I’ve wanted to get my hands on Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to the Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants for a while. Books like Edible Selby, I Love New York and Come In, We’re Closed are my favorite kind of cookbook: a compilation of recipes for a foodie reader. Like a greatest hits album from Beyoncé, it is perfect for me – a book of greatest staff meal hits from rockstar chefs.
Restaurants like Arzak in San Sebastián, Spain, wd~50 in New York City and The Slanted Door in San Francisco are just a few notable restaurants with featured dishes. The meals range from simple recipes to ones that call for ingredients that clearly had to be used up that day (smoked sturgeon, anyone?) to recipes that call for kitchen prep byproducts they won’t sell customers, like mushroom stems. Would I make a lot of these recipes? Probably not anytime soon. But I love reading about the culture at restaurants and the Q&As with the people that run these famous kitchens.
I decided to make Skillet-Glazed King Trumpet Mushrooms, which came from chef de cuisine David Cruz at Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc. It’s a simple but delicious side dish. Cruz says this staff meal dish usually uses mushrooms unfit for the customer’s plate, calling it an “ugly mushroom makeover,” though something tells me there isn’t one ugly dish that comes out of a Keller kitchen – even if it’s for a staff meal.
Skillet-Glazed King Trumpet Mushrooms
6 Servings
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1½ lbs. king trumpet mushrooms, left whole (I substituted shiitake.)
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 sprig thyme
½ cup chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until just shy of smoking. Add the mushrooms and saute until lightly brown on all sides, about 6 minutes.
• Add the shallot, butter and thyme and saute until the shallot is slightly golden, about 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and cook to reduce the liquid down to almost nothing, about 3 minutes. Begin to swirl the pan to coat the mushrooms with a shiny glaze. Season with salt and pepper.
• Remove the pan from the heat, pluck out the thyme and serve the mushrooms immediately.
What restaurant’s staff meal would you most want to try? Tell us about it in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of Come In, We’re Closed. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column.
This article appears in Guide to Beer 2014.
