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(More customer reviews)When I heard that Tyson Cole had written a cookbook with recipes from his world famous restaurant Uchi I knew that I would want to get a copy. What I didn't know was that the cookbook is so much more than just recipes.
Those of you who have spent time cooking from or at least browsing through top of the line cookbooks will know what I am about to mention. You obtain certain kinds of cookbooks and they are beautiful but the presentations and procedures are so out of reach that you would rather just place the cookbook on your coffee table for guests to browse through and pretend like you actually cooked out of it. The cool thing about Uchi: The Cookbook is that it is both a visual explosion and yet accessible even to the novice Japanese cook.
Tyson's vision for this cookbook was to literally have the pictures of the food "jump out" at the reader. This visual seduction is what originally drove Tyson into the arms of Japanese cooking in the first place. A hobbyist painter Tyson Cole originally thought the idea of eating raw fish was gross but he was seduced by the colors and presentations of Japanese cooking. This allure eventually lead to him working in the field and then lead to the opening of the restaurant Uchi in 2002.
Tyson wanted his reader of his cookbook to see up close and personal shots of the fish. He wanted them to see the details of the textures and the color. He wanted pictures of his staff and pictures of the patrons eating in his restaurant because this whole experience is what makes up Uchi. You will see for yourself when you buy this cookbook the amazing photography I am talking about. I obtained a lot of this information because I went to the original book signing and presentation at Bookpeople in Austin where Tyson and his partner chefs Phillip Speer and Paul Qui spent over an hour discussing the vision behind Uchi and this book. These guys live and breathe cooking. They will text each other at all hours of the night coming up with new ideas for food for their patrons to try. No matter what the recipe they will not serve it to the public until they have each tried it at least once. In addition, they get the staff involved including all the waitstaff to make sure everybody loves and is just as passionate about the food as they are. Their passion for food, for creating and for taking care of each other and their customers can be felt on every single page of this book.
Of course none of this would have been possible had it not been for the talent of co-author Jessica Dupuy. Whereas the chefs such as Tyson are the creative heartbeat of the food and colors Jessica is the engineer who constructed this cookbook. She and the chefs agreed that the recipes needed to be accessible to the general kitchen cook so they created the cookbook in such a fashion that Regular Joe has a chance to make the food at home. Granted, this is still fine Japanese dining and I am not trying to simplify the cookbook too much but allow the reader to understand that this won't be too far out of reach for them. We as readers must give MAJOR props to Jessica for taking hand-scrawled ingredients written on napkins and slips of paper and transforming them into something readable and constructive for the at home cook. Most of the original recipes were done in the measurement of grams and this all had to be converted.
Uchi: The Cookbook in so many aspects reads like a non-fiction book. In fact I would suggest that before you even go to the market to get ready to make the food in this book that you first sit down and read it cover to cover. There are countless interviews and tidbits of information on the people and the cuisine of Japanese cooking itself that will delight the reader in addition to informing them.
The Table Of Contents breaks down as follows:
Acknowledgments
Recipes
Foreword
Introduction
The Perfect Bite: Tyson's Story
Uchi Defined
Sushi In America
Components
Daily Specials
Sushi and Rolls
Sushi 101
Tastings
Desserts
Glossary
Index
About the Authors
Authors Note
I hope you the reader gets as much enjoyment out of this book as I have so far and understands that you are purchasing a wonderful cookbook with wonderful recipes written by a group of people who love food and are passionate about eating and about the experience. Enjoy!
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For chef Tyson Cole, sushi has always been more than just food; it's an expression of his love and respect for Japanese culture. Having now devoted more than a decade of his life to the skill, art, and discipline of being a sushi chef, Cole's sole purpose is simple: to create the perfect bite.
Cole delivers that perfect bite every day at Uchi, his Austin restaurant. Since 2003, Uchi has received national acclaim for stretching beyond the borders of traditional Japanese sushi. "Ingredients and flavors from all over the world are easily accessible now," Cole says. "The cuisine I create is playfully multicultural, mixing the Japanese tradition with tastes that inspire me." Uchi's prominence in the evolution of Japanese cuisine has garnered the restaurant four James Beard Award nominations, as well as a spot for Cole on Food and Wine magazine's list of "Best New Chefs."
With their first cookbook, the team at Uchi invites sushi lovers and novices alike to explore their gastronomic boundaries with some of the restaurant's most celebrated recipes: a crisp melon gazpacho adorned with luscious morsels of poached lobster, for instance, or the polenta custard, corn sorbet, and corn milk dessert--a blissful homage to summer corn. Uchi: The Cookbook also presents the story of Tyson Cole, from dishwasher to restaurant owner; an account of the current state of American sushi; and a primer on the ins and outs of this sophisticated, yet artful cuisine.
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