This one is for all of us who are still secretly coming to grips with adulthood and keeping the good face going while eating take-out, and left-over take-out, every night rather than tackling the mighty culinary fight that is preparing anything other than pasta and sauce.
Chef Avi Shemtov, who owns and operates the Boston-based food truck The Chubby Chickpea, has written a cookbook to save us all from box dinners and a lack of creativity in the food department. It’s called The Single Guy Cookbook , but if there’s one thing he wants to make clear, it’s that this isn’t just for dudes.
“I wanted anybody who picks up this book to be able to find 10, 20, 30 recipes in their that really fit their lifestyle and what they’re about…”
“You know how the publishing world works. The title ends up being The Single Guy Cookbook, and it’s cool and I stand behind it for sure, but really the idea behind that is this is the average person’s cookbook,” Avi told BostInno. And with recipes ranging from jalapeno mac and cheese balls to stuffed steak with creamy mushrooms Rigatoni, this guide is fit for any food needs. Hell, you could probably even hunker down for weeks with just your pantry and this book.
At least, that’s partly what Avi did. He told us that “during Snowpocalypse this past year I went on a six day straight time period where my goal in my house was to make three meals a day only from what existed in my house.”
We thought this sounded crazy, so we had to inquire what he made.
“A staple every night definitely for my wife, and unfortunately it’s not in the book but it’s something every guy who wants to impress a girl needs to know how to do, was lava cake. It’s so easy.”
He continued that he concocted some easy pantry pleasers like cornbread pancakes with fruit compote and black bean burgers. And though this all may seem like food way out of our calibers, this cookbook is the first step to being a master at a few recipes.”I wanted anybody who picks up this book to be able to find 10, 20, 30 recipes in their that really fit their lifestyle and what they’re about, and then they can make just one trip to the grocery store.”
And with the seemingly endless categories (with names like No Shirt, No Shoes; Game Day Grub; and Help Yourself to Seconds) your cravings for new flavors will never be left wanting. The sheer variety comes from the chef’s killer ethos of never leaving anyone without a “kick-ass dish” to try. He believes people should enjoy cooking as much as they enjoy going out to a renowned chef’s restaurant. This book is about being happy in your own abilities.
“I didn’t grow up learning what to make, I grew up learning how to cook. I saw how to kind of try to walk someone through a philosophy.”
The Single Guy Cookbook, though geared toward anyone as much as it is at men, is a philosophy that touts satisfaction as its highest tenet. Satisfaction in flavor, in price, in process; all of these elements come together in recipes that aren’t meant to profit health (except in the Health Meals for Hungry Men section, of course) so much as to profit life.
So why don’t we all buck-up a little and get over the idea that cooking is something to fear or a craft stratospheres beyond our grasp? I mean, it is something humans have done for centuries. And with chef Avi as guide and general food coach, I’m sure we can all whip up something a little more flavorful than the kung pao chicken we couldn’t finish last night.
