The new cookbook Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food has a recipe for berry cheesecake that cuts out almost all of the work: Just dump a handful of crumbled biscuits on a mound of vanilla cream cheese surrounded by warmed blueberries.
Mr. Ramsay suggests serving the mounds in ramekins, but adds, "if you haven't time ... just layer the vanilla cream cheese and blueberries in glasses, and scatter the crumb mix on top."
Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food is a 255-page guide on how to prepare simple gourmet fare - one of a slew of new cookbooks aimed at foodies who have more experience eating at fine restaurants and picking up gourmet meals than actual time spent in the kitchen.
Mr. Ramsay's book, released in Canada today, will join others cashing in on an increasing demand for dinners that are as sophisticated as they are easy.
Recent bestselling cookbooks feeding the sophisticated simplicity trend include Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express (also the name of her most recent TV show), Martha Stewart Living magazine's Great Food Fast and almost anything by Jamie Oliver.
"Nowadays people eat out all the time," says Gail Norton, owner of the Cookbook Co. Cooks in Calgary. "They don't want bland food when they come home."
Jonathan Cheung, co-owner of Bon Appétit, a cookbook store in Montreal's affluent Westmount neighbourhood, says his customers know their radicchio from their arugula. "People know they can get any ingredient any time of year," he says. "They are not intimidated by recipes calling for mirin or smoked cod."
But they often don't know how to make a good vinaigrette or the proper technique for tossing a salad. (The latter, Mr. Cheung says, is best done with one's hands, instead of tongs, so as not to pinch bits of baby lettuces.)
Many of the dishes in books such as Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food are merely backdrops to the high-end prepared products popular with urban foodies. His beetroot soup recipe calls for store-bought smoked duck breasts as a garnish. His open-faced sandwich is layered with scrambled eggs, chives - and cooked crabmeat from a shop.
There is even a recipe for smoked salmon, cream cheese and rye - just add oscietra caviar.
Ms. Norton calls this type of cooking "ingredient-driven," meaning the dishes are built around a few strong flavours. And even when calling for basics, the authors advise purchasing the best available.
"Sure, you could use any olive oil," says Ms. Norton, a self-trained chef. "But why not use an olive oil with tons of flavour?"
She says an appetizer in one of Mr. Oliver's popular books may simply be a tomato salad doused in peppery olive oil and British Maldon sea salt, the current choice of salt among foodies.
"People will think you fussed and fussed," Ms. Norton says. "But really it's so easy."
Mr. Cheung says his customers often ask for cookbooks that showcase simple versions of whatever is fashionable at restaurants. He's recently seen a lot of interest in books on pork, as pork belly, Parma ham and braised meats have all become popular menu items. He's been recommending Pork and Sons by Stéphane Reynaud and The Bacon Cookbook by James Villas.
Home cooks used to require some experience or a lot of time to master recipes by, for example, Julia Child or Thomas Keller of California's famed French Laundry restaurant, which for years dominated the cookbook market, Ms. Norton says.
Since the Martha Stewart empire, which has a reputation for complex dishes, released Great Food Fast last year, it has "sold like hot cakes," says Jennifer Granger, assistant manager of the Cookbook Store in Toronto.
"We can't keep it in stock," Ms. Granger says. The book features such American favourites as sloppy joes, steak and onion, and po' boy sandwiches.
The recent publications have all done away with fussy steps such as making a bouquet garni or shocking vegetables in an ice bath after blanching.
