He then developed seven new recipes to highlight each of the 18 heroes. For the salmon, there are tacos and a po’ boy. For eggs, he’s got an Indian-inspired frittata and eggy crumpets. For mushrooms, he offers a risotto, a soup and a beef stir-fry.
He also looked at the most popular takeout dishes and tried to replicate their taste. He calls them “fakeaways” and there’s dozens of recipes — including sweet-and-sour pork, spicy shrimp noodles and a sausage pizza.
“I’ll try and write a recipe that can lure you into having a go. And ultimately, that’s what it’s all about: trying to keep cooking skills alive,” he said.
Oliver has become a household name for promoting sustainable and healthy foods since starring in BBC’s “The Naked Chef,” in which he stripped food down to its essentials, using simple ingredients and techniques. He later became familiar to North American audiences with Food Network shows like “Jamie at Home.”
In “7 Ways,” Oliver has capped the number of ingredients home cooks need for each dish at eight, and tried new ideas, informed by many consumers who said they were stuck in food ruts.
“I’m trying to represent different cooking methods, different costs and different color, different flavor profiles,” he said. “One of my jobs in this book was to try and help celebrate the ingredient, but break the monotony of the same old dish every week.”
