<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Alex: You have a new cookbook and a new TV series on A&amp;amp;amp;E, both called Rocco Gets Real. What&amp;#039;s the &amp;quot;getting real&amp;quot; all about? Rocco: It&amp;#039;s a response to this culture of food voyeurism. There are so many wannabe foodies who  are infatuated with TV chefs and cooks. And in the process, a lot of people have gotten the idea that  cooking is something you need all of this time, money, skills, equipment, and food knowledge to do. It&amp;#039;s  not true. I see myself as a reformed gourmet. A: Reformed gourmet \u2014 I love the sound of that. But what does it mean? R: It means that good cooking isn&amp;#039;t about getting the right salt or the most expensive olive  oil. If you like Thai food, you don&amp;#039;t have to go to Thailand. Just buy a bottle of fish sauce and play  with it. I learned all of my cooking from my very poor family in Jamaica, Queens. To this day they still  don&amp;#039;t have a set of matching china. My grandmother made amazing food with a broken paring knife and a  beaten-up pan. I&amp;#039;m a chef addressing real, everyday cooking needs. A: Cooking for dummies? R: No. This isn&amp;#039;t about dumbing-down flavor. It&amp;#039;s addressing the fact that some people are  afraid of cooking things like fish. They&amp;#039;re afraid of entertaining, of being judged in the process. A: OK, so what kind of food does a reformed gourmet prepare? R: I&amp;#039;m creating complex flavors using pretty simple recipes. Nothing in this book has more  than 10 ingredients or takes more than 30 minutes. A: How do you short-cut complex flavor? R: By creating tension in food. The combo of sweet, sour, salt, and spice is something I find  fascinating. So I pair ingredients like miso with orange marmalade, and cherry preserves with Dijon  mustard. That tension is what drives a lot of cooking in Southeast Asia and India. This is my own take  on that approach to food. A: Almost every recipe calls for specific brands of food. Why? R: I&amp;#039;ve spent my career chasing down the most remote truffles on earth. But I&amp;#039;m a home cook  now, not a chef, and I love using things like store-bought baba ghanoush instead of eggplant. Or Uncle  Ben&amp;#039;s White Ready Rice. It&amp;#039;s a pouch and you just put it in the microwave. Easy. A: Are companies paying you to include their brands? R: No. My job is to guide people in the right direction. I&amp;#039;ve gone to stores and done the  work. Why wouldn&amp;#039;t I pass that information on? A: What&amp;#039;s a store-bought product we should all have? R: Pouch tomato sauces. They&amp;#039;re fantastic. They&amp;#039;re 90 seconds in the microwave. My mom has  made her own tomato sauce her whole life and now she uses it. And frozen peas. I challenge anyone to  find better peas except for one month of the year. I learned how to use frozen peas from a famous  four-star chef. He told me to get the peas, and I looked for them in the walk-in refrigerator forever.  Finally he said, &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re in the freezer, idiot!&amp;quot; Boursin cheese can perform miracles \u2014 it&amp;#039;s great for  making quick cream sauces, or for stuffing. Oh...pork rinds... A: Wait. Pork rinds??!!?? R: Hey, I don&amp;#039;t put food into social classes. They&amp;#039;re the cheapest, most humble food in the  world and they&amp;#039;re great as a garnish. A: Pork rinds, nuked rice, store-bought meatballs. What will the foodies say? R: This isn&amp;#039;t just a vanity project \u2014 these are solutions to problems. I&amp;#039;m giving people  permission to cheat, to use inexpensive food, and to put together combinations that are exciting and  magical. Here&amp;#039;s the main goal: Cook more, laugh a lot. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/restaurants/a1334/rocco-dispirito-cookbook/>