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Introduction

This is a cookbook of simple recipes with simple ingredients that bring back the Simple Pleasures of eating. It is written by two food lovers, one a home cook, the other a chef – both with a deeply held belief in “real food.”

CHRIS

Do you ever feel that food has gotten too complicated and recipes too intimidating for everyday cooks? Most of the food we remember so fondly from our childhoods probably did not include bonito flakes or emulsified thistle fronds. Nowadays, our main exposure to cooking is not so much around the kitchen table but in the over-hyped kitchen battlegrounds of cable TV chef competitions. For these culinary combatants no ingredient is too obscure and no technique too tedious. Each dish is plated with a staggering list of ingredients and toppings in architectural and artistic balance. And reading a restaurant menu has become a challenge. There are no more “Shrimp”; they have become “Panamanian Prawns.” A deconstructed chicken pot pie might arrive at the table in three separate dishes.

All of this culinary wizardry is fun and has made dining out much more of an adventure than it has ever been. But it has distracted us from the kind of eating that we used to enjoy on a daily basis – full of distinct and satisfying flavors, comforting textures and food memories that stretch back generations.

Chef Daniel Agüera sparked the idea for this book when he posted a recipe on social media of a simple meal of tomato sauce over rice topped with a fried egg – arroz con huevos, a traditional basic dish from his childhood in northern Spain.

I began to think of similar dishes from my own youth, like pastina in chicken broth, fried peppers with egg and potato, rice pudding with big juicy raisins, Davy Crockett toast smothered in confectioner’s sugar, eggs poached in pasta with peas. The richness in these dishes doesn’t come from expensive ingredients or the complexity of their preparation, but rather from the warmth of the memories they evoke of simpler times.

Chef Daniel and I were blessed to have had loving grandmothers who taught us about food from the time we could walk – immersing us in flavors and textures that somehow became part of what we knew as love. His Spanish abuela showed him how to cook from the heart, trusting his senses and skills. My Southern Italian “Gram” performed small miracles in her tiny Brooklyn kitchen every day. On Sundays, my sisters and I would climb up on chairs at her kitchen table to trim green beans, shape meatballs or mix chopped parsley into the ricotta. Again, the simple pleasures.

Buon appetito!

DANIEL

During the final phase of my culinary education in Spain, the first assignment was to interpret a classic dish, to take a standard recipe and make it our own. Until this point, we were expected to do as we were told. But now we were asked to approach our work not only as craftsmen, but as creators. The purpose of this exercise was to help us begin to develop and strengthen our own unique viewpoint and master the ability to express this vision on a plate.

I completed that assignment a long time ago but think of it often, especially when I try a dish that is offered as a “fresh take” or “new twist” on a classic recipe. Sometimes the remix is delightful; often it is just puzzling, making me wonder whether the person responsible for a particular interpretation is really familiar with the original version. In those cases, the chef might have been better off simply creating something new.

But I’m no purist. I’m as intrigued by new ingredients, preparations, techniques and flavors as any chef. Experimenting in the kitchen is a chef’s chance to play. That’s important. Equally important is the way that making and eating food creates connections among people – individuals and generations, staff and customers, families and communities. Maybe you’ll create an edible work of art using a palette of flavor, texture, scent and color. Or maybe you’ll make a sandwich. The point is, very simply, to cook for one another.

Buen provecho!

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Our book brings together recipes from our families’ best-loved comfort food traditions, and from American comfort food classics that should always have a place at the table. In all cases, the ingredients are accessible and the cooking techniques are basic and intuitive.

We encourage you to make these recipes with and for your children so they can develop a palate based on essential flavors and textures. You will be giving them food memories they will carry through life and pass on to their own children.

Enjoy!