Chef Chiarello favors techniques, not recipes

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Chef Michael Chiarello's Italian-inspired California cuisine is recognized for its simple style and robust flavors.

Just three years after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America the California-native was named Chef of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine in 1985 at the age of 23.

Since then 45-year-old Chiarello has branched out -- hosting television food shows, operating NapaStyle which sells home goods and fine foods and running a small vineyard that focuses on organic farming techniques.

Chiarello spoke to Reuters about his cooking:

Q: What inspires your cooking?

A: "What I try to do is to celebrate the artisan who makes the product. It inspires not just me but all cooks to do simpler foods more naturally.

I farm my 20 acres and my inspiration comes not only from my family but also the old guard farmers who have been farming 50 to 60 years. If I'm having a problem with my vineyard because I farm organically, you can't just add a chemical to solve a problem. Everything takes a long time."

Q: How do your contemporaries influence you?

A: "There's so much talent. It's less about what your contemporaries do with a dish. It's more about a technique that you see. So I never take somebody's dish, but I will borrow someone's technique. For example, I'll see somebody poaches, then juliennes and sautes a duck together. Then, I'll think about the technique for a dish of my very own."

Q: Speaking of borrowing techniques, what is your view on fusion cuisine?

A: "The only thing that I fuse is classic Italian cooking and my point of view. For me, I don't like to cross borders. When I want Thai food, I want Thai food. When I want Chinese, I want Chinese. When I want Italian, I want Italian. But what I don't want is mung bean in my marinara sauce.

When you cook food that has a history and a point of view, it lasts with you much, much longer. If you have a fusion dish, it may taste awesome, but I'm likely going to wake up the next morning and forget what I ate."

Q: Do you have any preferred ingredients?

A: "I borrow a lot of ingredients from the Mediterranean countries. You'll see a lot of stuff from the south of France, from Spain and certainly from Italy. You'll certainly see ingredients from Greece because they share the same ingredients."

Q: Any tips for at-home chefs?

A: "I would like them to collect techniques, not recipes. Once you understand how you make a great pesto, you can do a basil pesto, you can do an asparagus pesto, you can do a roasted pepper pesto. That's where the fun in cooking is -- adapting techniques with the seasonal produce that you have and spreading out those techniques throughout the entire year."

RECIPE -- Spaghetti All'Amatriciana - Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/3 pound pancetta in one piece, partially frozen

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced onion-soup style

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3/4 cup tomato puree

3/4 pound spaghetti or bucatini

Freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Unroll the pancetta. Cut it into 1-inch-long chunks, then slice each chunk thinly across the grain.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over moderately low heat. Add the pancetta and cook until it renders some of its fat, about 5 minutes. Do not allow it to crisp. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. While the onion is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water.

Add the red pepper flakes and parsley to the onion mixture and cook briefly to release their fragrance. Add the wine vinegar and simmer briskly until it evaporates, then add the tomato puree and 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Simmer briefly to blend.

When the pasta is just shy of al dente, drain it and return it to the warm pot over moderate heat. Add the sauce and cook briefly so the pasta absorbs some of the sauce, then transfer the pasta to a warmed serving bowl and shower with the pecorino. Serve immediately.

Notes: Start boiling the pasta after the onions have softened so that you have some starchy pasta water for your sauce. Putting the pancetta in the freezer for about 30 minutes will make it easier to slice.