Burnt Toast and Other Disasters: A Book of Heroic Hacks, Fabulous Fixes, and Secret Sauces

by Cal Peternell

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

After spending 20+ years as chef at Chez Panisse, Cal Peternell decided to help readers learn from his mistakes with a cookbook featuring great ideas and hacks to rescue food that's burnt, mushy or overcooked. His writing style is often humorous, but his ideas are perfect for all.

A gifty, funny, and practical guide to transforming the most lackluster of ingredients into a delicious meal, making bad food good and making good food even better, from the author of the New York Times bestselling and IACP Award–winning Twelve Recipes. 

Dinner is looking meh. Maybe the stove was left unattended for just a second too long for your original plan; maybe the on-sale meat at the supermarket isn’t looking quite worth the savings after two days in the fridge. Do you waste food and time trying to start from scratch, or money ordering takeout? No, you face up to the facts, step up your game, and transform that cooking conundrum into a delicious meal. The best way to do that? Follow the guidance of Cal Peternell, a chef coming out of the restaurant kitchen to meet cooks where they are with this funny, practical manual for making Bad Food Good. 

Though many pro chefs may be able to get their sustainably sourced, locally grown, 100 percent grass-fed, organic ingredients and gently guide them through careful preparation to a simply sublime dish, most of us don’t achieve farm-to-table perfection in every step of the process. From facing down third-day leftovers that have lost a little of their luster to the limits of their local supermarket’s quality, many home cooks start at a disadvantage. With his signature dry wit and years of experience cooking for everyone from high-end restaurant patrons to his hungry family, Cal Peternell is here to level the playing field with this bag of tricks for turning standard (or substandard) fare into a meal to be proud of, troubleshooting such situations as: 

• Making the best of burned food (Burned your toast? Time to make Cheesy Onion Bread Pudding!) 
• Hacking packaged food (including 5 variations on “Hackaroni and Cheese”) 
• Things restaurants often do wrong and you can do better (including pesto, queso, bean dip, ranch, and more) 
• Spicing up lackluster vegetables (Brocco Tacos dazzle both in name and in flavor) 
• Snazzing up dishes with “special sauces for the boring” (including vegetable purees and an infinite variety of savory butter sauces) 

Cal also includes a series of hilarious Old Man cocktails, ranging from the Bitter Old Man (one part bitter, one part brandy) to the Wise Old Man (8 ounces water and a good night’s sleep). 

Up your cooking game by learning how to spin anything in your pantry or fridge into something special with Burnt Toast and Other Disasters.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062986740
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/21/2021
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,070,089
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Cal Peternell is the author of Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta, A Recipe for Cooking, and the New York Times bestseller and IACP Award–winning Twelve Recipes. He grew up on a small farm in New Jersey and earned a BFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, then was inspired to pursue a cooking career while living in Italy with his wife, the artist Kathleen Henderson. After working at various acclaimed restaurants in Boston and San Francisco, he began a nearly twenty-two-year stint as the chef at Chez Panisse, first in the café and then the downstairs restaurant. Cal’s culinary-education podcast, Cooking by Ear, launched in 2018. Cal and Kathleen have three sons and live in the Bay Area. 

Editorial Reviews

07/19/2021

Chef Peternell (Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta) applies his Chez Panisse pedigree to underwhelming fare to easily prove that “the humblest can be delicious, the good made great.” Starting with the title dilemma, Peternell suggests using burnt toast to lend character to cheesy onion bread pudding. Then it’s on to overcooked vegetables, where figgy dressing covers the sins of over-roasted veggies. A chapter on packaged foods offers new hope for canned soup and beans, and even tins of oily fish, as with a saffron, fennel, and almond pasta with sardines. A section entitled “What They Shoulda Done” is full of opinionated tips on revising classic dishes, with tweaked takes such as “unthick” clam chowder (“soup spoons should be at rest, not standing”) that’s thinned out using liquid from canned clams and canned corn. A half-dozen recipes are devoted to overcoming the bland attributes of boneless chicken parts, including flavorful chipotle chicken thighs with cumin and honey. Peternell’s dry sense of humor is the main ingredient in a collection of “old man” cocktails: the “Crazy Old Man” is equal parts absinthe and brandy, while the “Wise Old Man” is an eight-ounce glass of water. To err is human but to repair divine in this handy and hilarious manual. Agent: Sharon Bowers, Miller Bowers Griffin Literary Management. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

An invaluable little cookbook you will turn to again and again. . . . His recipe for peppers sautéed until “melty” with mustard and cumin seeds, then doused with cream and finished with a splash of vinegar, sounds like nothing special, but I’ve never tasted anything like it.” — New York Times

“There’s enough to worry about these days. Cooking, Peternell assures through each carefully written but not-too-serious recipe, shouldn’t be one of those things. So burn your vegetables, overcook the rice, and eat a tin of fish for dinner. It will be fine. Actually, it will probably be great.” — Eater

“[Peternell’s] personal anecdotes and casual preparation instructions . . . give home cooks permission to tap into their own culinary ingenuity, especially when the situations seem far from perfect. . . . Peternell reminds us that with enough confidence and finesse, these scrappy Quickfire Challenge-like moments in the kitchen can actually be the ones that bring out our most creative inner chefs.” — Fine Cooking

“Peternell applies his Chez Panisse pedigree . . . to easily prove that 'the humblest can be delicious, the good made great.' . . . Peternell’s dry sense of humor is the main ingredient. . . . To err is human but to repair divine in this handy and hilarious manual.” — Publishers Weekly

