Food
Your Shortcut to
Four-Star Meals
Put away your George Foreman. Unplug your microwave.
Sell your FryDaddy. There’s a better way to cook at home, says one
of America’s best chefs, and chances are you’ve done it before
BY ERIC RIPERT
NEEDED A GOOD MEAL, AND I NEEDED IT RIGHT AWAY. • I’M USED TO
this kind of stress. At any given point during service at my Manhattan restaurant, Le Bernardin, I might have to fillet an eel, sear
Kobe beef, greet customers, place a delivery order, taste a sauce,
or direct my kitchen—all for diners expecting four-star food. •
But tonight, this critic was one of my most important ones, his
tastes finely attuned, his standards stratospheric. And he wasn’t I
even a paying customer. He was my 6-year-old son, and even though I was
exhausted from a day of work, he was expecting my best. • The solution? •
Halibut with roasted vegetables. • The savior? • My $50 toaster oven. • Now,
before you take away my double-breasted chef’s jacket and expose me as a
fraud, know that the fish turned out moist, the vegetables a vivid al dente,
and the kid a happy and healthy eater. • A true chef defines himself not by
his tools, but by his ability to innovate. • That’s why if you own even the
