Anne Burrell: Own Your Kitchen

Anne Burrell

Anne Burrell embraces her fame and fortune being a successful and sought after TV chef. The introduction to her new Own Your Kitchen: Recipes to Inspire & Empower (Clarkson Potter 2015) with Suzanne Lenzer, acknowledges that fame and her desire to actually cook at home:

This collection includes many of my new favorites, the ones I make for myself and for my friends and family when we’re just hanging out…It’s a collection of recipes that I’ve put together because I LOOOOOOVE them–and that’s the beautiful thing about cooking, there is always room for new recipes in your arsenal. (p. 13)

The capital LOVE is all Anne – she is big on big letters, big flavors, and lots of abbreviations – the word “empower” in the subtitle is a stand in for Anne.

Own Your Kitchen by Anne BurrellShe is foremost a good teacher – so this is a very useful book for getting more comfortable cooking new recipes or finding comfortable recipes to cook. What’s more comfortable than brunch?

What I’ve realized over the years is that I’m a huge fan of brunch food – just not at brunch time…afternoons work much better for me. I became a chef so I could do everything later. (p. 128)

That sounds like a good philosophy. So, get out of bed late and make Cranberry-Walnut Scones with whipped honey butter (pp. 130-1) that only takes about 18 minutes to bake. The recipes all have a Mise en Place and plenty of Anne’s saying, familiar to fans of her show, including a pink ink “super-sconage!” Her Farro Granola (p. 132) is made by parboiling the farro, then toasting it, so that the cereal isn’t hard as a rock. Craving eggs? Then French Toast Stuffed with bacon, onion tomato jam with Gruyere and a fried egg (pp. 143- 145) has about everything crowed in, rather like a Croque Madame. Just as hearty and perhaps a bit less difficult to make is Baked Eggs with sausage, mushrooms and tomato sauce (p. 146) served in its own frying pan in the photograph by Quentin Bacon. She includes some good instructional recipes like the step-by-step photographs for the “French” rolled omelet (pp. 148-150) and Homemade Ricotta (p. 163). There are plenty more brunch recipes, but check out the end of the book for her Churros con Chocolate (pp. 238-9) – a terrific way to end brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, or even dinner!

Fans of Anne will appreciate all the photographs of her cooking and chatting with guests. The recipes span the globe and are all full of Anne’s boisterous energy. She is a woman of gusto and appetite, who likes to cook and likes to eat. That’s a good combination.

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