My goal in 'Live to Cook' is to make great food more approachable for home cooks.
I think the best shortcut is to choose really simple recipes. Because I think you can make simple recipes that are as delicious as complicated ones.
Cuisine has become too complicated - this is about subject, verb, adjective: duck, turnips, sauce.
I can cook really complicated recipes, but it takes a real talent to do the perfect egg.
The real secret to guacamole is that you use exactly the elements that you need, which is cilantro, onion, tomato, and jalapenos. And, of course, avocado.
I love it when a few simple ingredients come together on a plate, and I think, 'Wow, that's a dish.'
I think that I had a very clear vision when I started writing cookbooks what I wanted it to be, and that you would open the book, that you would look at the photograph and go, that looks delicious. And then you would look at the recipe and say, I can actually make that and I can make it with ingredients I can find in the grocery store.
I almost never make stuff out of cookbooks because they're either too complicated or there's an ingredient in there that I can't find.
