Meeting Chef Anne Burrell

Chef Anne Burrell (@chefanneburrell) visited H-E-B’s Alon Market today to sign her new cookbook, “Cook Like A Rock Star.”

Chef Anne looks (and sounds) just like she does on Food Network (@foodnetwork), with her wild, white hair and broad smile. She was very friendly and approachable, and offered a handshake so I could introduce myself. “Are you a Marine Mom?” she asked. Why yes, Chef Anne, I am. I told her how much we are looking forward to watching her on “The Next Iron Chef.” “But I know you can’t talk about it,” I said. She replied, “I can’t, but I’ll accept any best wishes.” We’ll be rooting for her, as she is one of our favorites. (Wish I had ditched the purse somewhere.) After her visit, she tweeted “Thanks to all the H-E-B’s that I did signings at. Everyone was very kind and delightful—thank you!” Pretty classy and gracious.

“Rock Star” mainly targets new cooks; she wants to make cooking approachable and not so intimidating. “A recipe might tell you to brown a piece of meat and then deglaze the ‘fond.’ But what the hell is ‘fond’?” she says in her introduction. She calls it “the crud on the bottom of the pan.” But she refuses to give up mise en place (having all your ingredients prepped and measured before taking the first cooking step). Rather than the standard recipe format, her recipes start out with a small story, then mise en place, and only then, cooking instructions. “This is how I cook and how professionals cook, and it’s how you should cook, too.” The cookbook contains instructional sidebars (how to make stock, for example) and fun handwritten tips (“I like fresno peppers because they’re medium hot”). I’m most looking forward to making just about everything in the “Piccolini” section. “Piccolini” means very small in Italian, but she defines it as “my little nibbles.” They’re tapas-sized dishes that will work well either to start a meal or for entertaining a houseful of people.

We now have a new addition to our growing collection of signed cookbooks. Of these authors, I’ve only met Chef Anne and Chef Rick Moonen (read my post about the fabulous seafood dinner he prepared at the now-defunct Watermark Grill); the others we purchased pre-signed. I hope to get the Tex-Mex book signed this weekend on my Glutton’s Tour of Houston, part 2.

If you ever have the chance to meet Chef Anne, I highly recommend you stop by. We’ll be cheering you on when “The Next Iron Chef” starts!