Best Cookbook of the Year

Bas Robben has done it again. After the success of Zuur, he has created a cookbook for the second time that you know you’ll still regularly pull off the shelf ten years from now. This time, the subject: Vet! Bas presented his book at Bar Centraal at Amsterdam’s Ten Kate Market, and we were there.

Where his previous book focused on acidity, this time fat takes center stage. A logical next step, because just like acidity, fat serves an important function in the kitchen and adds an incredible amount of flavor to dishes. According to Bas, fat deserves its own place in the culinary world, ‘because it preserves, glides, enriches, can make ingredients crispy and is a flavor carrier that lingers in the mouth for a long time.’

Lardo

…And on your lips, I realize as soon as I take a bite of the potato-and-rye pizza with rosemary and lardo (p. 61). The cured pork fat is thinly sliced, so it becomes meltingly soft on the pizza and brings the other flavorings together. The flavor is good, but the urge to lick your lips after every bite makes this pizza even more delicious. Meanwhile, my interest has been piqued and I start wondering what else lardo—which I have never made or used as a flavoring myself—would taste good on. On toasted bread with coarse salt? As a flavoring for roasted potatoes? I haven’t quite decided yet, but that lardo will soon be curing in my fridge too. And I definitely want more of that pizza. 

Why do you spend five euros on a piece of cheese, but not on a delicious, creamy French butter with crunchy salt flakes?

Taiwanese fried chicken

The Taiwanese fried chicken is also something special; before frying, it is rolled in sweet potato starch. That small step will change your life, because it results in the crunchiest chicken you have ever eaten. The topping fills the restaurant with the aroma of white pepper and five-spice powder, and I understand why Bas considers this the very best fried chicken. Really, make this recipe.

Cider hollandaise

In the first section of Vet, Bas takes you through his research into the function and flavor of fat: a well-written and clear story, packed with practical tips for buying the right fats. Because quite rightly, he asks himself: Why do you spend five euros on a piece of cheese, but not on a delicious, creamy French butter with crunchy salt flakes?

In the second section, you’ll find the recipes, categorized into the chapters preserving, frying, confiting, infusions & emulsions, baking & ice cream, and drinks. From making your own butter and frying fat to salt-roasted sweet onions with cider hollandaise and pangrattato, vegetable tempura with duck-fat mayo, and burrata with tonka meringue, buttermilk granita and roasted pear juice. I repeat: with tonka meringue and buttermilk granita.

This is a cookbook from which you’ll want to make everything—absolutely everything. Some recipes may seem intimidating, if you never deep-fry or make your own lardo, for example, but Bas explains everything in a wonderfully reassuring and down-to-earth way. With every difficult step and every complicated ingredient, he tells you what to do and gives you the confidence that you really can do it. And you can.

Title: Vet
Author: Bas Robben
Publisher: Good Cook
Price: €24.95