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Photographs on pages 30, 52, 57, 61, 67, 85, 90, 106, 118, 125, 132, 136, 162, 174, 177, 184, 188, 192, 200, 205, 209, 218, 221, and 245, copyright © 2009 by Ben Fink. All other photographs copyright © 2009 by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-307-88552-4

v3.0

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No chef gets anywhere without a fleet of people behind him and in this I’ve been incredibly lucky, truly blessed with great family, an amazing wife, and an excellent staff, people who have stayed with me for so many years in a transitory industry.

I want to thank my mom, Angel, my dad, Dennis, my sister, Nikki, and my grandparents, who made cooking and eating together a pleasure from the beginning. Of course I want to thank Lizzie and Kyle. I was lucky beyond words that Liz happened to be working at the place where I found my first job out of culinary school. I’d like to thank Lizzie’s parents as well, Russ and Sherla. Thank you, Doug Petkovic, one of my oldest and dearest friends, who became my business partners. And I can’t forget James Sammon, best friend, and more important, my lawyer, who, God bless him, has traded countless legal-work hours for food.

I’m grateful to my staff and chefs, past and present, especially Frank Rogers, Matt Harlan, Derek Clayton, Cory Barrett, Jonathon Sawyer, and Jon Seeholzer. They’re the ones who truly keep the businesses running. And my great assistant, Rebecca Yody, keeps me running. They’ve become family too.

Thank you Scott Feldman and all the folks at 212 Management, and I also want to say thanks to my Food Network family.

Books, like restaurants, take a team of people, and I’m grateful to all the people who helped to make this book happen: Michael and Donna Ruhlman and Heidi Robb here in Cleveland, and in New York, my agent, Elizabeth Kaplan, and my editor, Rica Allannic; creative director, Marysarah Quinn; managing editor, Amy Boorstein; and production manager, Kim Tyner.

To all, thank you.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD BY BOBBY FLAY

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THE CHEF BY MICHAEL RUHLMAN

BECOMING A BETTER COOK

STARTERS

SOUPS AND SANDWICHES

SALADS

PASTA, GNOCCHI, AND RISOTTO

CHARCUTERIE

PICKLES

STOCKS, SAUCES, AND CONDIMENTS

SIDE DISHES

FISH

MEAT

FAMILY MEAL

SOURCES

INDEX

Michael Symon is cooking … that means the aroma of sizzling pork is in the air!

Michael Symon is a good friend of mine, and that makes me a lucky guy. When he asked me to write this Foreword I was flattered, in part due to my respect for his food and his personality, but also because any chef Michael has come into contact with over the years would have been honored to contribute to this, his first cookbook.

Chef Symon and his coauthor, Michael Ruhlman, give you all you need to know to emulate the Symon way of cooking and eating, which is a good thing. Now because I have had the privilege of spending plenty of quality time with him, I am going to try to let you in on who Michael Symon really is—as a chef, as a cook, and as a friend.

Michael Symon loves to ride motorcycles, although he recently admitted to me that his current maturity has him less behind the handlebars and more likely to be gripping a golf club these days. (For those who are interested, he’s about a nine handicap on a good day, so beware!) He has also traded in his competitive wrestling gear for an Iron Chef jersey, which makes him rather dangerous in Kitchen Stadium. Instead of putting his competitors in a devastating headlock, he is now more likely to bring them to their knees with a bowl of crispy gnocchi with morels and peas.

Michael knows who he is and where he lives, and his heritage and community