Standing in a bustling, cavernous Manhattan restaurant kitchen long before she became one of America’s most prolific food writers, Melissa Clark made some observations that have guided her career ever since.
While working as a coat checker as a college student, she’d slip behind kitchen doors on warmish nights when there were few wraps to hang and study the choreography involved in getting meals to the table.
This is what she saw: “To make one menu item, a chef might use three separate pans, two bowls, and an array of plastic squeeze bottles. There’d be a skillet for sauteing the salmon fillet, an oval sizzle platter to crisp the skin, another skillet to brown the accompanying sugar snap peas.”
The chefs didn’t have to think about clean-up; dishwashers were standing by to whisk away every dirty utensil to sanitize and restore to their proper place.
The New York Times food columnist relays this scene to open her 42nd cookbook: “Dinner in One: Exceptional and Easy One-Pan Pans” (Potter, $39.99), which is squarely aimed at home cooks who don’t have the luxury of a kitchen staff. She tells how she learned to whittle cooking processes down to their essence by co-authoring cookbooks with celebrity chefs. That knack became an obsession that has led to numerous viral sensations, many involving sheet pans — the first chapter of her new book.
Other chapters cover Skillets, One-Pot Pastas and Noodles, Dutch Ovens, Casseroles, Soup Pots, Instant Pots and Multicookers, One Bowl Cakes, and a short one on No-Pots, Go-Withs and Basics. Farro with Spicy Sausage and Apple Cider is topped with arugula before it leaves the skillet, saving you from tossing a salad. Sheet Pan Thanksgiving includes a mayonnaise and za’atar-coated turkey breast with all the trimmings. And a Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake requires only a bowl and a whisk.
Descriptions are crisp and concise, with just enough sexy adjectives to convince you to start cooking if the brilliant photography doesn’t do the trick. Most tantalizing of all is the prospect of sitting down to enjoy one of these meals, without facing a kitchen sink pile-up afterward.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
EVENT PREVIEW
As a prologue to the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta Book Festival, New York Times food writer Melissa Clark will discuss her “Dinner in One: Exceptional and Easy One Pan Meals: A Cookbook.” Books will be available for purchase.
7:30 p.m. Sept. 21. $15-$20. MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Atlanta. showclix.com/event/melissa-clark-dinner-in-one
About the Author
