Product Review

Carne is the fifth in the series of cookbooks documenting the renowned farm-to-table meals served by the Rome Sustainable Food Project, founded by Alice Waters, at the American Academy in Rome. Following volumes on biscotti, vegetables, pastas, and soups, this cookbook focuses on Executive Chef Christopher Behr’s favorite subject, meat: beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, and poultry.

Chef Behr also offers more than a dozen recipes for side dishes, or contorni, that he serves alongside meat entrées: salads (including Radicchio Salad with Green Apple Balsamic Vinaigrette with Walnuts and Grilled Cucumber Salad with Yogurt), bean dishes, Sweet and Sour Squash, Pickled Green Tomatoes with Garlic, Hot Pepper and Mint (a dish that sold out within hours when he offered it at BKLYN Larder), and his legendary roasted potatoes that are crisp and golden on the outside with the
creamy consistency of mashed potatoes on the inside.

The Italian food of the Jersey shore is near and dear to Chef Behr’s heart, and when he’s homesick he cooks those iconic dishes, from meat loaf to short ribs, although his versions reflect his experiences in California, New York, and Rome—they’re lighter than the classic version but nonetheless deliver all their robust satisfaction.