Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking

I have a great fondness for boudin noir, which I think of as one of the aristocrats of the sausage family—a blood sausage made with pork, usually served on a warm bed of thinly sliced cooked apples. Smooth and rich and dark, it is a dish to be eaten in front of the fire on a day when there is frost on the ground and an icy wind butting against the

Shallots are one of the things — a basic prep item in every mise-en-place — which make restaurant food taste different from your food.

GABLE’S SAFE-HOUSE CARBONARA Sauté lardons of guanciale until chewy-crisp. Whisk egg yolks and grated pecorino Romano together to form a hard ball. Cook the pasta one minute less than al dente, then use pasta water to whisk egg-and-cheese ball until creamy. Toss cooked pasta with guanciale-and-egg mixture and serve immediately.

Red wine, beef, some button mushrooms and a few pearled onions, bouquet garni, maybe some broad noodles or a simple