Rachael Ray: Just in Time

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Many cookbook writing chefs (Rocco DiSpirito, Jacques Pepin, Charlie Palmer, to name a few) have penned books filled with recipes for the time-challenged. Quick, fast, speedy - with plenty of short-cuts for busy people who still want to cook after work for their families. Underlying these books is the fact that these chefs assume their readers are also going to enjoy more leisurely and expertly prepared meals by good cooks and chefs (like the authors themselves). Rachael Ray has built her Food Network career on 30-Minute Meals. Her latest book, Just in Time (Clarkson Potter 2007) is something like a Cooking for Dummies book. There is a little bit of practically every ethnic cuisine, simplified and American-ified. The recipes are easy to follow, and fairly fool-proof. You don't need much of a culinary background to cook them. The question is: If you use Rachael Ray's cookbook are you going to eventually step up to learning to cook authentic ethnic dishes? Though, if these are plainly everyday dinner ideas for busy people with kids – does it matter? The book's organizational principal is time: dishes that take 15, 30 or 60 minutes – following Rachael's 30-minute meals. You can search through the book either by duration or by chapter - these have amusing titles like - Chapter 3 - Using Your Noodle: Pasta, Noodle Bowls, Couscous, and Baked Pastas or Chapter 6 - Who You Callin' Chicken? You get the idea. Among the 15-minute dishes are nods to China – Five-Spice Sesame Sliced Tuna and Avocado (p. 191), Italian – Pasta Shells with Pancetta, Peas and Shrimp ( p. 116), Mexican – Chicken or Shrimp Fajita-Tortilla Stoup (p. 860. The 30-minute dishes are definitely more interesting. Grilled Chicken Shwarma (p. 249)includes coriander, cumin, cardamom, chili powder, paprika and oddly gill seasoning "such as McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning". These are used to marinate chicken that is then served in toasted pita with a yogurt-tahini sauce. The idea is to replace take-out food with close to take-out food. The 60-minute recipes not only take a bit longer, but some require more expensive ingredients like sea food. There is a hearty Curried Vegetable Soup (p. 78-79) that's from actor Rupert Everett and a time-consuming Crab-Stuffed Shells (p. 154-155). Rather than just listing ingredients by amounts like teaspoon and tablespoon, Rachael also uses "palmful" or "1/2 palmful". She makes sure to tell readers where to look for an unfamiliar ingredient in their supermarkets, or how are particular dish is served. She does include more unusual spices with which many Americans might not be familiar. The head notes are full of yumm-o's and Rachael sayings like "Greco-great". Rachael crams more EVOOs and yumm-os into this book than Emeril ever kick up one of his. If you can stomach the lingo and the perky tone, you'll find some useful easy-to-make dishes. Baby steps for sure, but still steps forward. Previous articles: Rachael Ray: Think You Can Cook? Rachael Ray Greases Dunkin' Donuts Rachael Ray Drinking Game Rachael Ray: Space Invader Rossant on Rachael Ray's Competition Who Rules, Trans-Fat to Foie Gras? Forbes Celebrity 100 Chefs 2006: Cute? Rachael Ray: Media Empire Rachael Ray: A Few Days Later Rachael Ray Every Day from Readers Digest [Food Television - complete] [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef