We turned to Thomas Salamunovich, owner and local professional chef of Larkspur Restaurant in Vail and asked him: if you were buying a gift for a dear friend who loves to cook, what would you choose? Here are his replies:
Thomas Salamunovich, owner and executive chef at Vail’s Larkspur
First, the Modernist Cuisine at Home cookbook by Nathan Myhrvold. This series is the biggest deal in the history of cookbooks; it literally revolutionized professional kitchens. “At Home” is the newest edition, and makes the whole sous-vide movement—the method of cooking foods in airtight plastic bags, in water baths at accurate, regulated temperatures—accessible to everyone. It’s a tremendously exciting, flawlessly precise, technique, and allows you to cook to exact doneness without changing the integrity of the interior of the food.
Secondly, a good sous-vide machine—one of my favorites is the VacMaster, which comes different price ranges. It’s a killer for storing as well as cooking food.
Then an Anova Immersion Circulator—basically a heating source that also moves water. It looks like a stick blender—you hook it to the side of pot, and it keeps the temperature inside consistent, a fundamental requirement of sous-vide cooking. An added plus is that this machine is so good looking.
And finally, back to basics. When it comes to cooking, knife skills are what skating is to hockey and dribbling is to basketball, and sharp knives are essential to the craft. Knives should be sharpened every time you use them, so every serious cook should have a good sharpening stone. The Japanese famously take all things knife related to an extreme artisanal level; their Global stones are my personal favorite.
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Sidebar:
Some local resources to find the tools and books mentioned above:
Le Creuset Outlet, Silverthorne: 970-262-9229
Kitchen Collage of Vail Valley: (970) 926-0400
The Bookworm: (970) 926-7323
For the more technical tools, try www.amazon.com