Michael Ruhlman

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F./220 degrees C. (or 400 degrees F./200 degrees C. if you have convection).

The word omelet originally derives from the Latin for "little plate," and omelets are usually made individually. You quickly cook one or two eggs while stirring rapidly and continuously to make the curds very fine, then stop the stirring to let the eggs set in the pan. When the omelet is just barely cooked, you grip the handle of the pan, palm up, and roll the egg from the handle side of the pan out of the pan and over the opposite edge in, one hopes, a lovely long oval of delicately pale, perfectly smooth, uniformly yellow egg. It takes practice -- mistakes are delicious and successes are high-five-worthy. 

I learned this nougat while working on the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, wherein executive pastry chef Sebastien Rouxel makes a version for the bakery. I've simplified his recipe for the home kitchen (corn syrup instead of glucose and no cocoa butter, which he uses to get a cleaner cut). But it all basically comes down to the temperature you cook the sugar to; because it's added hot to the egg whites, it ultimately cooks the whites and becomes a foamy white candy into which nuts and fruit are stirred. I love the combination of pistachio, almond, cashew, and cherry, but virtually any toasted nuts or dried fruits can be used.

Schmaltz can be made with any amount of skin and fat. The butcher or farmer you buy your chicken from will often save skin and fat for you on request. If you like to make chicken soup, save all the skin and fat before you put the bird in the pot. If you roast a chicken regularly, you can pull loose fat from it and trim unused skin, saving it in the freezer until you have enough to render for schmaltz.

Chef Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods America says fat is an ingredient that is "vastly overlooked."

Shrimp/prawns, so often overcooked in boiling water, are beautifully poached in butter—they remain tender, do not become rubbery, and develop an almost unfamiliar sweetness. What better pairing for buttery shrimp than butter-loving grits? One of the great regional American dishes, it is a specialty of low country, South Carolina.

In his book Ratios: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, food writer Michael Ruhlman reveals the cooking codes professional cooks use all the time. Here is Michael's formula for pie dough:

Ingredients

From The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman (Scribner, 2007). Copyright 2007 by Michael Ruhlman.

This is a basic vinaigrette only instead of being cold, it's mixed together in a medium hot pan, which intensifies the flavor of the tomato and the sweetness of the shallot. This is a great sauce for white fish, halibut or cod or tilapia (and would do wonders for the ubiquitous boneless chicken breast). But it also it works well with boiled new potatoes, salt cod, or a combination of boiled new potatoes, or other root vegetables, and salt cod or smoked trout.