Daniel Boulud busts out canned sardines. Christina Tosi microwaves chocolate cake mugs. And Alice Waters makes quesadillas with just-picked, organic salad greens, of course.
When the world’s most esteemed chefs shed their whites and head home to their kitchens, what do they reach for? Adrian Moore and Carrie Solomon, American authors living in Paris, were brave enough to ask. And their new cookbook provides all the juicy, full-color answers.
“Chefs’ Fridges: More Than 35 World-Renowned Cooks Reveal What They Eat at Home” (Harper Design; $40), a follow-up to the duo’s 2016 “Inside Chefs’ Fridges, Europe,” offers a glimpse into the refrigerator contents, grocery purchases and go-to recipes of the biggest names in food, including José Andrés, Carla Hall, Sean Brock and Jessica Koslow.
Especially now, as all of us — including many chefs themselves — are staying home and cooking in, “Chefs’ Fridges” gives us unprecedented access to iconic chefs’ personal kitchens, favorite brands and quirky personalities when we need it most.
In choosing the chefs, Moore and Solomon wanted to feature a wide range of culinary creatives, from well-established Michelin chefs (12 of the featured chefs have 36 stars between them) to up-and-comers just making their mark.
“In the end, we also got a cross section of people in different places in their lives, from bachelor to bonus-family fridges, fridges with baby bottles and fridges with personalized gin bottles to those with non-alcoholic beer,” says Solomon via email. She traveled to the U.S. in late 2018 and early 2019 to meet with the chefs, including Berkeley’s Waters and San Francisco’s Dominique Crenn.
Some 22 of the 35 featured chefs are from the United States, with an emphasis on Los Angeles and New York City, though the authors visited chefs in New Orleans, Nashville, Boston and Georgia, too. The other 13 chefs span European cities, as well as Mexico City, Toronto and Montreal.
Early on, Moore and Solomon discovered unifying themes among the fridges. Namely, condiments. Think mayo, ketchup, gojuchang.
“Asian condiments were everywhere,” recalls Moore via email. “So were ‘comforting’ mass market foods, although some almost went overboard, like (New Orleans’ James Beard Award finalist) Mason Hereford with foodstuffs sourced from convenience store terroir, like Spam, Lunchables and bologna.”
Fermentation experiments, seasonal produce, organic eggs and niche foods from Europe — Spanish sardines, French cheese, Champagne — were foraged from almost every fridge. On the mainstream side, they saw La Croix and Fage, Talenti gelato, Dave’s Killer Bread and products from Trader Joe’s, like olives, sauerkraut and ravioli.
In the unusual realm, the authors found homemade marijuana gummy bears (Boston’s Barbara Lynch), retinol cream (Los Angeles’ Nancy Silverton) and blue Kool-Aid (yes, Hereford). They also picked up chef tricks: Coffee beans are better than baking soda for wiping out fridge odors (New Orleans’ Kristen Essig), and you can always have fresh greens on hand if you blanch, puree and freeze them in ice trays the way Amanda Cohen of New York City’s Dirt Candy does.
One condition of being featured in the book was that the chefs had to prepare a meal on the fly for the authors with what they had on hand. Almost everyone wanted to make them eggs. “Luckily for the book’s sake, we started asking them to make something else,” they said.
But it was hard to say no to Silverton’s Open-Faced Omelet with Anchovies, Olives and Onion Confit. Silverton, the Cal-Ital mastermind behind Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza, calls it “the perfect meal when there is basically nothing but condiments in your fridge.”
Visiting Waters in Berkeley, Solomon spotted exactly what you’d expect in the Chez Panisse owner’s shiny Sub-Zero: Bottles of Bandol rosé, anchovies, preserved lemons and leafy greens. The Ferry Building’s Primavera tortillas, which Waters likes “because they are organic, small, thin and they always label the package with the date the tortillas were made on,” are the base for her Organic Garden Salad Tortillas with melted Monterey Jack cheese.
“Her fridge was so poetic, and I loved the way she used overturned bowls for storage, a great alternative to plastic wrap,” Solomon says.
Crenn’s drawer refrigerator was poetic in its own way. The tiniest among the book’s 35, it helps Crenn “to be more conscious and thoughtful” of its contents, which includes the three-Michelin-starred French chef’s must-haves: pâté, saucisson, petit pot de crème and sheep’s butter. Don’t add Champagne to that list — Crenn is not a fan. Her fizzy drink of choice is kombucha.
Crenn, who gets her groceries from Good Earth Natural Foods and the Larkspur farmers market, made Solomon her Cured Salmon with Creme Fraiche and Lemon, a deceptively easy recipe that uses salt, sugar, lime zest, ginger and scallions to turn a simple salmon filet into the best gravlax, especially when it’s served atop Crenn’s pita crackers alongside a glass of rosé.
By now you’re probably wondering: Of all the amazing chefs featured in the book, which would the authors choose to hang out and dine with again? José Andrés, the tapas ambassador with 20 restaurants and numerous James Beard Awards. Solomon calls his Sub-Zero and Hoshizaki “the epitome of what I imagine when I think of a chef’s fridge.”
“He has got it all, high-brow, home-grown, far-flung, wild flavors, homey leftovers, niche seafood, loads of condiments,” Solomon says. “I would definitely want to eat a meal from his fridge.”
Moore concurs, calling Andrés, a humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize nominee who grew up eating canned chickpeas when money was tight, “a larger-than-life character and great conversationalist.”
What more could you want when standing before an open fridge together, deciding what to eat?
