Hello, breakaway cooks! I'm your guide to a totally new and powerful way to think about food and what to put on the table. "Breakaway" is a style of cooking uniquely suited to today's dizzying array of choices of what, and how, to eat. It pays homage to the culinary traditions and ingredients of a half-dozen or so countries, yet it "breaks away" from all of them to create a new and coherent way to cook.
You won't require much previous cooking experience, and you won't need a lot of time. You will, however, need an open mind, a robust appetite, and a willingness to develop your own palate to discover what really turns you on about food.
I never went to culinary school; I learned by cooking thousands of meals, many of them without adequate time, planning, or even cookware. It all started in Japan, where I lived for most of my 20s and 30s and where I began playing with Japanese ingredients in unorthodox ways. My first cookbook, Eric's Kitchen, was written in Japanese for average Japanese home cooks who wanted to make simple but exciting new dishes by pushing the boundaries a bit.
My second cookbook, The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen, introduced new ways to think about and use of Japanese ingredients to readers outside Japan, home cooks who are attracted to the simplicity and healthfulness of Japanese food but might appreciate a new and friendly approach to the cuisine.
My newest book, The Breakaway Cook (HarperCollins, appears in bookstores in Spring 2007), reinterprets uses of key ingredients from Japan, India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Mexico. It does so by combining them with organic bounty from farmers' markets to produce healthful, delicious food at home that is uniquely suited to contemporary eating habits and lifestyles.