“Along with great recipes…Peternell shows readers that burnt food is nothing to fear and is just another step—perhaps even a new beginning—in the culinary journey.” — Booklist

“A clever and useful guide to making messed-up food taste delicious. . . . [a] funny and highly giftable lemonade-out-of-lemons collection.” — Daily Democrat

“[Peternell’s] recipes focus on turning whatever you have on hand, including, yes, burned toast, into surprisingly tasty food. Those scorched slices turn into cheesy onion bread pudding, and the listless produce wilting in your vegetable drawer becomes “broco” tacos! This witty manual really does help turn bad food good.” — Napa Valley Register

“The best beginner’s cookbook of the year, if not the decade. In addition to being warm, funny and smart, Twelve Recipes will actually teach you to cook… [Peternell] can nudge anyone, from novice to expert, to want to be a better cook… His wit and intelligence are apparent throughout.” — New York Times Book Review on Twelve Recipes

“Full of useful building blocks (like an entire chapter on sauces) that can fit in any modern cook's repertoire…The balance of foundational French technique with American practicality make A Recipe for Cooking a simple yet modern classic.” — Saveur (Best New Cookbooks of Winter 2016) on A Recipe for Cooking

“What makes this book special—…Combine the rambling prose with Peternell’s practical advice and delicious flavor combinations and cooking through the recipes feels like having a personal cooking lesson—and a long chat—with the chef himself.” — Bon Appetit (November Cookbook Club Pick) on Almonds, Anchovies, and Pancetta

From the Publisher

[Peternell’s] personal anecdotes and casual preparation instructions . . . give home cooks permission to tap into their own culinary ingenuity, especially when the situations seem far from perfect. . . . Peternell reminds us that with enough confidence and finesse, these scrappy Quickfire Challenge-like moments in the kitchen can actually be the ones that bring out our most creative inner chefs.

Fine Cooking Editors

[Peternell’s] recipes focus on turning whatever you have on hand, including, yes, burned toast, into surprisingly tasty food. Those scorched slices turn into cheesy onion bread pudding, and the listless produce wilting in your vegetable drawer becomes “broco” tacos! This witty manual really does help turn bad food good.

Napa Valley Register

A clever and useful guide to making messed-up food taste delicious. . . . [a] funny and highly giftable lemonade-out-of-lemons collection.

Daily Democrat

Along with great recipes…Peternell shows readers that burnt food is nothing to fear and is just another step—perhaps even a new beginning—in the culinary journey.

Booklist

The best beginner’s cookbook of the year, if not the decade. In addition to being warm, funny and smart, Twelve Recipes will actually teach you to cook… [Peternell] can nudge anyone, from novice to expert, to want to be a better cook… His wit and intelligence are apparent throughout.

New York Times Book Review on Twelve Recipes

There’s enough to worry about these days. Cooking, Peternell assures through each carefully written but not-too-serious recipe, shouldn’t be one of those things. So burn your vegetables, overcook the rice, and eat a tin of fish for dinner. It will be fine. Actually, it will probably be great.

Eater

What makes this book special—…Combine the rambling prose with Peternell’s practical advice and delicious flavor combinations and cooking through the recipes feels like having a personal cooking lesson—and a long chat—with the chef himself.

Bon Appetit (November Cookbook Club Pick) on Almonds

An invaluable little cookbook you will turn to again and again. . . . His recipe for peppers sautéed until “melty” with mustard and cumin seeds, then doused with cream and finished with a splash of vinegar, sounds like nothing special, but I’ve never tasted anything like it.

New York Times

Full of useful building blocks (like an entire chapter on sauces) that can fit in any modern cook's repertoire…The balance of foundational French technique with American practicality make A Recipe for Cooking a simple yet modern classic.

Saveur (Best New Cookbooks of Winter 2016) on A Recipe for Cooking

Along with great recipes…Peternell shows readers that burnt food is nothing to fear and is just another step—perhaps even a new beginning—in the culinary journey.

Booklist

The best beginner’s cookbook of the year, if not the decade. In addition to being warm, funny and smart, Twelve Recipes will actually teach you to cook… [Peternell] can nudge anyone, from novice to expert, to want to be a better cook… His wit and intelligence are apparent throughout.

New York Times Book Review

Full of useful building blocks (like an entire chapter on sauces) that can fit in any modern cook's repertoire…The balance of foundational French technique with American practicality make A Recipe for Cooking a simple yet modern classic.

Saveur (Best New Cookbooks of Winter 2016)

12/01/2021

Maybe burnt toast isn't so bad: Peternell (Twelve Recipes) writes that his is a "cookbook full of just such success stories of bad food made good." The recipes mostly use shelf-stable ingredients and explain how home cooks can deploy their cupboards to their advantage. For example, burnt toast can be pulverized and added to meatballs; over-cooked vegetables can be turned into pasta sauce; really well-done meat can be tenderized by adding a few more ingredients. Peternell's personal version of a useful cupboard involves canned goods, sardines (for pasta with sardines), and dressings, but he also shows home cooks how to make the most of other ingredients that they might also already have on hand (beans; heavy cream). The book is peppered with amusing asides about Peternell's cooking experiences, and recipes are augmented with full-color photographs and illustrations of ingredients. VERDICT Fun, easy-to-make recipes for the "burnt out" home cook.—Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Library Journal