Don’t you think Graham Elliot should’ve been cast in The Hunger Games as a TV chef in the Capitol? These days the bow-tied one may be more known for playing good cop on MasterChef than he is for his food. When was the last time he was associated with a dish that pervaded the gustatory zeitgeist like the foielipop? But the dictates of celebrity cheffery demand a cookbook, and now there’s Cooking Like a Master Chef, a slick 100-recipe volume interspersed with plenty of food porn and shots of the slimmed-down, postbariatric Elliot frolicking with his family like a regular joe. There are lots of accessible recipes with occasional jarring, intriguing twists on the familiar (Chinese forbidden fried rice, strip steak with Cabernet jam), and many of the chef’s old signature dishes are there—the truffled popcorn, the buffalo chicken with beer foam, the deconstructed Caesar, the lobster corn dog, the short-rib stroganoff.
Graham Elliot’s Cheddar Cheese Risotto
Serves four to six
1. For the bacon powder, in a small frying pan, slowly cook the bacon over medium-low heat. Spoon the fat off and discard as the bacon cooks. When the bacon browns, use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a fine-mesh sieve or chinois to drain a little more. Spread the bacon pieces on paper towels and allow the bacon to air-dry for two to three hours.
6. Add the hard cider, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for about 30 minutes longer, or until the onions are cooked through. Lift the onions from the cooking liquid and set aside, covered to keep warm, until needed.
11. Add the cheddar and mascarpone to the hot risotto. Stir to allow the cheese to melt into the rice. Gently stir in the glazed onions. Season with salt and pepper. (Make sure you use enough pepper, which helps cut through the flavors of the dish.)
