Restaurants Share Secret Recipes in New Cookbook

If you have ever wondered how to recreate your favorite restaurant recipes in your own kitchen, an all new kosher cookbook due out next week, may just be the answer to your dreams.

Secret Restaurant Recipes, written by Victoria Dwek and Leah Schapira features previously undisclosed restaurant recipes from kosher eateries in seven different countries.  Both Mrs. Schapira and Mrs. Dwek found the cookbook, which features full color photographs of every recipe, to be an educational experience.

“What I loved about it was that the techniques or flavor combinations the chefs used weren’t always things I knew or expected,” Mrs. Schapira told VIN News.

“We learned things we never would have learned creating recipes on our own,” added Mrs. Dwek.  “Working with 70 chefs was a real eye opener.”

Secret Restaurant Recipes features contributions from 36 restaurants in the New York/New Jersey area, including Prime Grill, Reserve Cut, Abigael’s, Glatt A La Cart, Orchidea, Estreia and Etc. Steakhouse,  as well as recipes from eateries in Phoenix, Beverly Hills, Jerusalem, London, Venice, Mexico City and Panama.

While most of the chefs contacted were eager to share their trademark cuisine, getting the actual recipes was no simple matter.

“Chefs are not recipe driven people and they are not sitting by their computers,” noted Mrs. Dwek.  “Sometimes we literally had to call them every day to remind them.”

Recipes in the book highlight a wide variety of cuisine, ranging from everyday fare to gourmet dishes, with a mix of eateries including both fine dining and family friendly restaurants.  The two women were careful to choose dishes that could be easily replicated at home, using typically available ingredients.

“We tried to ask for doable recipes,” said Mrs. Dwek. “If a recipe used beef or veal stock that was made from scratch and the flavor was dependent on that stock, we knew it wouldn’t be an appropriate recipe.”

While recipes in Secret Restaurant Recipes may be popular with diners, not all require lengthy preparation or extensive culinary expertise.

Estreia’s Braised Short Ribs have just foive ingredients:  boneless flanken, salt, pepper, barbeque sauce and apple juice.  Sealing the pan with double layers of both plastic wrap and aluminum foil helps the ribs retain their moisture.

Sea Bass Spring Rolls, from Mocha Bleu in Teaneck provide an economical way to stretch a pricey ingredient like Chilean sea bass, by mixing it with a more budget-friendly item:  kani, or imitation crab, with a few other well chosen ingredients ensuring maximum flavor:  sesame oil, mirin, kosher salt, mayonnaise and spring roll wrappers.

Helpful menu suggestions, cooking tips and techniques appear throughout Secret Restaurant Recipes.

Want to know how to make the best French Fries? Begin by soaking your fries in salted water, a technique that minimizes oil absorption, and dry them completely before frying.

If you are seeking a crispier pizza crust, pre-bake the crust for a few minutes before adding sauce or top the crust first with a layer of cheese before spooning on sauce to help maintain crispness.

Secret Restaurant Recipes features contributions from celebrity chefs Jeff Nathan of Abigael’s, Chopped champion Katsuji Tanabe of Mexikosher in Los Angeles and Karen Nicolas of Philadelphia’s Citron and Rose, named as one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs in 2012.

Compiling a volume of restaurant recipes was a change of pace for the duo, who typically develop their own dishes.

“As much as I love creating new recipes, I’ve always been fascinated with getting people’s recipes,” ntoed Mrs. Schapira.  “When people tell me that a recipe is a secret, I’m always doubly motivated to find out the secret and of course share it.”

Secret Restaurant Recipes is published by Artscroll and features over 80 recipes from more than 60 restaurants.  The 288 page volume is the fifth collaborative cookbook from Mrs. Dwek and Mrs. Schapira.