Cooking For a New Reality

Appears in
Monday-to-Friday Cookbook
Monday-to-Friday Cookbook

By Michele Urvater

Published 1991

  • About
Before I lay out my strategy suggestions for making weekday meals as effortless as possible, here’s a word or two to explain how I came to develop my Monday-to-Friday recipes. These dishes add up to an everyday healthy cuisine that reflects the changing American food scene as much as it expresses my personal food philosophy.

In 1977 I was corporate chef at The Institutional Investor magazine, and the publisher had invited to lunch Rosser Reeves, dean of advertising. I was to “knock the socks off of him.” Now, throughout my career as a professional chef, I’ve been faced with many challenges, but only twice was I given this type of nerve-racking assignment, which is simply to create an impressive, unforgettable meal for an important guest. How does one impress a man accustomed to eating at the best French restaurants? Well, in those days nouvelle cuisine was just coming into vogue and what impressed was a cuisine that combined French haute cuisine techniques with unusual ethnic ingredients.