美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Chef And The Slow Cooker': An Old Technology That's Newly Relevant

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

You know, we don't do a lot of cookbooks on this show. Hugh Acheson's latest cookbook fits right in. It doesn't show much cooking. The chef is shown reading in a lawn chair, taking a hot bath, even playing the cello 1 - at least holding the bow over one.

It's a book about what you can cook - if that's quite the word - while you do something else, even for hours. "The Chef And The Slow Cooker" is by Hugh Acheson, the acclaimed 2 Canadian Southern chef who owns big-name restaurants in Georgia and is a judge on "Top Chef." He joins us from WABE in Atlanta.

Chef, thanks so much for being with us.

HUGH ACHESON: It's great to be here, Scott.

SIMON: So the slow cooker is old technology whose time has come?

ACHESON: It's been in your closet for years and - gathering 3 dust. And most people have one, and they cooked a pot roast in it and put it away. But what it is is it's really simple technology that really is a gateway 4 to cooking from scratch again, which I think is the biggest hurdle 5 that we really have in households in our country, is to get people cooking from scratch and eating well and immersing themselves in good food.

SIMON: What does a slow cooker do that just a pot on the stove doesn't?

ACHESON: Well, the pot on the stove is fine. But we just - I want to keep the house intact and not burn it down.

SIMON: (Laughter).

ACHESON: So a slow cooker is just a - it's a peace of mind. And it's usually simple technology that you all have. They're not very expensive, and they're just rudimentary, basic, two - usually a low and a high setting - and a cover. And it just - it acts as that braising pan but in a safe and contained environment.

SIMON: And it doesn't just make everything taste mushy?

ACHESON: No, you have more control. We've learned so much about food in the last 30 years - so much about technique and transferring of vegetables and keeping things fresh. So it doesn't have to be those slow cooker meals of yore. So that's what the book's really trying to do, is contemporize and make sure it's fresh and it's savoring 6 all these aspects of global cuisine 7 that we can put into this pot and have it be really something you'd relish 8.

SIMON: And you have recipes that are at least flavored, if I might put it that way, from all over the world in this book. Don't you?

ACHESON: Yeah. There's yeast 9 and miso and kimchi. And I think our palates have gone from a love of continental 10 food to a love of the world now, where our palates really want to be wowed and want to be pushed to a spice and umami and different sensibilities. So that's what the book's bringing into it - that even to the simplest pot roast, you can add a really big flourish at the end of fermented 11 chilies 12 and chickpeas and things that are redolent showing off the flavors of the world.

SIMON: Tell me about the recipe - 'cause there's a whole mess of ingredients laid out - chicken country captain.

ACHESON: Well, chicken country captain was - really shows off the true Southern lineage, the - Southern food was brought here in the pockets of slaves. It was brought here in crazy, painful ways. But the spice ports of Charleston and Savannah had a lot of influence. So really, it's a curried 13 chicken. It's elaborate curried chicken, but that really showed off the diversity of what was bringing in spices and Madeiras and ports. And it was essential port locations in the South. And then you mix that with the influence of Gullah cuisine and West African cuisine and then West Indian food, and this is a timeless recipe that comes out of it.

SIMON: And what kind of spice is in chicken country captain?

ACHESON: Country captain's going to have a lot of chilies in it, a lot of - ton of fresh ginger 14 and curry 15 powder and tomatoes. And I put raisins 16 and almonds and chicken broth 17 and cilantro and mint and scallions. So it does have a lot of things in it, but they just - they amass 18 to this beauteous, beauteous thing in the end.

SIMON: So you have fig 19 trees. And you make jam in the slow cooker?

ACHESON: You know, Athens, Ga., is like the pre-eminent fig climate. For some reason, when I planted a small fig tree years ago not really thinking much about it - and that thing is a magical producer of a gazillion figs 20. So we have to figure out something to do with them.

SIMON: A slow cooker does seem to be good for jam - doesn't it? - because it takes...

ACHESON: It is great.

SIMON: ...A lot of the drudgery 21 out, yeah.

ACHESON: Yeah, it takes a lot of that stirring - and, you know, the worst thing you can do with a jam is spend an arduous 22 amount of time cleaning fruit, getting it together and getting it into a pot and then torching and scorching 23 the bottom of it because of an open flame and a little bit too high heat. The slow cooker really just mellows 24 that out.

SIMON: If you were going to buy a slow cooker, what should you look for?

ACHESON: There are a lot of them coming out on the market now that are supermodern and have all sorts of gadgets 25 and whistles and bells. And I really prefer a really, really simple one. But the insert pan is really the important part. So I look for one that's pretty heavy, that's going to have really good heat distribution. A thin aluminum 26 thin one is not going to do much. So you just want something relatively 27 heavy. Often they're porcelain 28 or enameled 29, and those work well. But any brand really works because it's such rudimentary technology.

SIMON: What do you do with all the free time you get with a slow cooker? I mean, judging by the photographic evidence here, you take a lot of hot baths and play the cello. Do you even play the cello?

ACHESON: No, that was my daughter's cello. That's a propped 30 photo, Scott. I will go on record as saying I do not play the cello.

SIMON: (Laughter).

ACHESON: But I think that - I want to get people cooking again in a way they feel comfortable with. I want you to cook from scratch for the beauty of sitting down at the table later on with something you created and sharing it with the ones you love.

SIMON: Hugh Acheson - his book "The Chef And The Slow Cooker."

Thanks so much for being with us.

ACHESON: Thanks, Scott.