MY FAVORITE HERB
How North America's Great Chefs Savor the Flavor of Herbs

2000 INTERNATIONAL HERB ASSOCIATION (IHA) BOOK AWARD WINNER! Emeril Lagasse, Alice Waters, and other star chefs share favorite herb recipes

by Laurel Keser

Do you know which herb “kicks up” TV chef Emeril Lagasse’s clam chowder and makes him “happy happy?” Or, which herb Vietnamese cooking guru Mai Pham is so crazy about she named her California restaurant after it?

Merging two hot trends — herbs and chef cookbooks — MY FAVORITE HERB brings together 51 accomplished chefs from the US and Canada to reveal their favorite herb and how they use it. In addition, you’ll find more than 125 of these chef’s favorite herb recipes, all tested in the author’s home kitchen and scaled to family-sized proportions.

The selection of herbs, 30 in all, covers all of the most popular herbs that home cooks can buy at supermarkets, some up-and-coming herbs that are on the verge of becoming a household name, and a few specialized herbs for the adventurous home cook.

Recipes feature a variety of cuisines and cover everything from appetizers to desserts:

• Sugar Snap Peas with Brown Butter and Sage from Alice Waters (Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California)
• Shrimp Creole with Bay from Jamie Shannon (Commander’s Palace, New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Persian Lamb and Parsley Ragout from Nora Pouillon (Nora / Asia Nora, Washington, D.C.)
• Chervil-Hazelnut Crusted Sea Bass with Saffron Lime Sauce from Bruce Auden (Restaurant BIGA, San Antonio, Texas)
• Chicken Breasts with Lemon Thyme and Grilled Vegetables from Roland Liccioni (Le Français, Chicago, Illinois)
• Blueberry Champagne Mousse with Lemon Balm from Alfonso Contrisciani (Opus 251, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

MY FAVORITE HERB includes general tips for buying and storing herbs and basic recipes for such things as chicken stock and roasted garlic. In addition, a chef and restaurant list will help you plan a firsthand dining experience. The mail order resources list will help you locate particular herbs and other ingredients used in the book.

An excerpt from MY FAVORITE HERB recently appeared in the October 1999 issue of Country Living.

What people are saying about MY FAVORITE HERB:

“Fresh herbs can jazz up the most mundane dishes in a way dried herbs can’t. Now, when such seasonal treats are at their peak, is a great time to pick up a copy of Laurel Keser’s MY FAVORITE HERB:How North America’s Great Chefs Savor the Flavor of Herbs.” —New York Daily News

“This attractive book features 30 fresh herbs, from anise hyssop and basil to stinging nettle and thyme. Keser provides well-written and informative introductions for each one, and recipes from 51 top U.S. and Canadian chefs show imaginative ways to cook with them. Even the supermarket's fresh-herb selection is no longer limited to parsley and maybe dill, and most cooks will find this a handy compendium.” —Library Journal

“Food writer and herb gardener Laurel Keser interviewed 51 chefs and collected more than 125 of their most tempting, herb-inspired recipes for MY FAVORITE HERB:How North America’s Great Chefs Savor the Flavor of Herbs.” —Country Living

“I’m really a sucker for cookbooks from great chefs and restaurants. So when I saw My Favorite Herb, I got really excited. You’ve got great chefs using common herbs in some awesome recipes. You’ve got to buy this one. It’s really great if you have any kind of herbal palate at all.” —Herb Growing and Marketing Newsletter

“This is a high-energy book that provides a kaleidoscopic view of how fresh herbs are being used in contemporary cuisine. Best of all, readers get to meet a number of talented chefs who happen to operate outside the media spotlight. Sure, big hitters like Alice Waters and Emeril Lagasse are in here. But so are dozens of others, including a number of Canada's top-ranked chefs. As is clear from their commentary and recipes, a lot of them deserve to be more widely known.” —Restaurant Hospitality

"Here's an author intent on conveying to home cooks what great chefs have always known: Fresh herbs add dazzle to any dish. The recipes come from 51 chefs, each cooking with his or her favorite herb. The recipes range from simple to complex; all are tempting." —New Jersey Record

Have a taste of MY FAVORITE HERB:

Chive Mashed Potatoes

"I grew up in the Midwest, and my mother’s wonderful, light mashed potatoes were often a part of our dinners. At Arrows, the addition of sweet European butter, heavy cream, and fresh chives brings home cooking to a new level of indulgence. These rich mashed potato.”—Chef Mark Gaier, Arrows, Ogunquit, Maine

3 pounds Yukon gold or other large white potatoes (about
      12 medium), peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons coarse salt
4 tablespoons softened Plugrá butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely snipped chives

Cover the potato with cold water. Add the salt, and cook until the potato is very soft. Drain the potato, and immediately transfer to a mixer with a whip attachment. Whip the potato, gradually adding the butter a tablespoon at a time, the cream, and finally the chives. Season with salt to taste.

Yield: 6 servings

Note: Plugrá is the brand name of a high-quality European butter with a high fat content, a product available in some supermarkets and specialty stores. If Plugrá butter is unavailable, substitute any high-quality butter. Mashed potato may be kept warm in a covered stainless steel pan for 60 minutes or so.

(Reprinted from My Favorite Herb: How North America’s Great Chefs Savor the Flavor of Herbs by Laurel Keser, Callawind Publications Inc, 1999.)