If you’re anyone in the New York City restaurant world, it’s impossible not to know Shari Bayer — an everywhere-at-once publicist, consultant, events organizer, and host of the popular “All in the Industry” podcast, taped in a funky studio behind East Williamsburg’s Roberta’s.
But her first book, “Chefwise: Life Lessons From Leading Chefs Around the World” (Phaidon) reveals a more self-effacing Bayer who invited scores of top toques to speak for themselves on topics such as inspiration, sourcing, and culinary fundamentals.
It took her over a year to collect and organize their responses.
The result is a free-ranging whirl through the hearts and minds of kitchen stars from Williamsburg (Lilia’s Missy Robbins) to Birregurra, Australia (Brae’s Dan Hunter).
I was hooked when I saw that the first chef who was quoted is Andani Luis Aduriz of mold-breaking Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, where I had the scariest dining moment of my life.
Curious about the mysterious seed perched on the rim of a plate, I gagged for ten long minutes on the Novocaine-like Amazon flower known as berro de para.
They forgot to tell me not to eat it.
Thanks to “Chefwise,” I now know that Aduriz likes to use “unpredictability as an ingredient.”
Kitchen heroes share the nuts-and-bolts — “I have always loved the Instant Pot and a microplane grater,” writes Jean-Georges Vongerichten — and the bigger picture.
Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert observes, “Kitchens are much more civilized now than many years ago when abuse was part of kitchen culture.”
Craft’s Tom Colicchio shuns the rage to make familiar edibles unfamiliar: “I want a tomato to taste like a tomato. I want a scallop to taste like a scallop.”
Wylie Dufresne, formerly of WD-50, draws inspiration from the Big Apple’s concrete-and-asphalt jungle.
“You can look up and you see metal, and you see steel . . . you realize the way the sun passes through a fire escape is maybe a way you can arrange food on a plate.”
This book could do with fewer than 383 pages.
But it’s a must for anyone who loves the real world of chefs, restaurants, and the pleasures they give us.