Prune - Tapa dura

A self-trained cook turned James Beard Award-winning chef, Gabrielle Hamilton opened Prune on New York's Lower East Side fifteen years ago to great acclaim and lines down the block, both of which continue today. A deeply personal and gracious restaurant, in both menu and philosophy, Prune uses the elements of home cooking and elevates them in unexpected ways. The result is delicious food that satisfies on many levels. Highly original in concept, execution, look, and feel, the Prune cookbook is an inspired replica of the restaurant's kitchen binders. It is written to Gabrielle's cooks in her distinctive voice, with as much instruction, encouragement, information, and scolding as you would find if you actually came to work at Prune as a line cook. All recipes have been endlessly tried, tasted and tested and are intended for the home cook as well as the kitchen professional, the instructions offer a range of signals for cooks-a head's up on when you have gone too far, things to watch out for that could trip you up, and helpful suggestions. With more than 250 recipes and beautiful photographs to match, home cooks will find Prune's most requested recipes-Grilled Head-on Shrimp with Anchovy Butter, Bread Heels and Pan Drippings Salad, Tongue and Octopus with Salsa Verde and Mimosa'd Egg, Prune's famous Bloody Mary (and all 10 variations). Plus, among other items, a chapter entitled "Garbage"-smart ways to repurpose foods that might have hit the garbage or stockpot in other restaurant kitchens but are turned into appetizing bites and notions at Prune. Unconventional and honest, in both tone and content, this book is a welcome expression of the cookbook as we know it.

Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York's East Village and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. She received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Bon Appetit, Saveur, House Beautiful, and Food & Wine. She has also authored the 8-week Chef column in The New York Times, and her work has been anthologized in eight volumes of Best Food Writing. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and the Food Network, among other TV and she has won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef NYC. She currently lives in Manhattan with her two sons.