The Chef’s Secret Cook Book (Mel Martin Ad #16)

For people who are almost (but not quite) satisfied with their own cooking — and can’t figure out what’s missing.

• If your crepes are delicious but too heavy, see page 263.
• The gourmet uses of kosher salt? See page 3 and page 22.
• If your cooked shrimp gets dry or rubbery when you
keep it overnight. see page 136.
• If your fried eggplant tastes oilier than it should, see
page 176.
• If you sauté chicken livers perfectly but they come out
tough, see page 152.
•How to make bottled horseradish taste like the fresh
kind. See page 211.
•How to keep sour cream from burning when you cook
with it. See page 23.
• What to add to domestic paprika if you can’t find the
imported kind. See page 69.
• A substitute for champagne sauce that isn’t perfect, but
works. See page 97.

“Chef Louis’ ‘secrets’ are gems of purest common sense that put even the most intimidating foreign dishes within the reach of any intelligent person.” -SILAS SPITZER, Food Editor Holiday Magazine

The Chef’s Secret Cook Book

Cook books, as a rule, give very little of the professional chef’s “inside information.” Tricks of preparation, little secrets about ingredients, that chef’s touch that makes all the difference between something good and something special – these don’t appear in the ordinary cook book.

“Unlike chefs who cling passionately to the trade secrets of the profession, Louis Szathmary goes out of his way to share his secrets,” -JEAN HEWIIT

The Chef’s Secret is no ordinary book, and Louis Szathmary (pronounced Zahthmarie) is no ordinary chef. He is the proprietor of the world-famous Bakery
Restaurant in Chicago and -certainly the most illustrious of a great tradition of Hungarian chefs now in America. Each recipe in Chef Louis’ book-from appetizers to desserts-has a “chef’s secret” attached. The secrets make the food more fun to cook, elegant to serve, wondrous to taste. Yet all the recipes are surprisingly simple-no exotic seasonings or special gadgets are involved, just careful selection of ingredients and the classic methods of haute cuisine. Only the results are exotic.

HAVE YOU BEEN BOILING EGGS IN THE WRONG POT? (and can it really matter? See page 10).

The professional secrets included add up to a quickbut surprisingly thorough course in the Escoffier approach to food preparation. cooking and serving. (How to make pute en encrotue without having the dough burn while the meat cooks? See page 14). The 300 recipes cover just about everything from how to Purchase, prepare, roast, carve and serve a suckling pig (page 73) to how to make sure your guests know the correct order for eating the radishes, butter and black bread that together make up one of the world’s great gourmet appetizers (if the three elements are popped into the mouth in the wrong sequence, forget it. See page 3).

Do you know what’s missing if your chicken soup doesn’t really taste like chicken? (See page 39). How to keep an opened avocado green without covering it with lemon juice or anything else? (See page 7). What Chinese chefs cook together with their seafood to make it taste so good? (See page 29). The best way to roast a turkey? (Louis Szathmary has tried them all, and the method he swears by is on page 107). A humane way to kill a lobster? (See page 138), How to bread your meat or fish without the crumbs sticking to your fingers? (See page 125). How to keep lasagna noodles from sticking together? (See page 159), Have you been serving your roast beef too soon after it comes out of the oven? (Read page 59 carefully).

If your biscuits aren’t as flaky as you’d like, see page 231. If the meringue on your baked alaska isn’t stiff enough. see page 267. If your eggs benedict aren’t what they should be, read page 145. The fast, easy way to make good napoleons starts with 4 pieces of cardboard (they don’t show up in the final dish; see page 257). Your house doesn’t have to smell like “cabbage” while you’re cooking brussels sprouts-see page 171. Asparagus spears should be cut under water. (Why? See page 180). If your family wants traditional cornbread and you don’t own a traditional heavy iron skillet, see page 232.

IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE SKIMMING ALL THE FAT OFF A POT OF SOUP, TRY ICE CUBES. Ice cubes? See page 34.

Louis Szathmary is probably the only world famous chef with a Ph.D. in psychology. That means he understands people as well as he understands food, and in this hook he proves it. “We tested and double tested every recipe,” he says. “asking ladies with very little or no experience to cook the dishes for us. We watched their techniques and their frustrations, noted the shortcomings of the recipes whose steps were not precisely explained and then kept working on each recipe until it became easy and understandable.”

If you find any recipe in this book that does not work for you, we’ll give you your money back. $8.95