer. It tells the story of closing his test kitchen and bidding (a temporary) goodbye to his team of six. That team went home to locales near and far. The recipe development continued with feedback from the most honest of critics: Family.
Ottolenghi + SKORDO
Erin French
Growing up in Maine, you hear stories of local kids who make it big and the highest praise is saved for folks who come home and do right by the towns that raised them. Those rare characters who leave a transformative mark on their formative landscapes, strengthening both the person and the place in the process.
Erin French did that. She built a restaurant whose scale mimics the intimacy of Maine’s Midcoast, whose menu is based on the weather and a style that honors the chef’s personal capacity. Erin’s work isn’t about introducing the masses to Freedom, ME; It’s about preserving the growers, makers and community whose grace allowed her to come home and keep going. The end result is a restaurant founded in grit and rooted in place.
Erin French + SKORDO
Erin recently asked SKORDO to be part of The Lost Kitchen Winter Market. Check out our recent blog post about this collaboration here: My Afternoon at The Lost Kitchen. These are a few of the ingredients Erin selected for the market
Melissa Clark
If you're a New York Times foodie, you know Melissa's cooking. She's a food writer, recipe developer and the #1 pusher of canned fish. There are 11 recipes involving anchovies in her latest book. As a fan of briny and boney bites, that seems like the perfect amount. Along with her affinity for fish, Melissa loves spices. She has four spice drawers in her New York City home kitchen. That's a lot of real estate for ingredients!
I'm a fan of Melissa's direct approach to writing recipes. Her voice is clear, best practices relayed and end preferred end results spelled out. She anticipates the needs of home cooks because she tests all her recipes at home.
Melissa Clark + SKORDO