Marc Forgione: Recipes and Stories from the Acclaimed Chef and Restaurant

In this cookbook-slash-memoir, Chef Forgione, who won Season 3 of The Next Iron Chef and who owns Restaurant Marc Forgione in New York City, attempts to remove some of the stardust from the eyes of aspiring chefs while emphasizing the importance of hard work. Most of the text is comprised of 170 detailed recipes, some of which require several days to complete. For example, Forgione's signature Suck You Sliders require an overnight dry-rub cure, a six-hour braise in the oven, and another overnight rest in the cooking liquid before the sandwiches are even assembled on freshly made potato rolls. Recipes for Chicken Under a Brick and chili lobster, two more restaurant favorites, are equally involved but feature step-by-step photographs. Forgione is aware that most people will not have access to the equipment of a professional kitchen, and, where possible, he provides alternatives for preparation and execution. Both the recipes and the text allow readers to peer behind the curtain to understand the work that goes into these elaborate dishes.