Every restaurant cook starts their day with a prep list. It helps keep them organised, it gets their priorities straight. It’s frequently the difference between success and a total bloody mess.
That’s why I’m calling a new chapter of The Recovering Line Cook simply: The Prep List.
And I’m really happy to be telling you about it today.
The Prep List: A line cook’s guide to cooking great food at home
Two years ago, I started this newsletter to share the story of my career change from London office drone to Stockholm restaurant cook, and what I learned about cooking Nordic-inspired food along the way.
But the memoir side of things quickly ended up taking centre stage.
I’ve shared lots of recipes since then, but I always wanted to create something more structured here, something with a beginning, middle and end that would amount to what I love most about Nordic food and what I learned in professional Nordic kitchens.
Thanks to my paid subscribers, I feel like I have the support to start writing the “cookbook” I always envisioned.
And that is going to be The Prep List.
The Prep List isn’t going to be a traditional collection of recipes structured by ingredients lists and methods repeated over and over again.
Instead, it will be a blow-by-blow story of a 16-hour shift (aka a “longie”) in a restaurant kitchen. Think Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries. Just, instead of a poetic look at Nigel’s food life over the course of a year, you’ll get an (almost) entirely true, warts and all insight into a Nordic restaurant cook’s life over the course of a single day.
And in doing so, we’ll be working toward creating a full, distinctly Nordic multi-course menu.
At every step, you’ll gain insights into the techniques, preparations, and flavours that bring each dish to life, just like a chef working through their prep list for service.
That means you won’t just learn how to cook some of my favourite Nordic recipes, you’ll also gain the skills to create your own exciting dishes and ideas as well.
Here’s a small taste of what I’m talking about:
Early Morning - Set up
The Mind of a Chef: How to set-up, plan and organise so you can work clean and fast.
Foraging: Wild herbs and plants for a very special Nordic flavour
Stock & Sauce Basics: The secret to deep, flavoursome stocks and mother sauces
Mid Morning - Getting the basics done
Brining & Curing: How to make meats and fish (and even certain vegetables) taste incredible
Ferments & Pickles: The heart of Nordic acidity
Baking Bread & Pastries: Reliable doughs and techniques (using lots of rye)
Dairy: Cultured “virgin” butter, and other milk-product recipes
Afternoon - Prepping the big stuff
Vegetable Cookery: From purees to roasting to boiling
Meat/fish Cookery: Why tempering, resting, caramelisation, and even cutting technique matter
Garnishes & Final Touches: The elements that turn a dish from ‘good’ to ‘wow’
Deep Frying: A deep-dive in creating fun and surprising garnishes for your food
Pre-Service - Finishing touches
Sauces: How to create pan and butter sauces with a Nordic flavour
Japanese/Nordic crossover: A look at why Nordic and Japanese flavours are so complementary
Smoking: Easy techniques to get Nordic smokiness into your food
Plating & Presentation: Easy to use tips to make your food look great
Service - Show time
Perfect Timing: Getting every element of a dish ready at the same time
Fixing Mistakes: Quick saves for when things go wrong
Post-Service - Desserts and creativity
Ice Cream, Sorbet & Chocolate: Unique desserts made simple using herbs and other surprising ingredients
Dish Development & Experimentation: How chefs invent new dishes and flavours
Is this for you?
What I want is to bring a little bit of the fun I had with this insight into restaurant cooking together with the accessible recipes I’ve written over the past few years such as this look at making bread with poolish. I want to do something a little different with The Prep List. Something that is true to my experience working in restaurant kitchens, true to the food I love, and true to me as a writer/cook.
Basically, I want this to be fun to read even if you never use it to cook with at all.
But teaching others is a huge part of working in restaurant kitchens. Being able to share what I know with you in a structured way really excites me and I think will be really valuable for you.
Support me and the creation of The Prep List
This is going to be a big project, I’m absolutely talking about a book-length commitment here that I plan to send instalments of every month starting in April. And I am relying on paid subscribers to fund the time it will take to make it possible.
This series will be in addition to my regular free newsletter so please upgrade today for less than a coffee a month to get:
Access to The Prep List
Access to all past recipes and essays in my The Recovering Line Cook archive
Paid subscriber-only chat and comments to ask follow up questions
Thanks for your time, and sorry for the sales pitch this week.
And paid subscribers, expect the introduction to The Prep List very soon!
Wil
Looking forward to it
Subscribed. I have a bookcase full of cookbooks, and I still feel like I can’t cook because not one of them tells me how to improvise beyond basic substitutions for hard to find ingredients. Hope the print version is available in the USA <3