A Master Chef's Signature Book Available in paperback for the first time in a decade, The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet is the bestselling cookbook that catapulted Pierre Franey into the front ranks of American chefs. After a successful career as a restaurant chef, Franey became a food writer for The New York Times in 1975, accepting the challenge to write a regular column featuring recipes that would take less than an hour to prepare. Through his column and the cookbooks that soon followed, Franey created a national sensation with his revolutionary style of cooking, and American kitchens haven't been the same since. The presentation of quick, healthy, and enjoyable meals was a revelation, introducing the home cook to choices beyond spending hours in the kitchen or settling for "fast food." This cookbook -- the first that collected his New York Times recipes -- captures all that was great about Pierre Franey's cooking: fresh, flavorful, low-fat ingredients, ease of preparation, and the injunction "Don't spend all evening in the kitchen!"  As a step-by-step guide to better cooking and delicious eating, this great cookbook allows all cooks to employ Pierre Franey's signature methods and create memorable meals in their own homes. "Pierre always had his finger on the pulse of contemporary American cuisine. Though he was the country's elder statesman of French cooking, he instinctively understood American food and the needs of modern American cooks. . . . Pierre knew that great cooking wasn't about fancy ingredients -- I would have been surprised to have been served even lobster in his house -- but about fresh ingredients, organization, and proper technique. If you've got these, then you cook, move along with ease, and create memorable food." ---from the new Foreword by chef Edward Brown A Master Chef's Signature Book Available in paperback for the first time in a decade, The New York Times 60-Minute Gourmet is the bestselling cookbook that catapulted Pierre Franey into the front ranks of American chefs. After a successful career as a restaurant chef, Franey became a food writer for The New York Times in 1975, accepting the challenge to write a regular column featuring recipes that would take less than an hour to prepare. Through his column and the cookbooks that soon followed, Franey created a national sensation with his revolutionary style of cooking, and American kitchens haven't been the same since. The presentation of quick, healthy, and enjoyable meals was a revelation, introducing the home cook to choices beyond spending hours in the kitchen or settling for "fast food." This cookbook -- the first that collected his New York Times recipes -- captures all that was great about Pierre Franey's cooking: fresh, flavorful, low-fat ingredients, ease of preparation, and the injunction "Don't spend all evening in the kitchen!" As a step-by-step guide to better cooking and delicious eating, this great cookbook allows all cooks to employ Pierre Franey's signature methods and create memorable meals in their own homes. "Pierre always had his finger on the pulse of contemporary American cuisine. Though he was the country's elder statesman of French cooking, he instinctively understood American food and the needs of modern American cooks. . . . Pierre knew that great cooking wasn't about fancy ingredients -- I would have been surprised to have been served even lobster in his house -- but about fresh ingredients, organization, and proper technique. If you've got these, then you cook, move along with ease, and create memorable food." ---from the new Foreword by chef Edward Brown Pierre Franey learned the basics of cooking from his French mother and grandmother, and at fourteen was sent to Paris to become a chef. He published more than a dozen cookbooks in his distinguished career, including several collaborations with Craig Claiborne. Franey died in 1996, leaving an enduring legacy of fine food and good taste. Craig Claiborne was for many years a food writer at The New York Times . He wrote many cookbooks, including The Best of Craig Claiborne and The New York Times Cookbook . Edward Brown is the chef at The Sea Grill in New York's Rockefeller Center. Pierre Franey was my mentor. People use the term loosely nowadays to describe almost any relationship involving guidance, but that doesn't really exhaust the word in relation to Pierre.  I thought I understood the word myself, but it wasn't until Pierre had passed away in 1996 that I truly knew what a mentor does and what Pierre meant to me.              I first met him in 1984, when I was a cook at the restaurant Maurice in Manhattan. I knew that Pierre was considered the "godfather" of French chefs in America--he was in fact one of the first, bringing the legendary Le Pavillon to great culinary heights--and I was very shy when we met. I needn't have been; he embraced me immediately, in every sense, as he did with anyone who came across as straightforwa