About this item
This debut cookbook from James Beard Rising Star Chef Gabriel Rucker features a serious yet playful collection of over 125 recipes from his phenomenally popular Portland restaurant. Dining at Le Pigeon is a celebration of high and low extremes in cooking: Buffalo hot wings are elevated with the substitution of sweetbreads, a simple potato salad gets “dirty” with the addition of chicken livers, and a $3 Coors appears next to premier cru Burgundies on the wine list. Serious yet playful, this debut cookbook recounts the ascension of James Beard Award–winning chef Gabriel Rucker to the top of the Portland food scene and the shift of a modest neighborhood eatery to a must-visit destination. Offal-centric and meat-heavy, but by no means dogmatic, this collection of 125 recipes offers uncommon delicacies like Elk Tongue Stroganoff and Rabbit and Eel Terrine, envelope-pushing twists on classics like Beef Cheeks Bourguinon and Lamb Belly BLT, and surprisingly uncomplicated dishes like Simple Roasted Pigeon, Leek Carbonara, and Pork Tacos.
About the Author
Gabriel RuckerChef and Co-Owner, Le Pigeon and Little BirdGabriel Rucker is the Chef and Co-Owner of Le Pigeon and Little Bird in Portland, Oregon. His edgy, highly original, and recipe-free masterpieces, evocative of French bistro signatures and classic American fare, have gained him both regional and national acclaim, recently earning him a 2013 James Beard Award for Best Chef Northwest.Gabriel's first and favorite experience with food was at a bagel shop in his hometown of Napa during his rebellious high school days. Upon failing math at Santa Rosa Junior College, Gabriel was told he should learn a trade. Remembering a positive experience at the bagel shop, he decided to attend cooking school for a year before he dropped out after landing a job at Silverado Country Club. He then relocated to Santa Cruz for an opportunity at Southern Exposure Bistro, where he began to understand cooking intuitively. Inspired by books such as Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook, he challenged himself to create dishes levels above lasagna.In 2003 Gabriel left California for Oregon, where he landed a job at the esteemed Paley's Place in Portland. A pioneer in Portland for their use of fresh, local ingredients and focus on produce from nearby farmers, he still feels lucky to have stumbled into a job there. After two years at Paley's, he accepted a position as sous chef at the Gotham Building Tavern. There, he took straightforward American staples and retouched them with classic French technique to resounding approval.In June of 2006, Gabriel opened Le Pigeon and quickly became an overnight success. Food & Wine Magazine aptly named him one of the country's Best New Chefs in 2007. For four consecutive years beginning in 2008 he was nominated for The James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef award, alongside a handful of the nation's most talented chefs under the age of 30. In 2008 Le Pigeon was named the Oregonian's Restaurant of the Year. 2011 was a year of surprises: Gabriel returned to Portland with the 2011 James Beard's Rising Star Award in tow and became the proud father of son Augustus Lee Lightning Bolt Rucker. A year later, Gabriel received the Chef of the Year award in Portland Monthly Magazine and Little Bird was named the Oregonian's 2012 Restaurant of the Year. In 2013, his first year of nomination in the Best Chef regional category, Gabriel returned home with the James Beard Best Chef Northwest Award. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Food & Wine, Bizarre Foods, and StarChefs as a Rising Star.Gabriel Rucker and Meredith Erickson, with Lauren and Andrew Fortgang, will release their first cookbook, Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird (Ten Speed Press), on September 17, 2013. Forwarded by Chef Tom Colicchio, the cookbook is a serious yet playful collection of 150 recipes celebrating Rucker's high-low extremes in cooking, combining the wild and the refined in a u
