Eat (Like) the Rich

For a limited time we have copies signed by Olivia Tiedemann.

Olivia Tiedemann made a career as a private chef in the Hamptons, where dinner might mean accommodating a dozen guests with a dozen different preferences. In Eat (Like) The Rich, she argues that the difference between everyday cooking and food prepared for wealthy clients often comes down not to extravagant ingredients, but to knowing which small decisions make food taste better. 

Tiedemann lays out her kitchen commandments, preferred equipment and ingredients, and techniques accumulated through restaurant and private-chef work. She explains how to make a proper French omelet, get crisp skin on fish, roast a chicken without leaving the skin flabby, and make whipped cream in a blender, with an emphasis on understanding what is happening instead of simply following instructions. 

More than 75 recipes put that thinking to work, including crab cakes, short rib lasagna, chicken Parmesan, lobster salad, ribeye with charred scallion chimichurri, and branzino with brown butter parsnip puree. For her parsnip gnocchi, Tiedemann begins by asking what function the potato serves in conventional gnocchi, then substitutes a vegetable that brings more caramelized flavor and, conveniently, can be worked in a food processor without becoming gluey. 

Tiedemann’s profane, irreverent style, familiar to the millions who follow her cooking videos, carries into the book, but so does the professional experience behind it. Her premise is ultimately a useful one: restaurant and private-chef habits can improve the way you cook without requiring a private-chef budget. 

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.