Fire in My Belly

July 16, 2012
Gillespie, the executive chef at Atlanta’s Woodfire Grill, makes an impressive cookbook debut with this inspired collection of more than 120 recipes, based on his restaurant creations but modified for the home cook. In a clever chapter entitled “Foods You Thought You Hated,” he arms himself with garlic, spices, and cream to make palatable dishes like brussels sprouts gratin and haggis with caramelized turnip. The chapter entitled “World Classics Revisited” offers famous mainstays like Welsh rarebit and coq au vin, as well as re-imagined treats like cucumber and almond gazpacho, and smoked trout puffs with bacon jam. He preaches the use of local and sustainable foods, but that does not mean he cannot own up to a chapter entitled “Junk Food,” with such entries as deep-fried candy bars. Gillespie’s intelligence and creativity (he turned down a scholarship to MIT in order to attend culinary school) is apparent in his writing style. Each chapter is prefaced with a brief, compelling tale from his past that is heartfelt without cloying. And each recipe is prefaced with commentary that is just off-color and honest enough to be quite funny (“I’ve always liked ramen noodles. I know they’re total crap, but I like them”).

August 1, 2012

Gillespie, co-owner and executive chef of the Woodfire Grill in Atlanta, was a finalist and fan favorite on Top Chef season six. His debut, written with food writer Joachim (The Food Substitutions Bible: More Than 6,500 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment, and Techniques), has informal chapters (e.g., "Foods You Thought You Hated," "My Version of Southern Food," and "When I Want to Eat Healthy") that contain a balance of familiar and worldly favorites, from Haggis to Halibut en Papillote to Deep-Fried Candy Bars. Unfortunately, the book suffers from a disjointed design; constantly shifting colors, fonts, layouts, and images make this difficult to cook from and impossible to browse. VERDICT Top Chef fans will drive demand for this unconventional cookbook.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.