Confessions of a slow cooker convert

Quebec celebrity chef Ricardo embraces practical appliance

Ricardo Larrivée’s enthusiasm is contagious. If you’re a fan of his Food Network television show Ricardo and Friends, then you’re likely already aware of this.

In his latest book, Slow Cooker Favourites, Larrivée turns his enthusiasm toward a somewhat unlikely, and arguably unsexy kitchen tool. It’s a love story now, but it didn’t start out that way. Larrivée says before he started experimenting, he “found the idea of using a slow cooker about as exciting as boiling water.”

His wife Brigitte convinced him to take a closer look at the slow cooker. Before he started testing slow cooker recipes, Larrivée thought the resulting dishes were “brown, tasteless, and just plain boring.”

Now, he and his family use the slow cooker about once every two weeks, and dishes such as Lime Bavette Rolls are real hits with his three daughters and their friends.

Larrivée says its practicality is the secret to the slow cooker’s enduring popularity. Everyone feels short on time, whether you’re a student cooking for yourself, or you’re cooking for a hungry family.

“Everyone wants to have a proper dinner,” Larrivée says. “This feeling you get when you come home and it smells good, and it sends a message to you and whoever is in the house that soon, we’ll have dinner together.”

In his book, Larrivée includes what to look for in a slow cooker, an overview of the best cuts of meat for it, as well as more than 65 recipes, including the three below.

PHOTOS: HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS Lime Bavette Rolls are easy to make and can cook while you are busy doing something else. Influenced by southwestern flavours, the recipe uses sour cream, avocado and cilantro as toppings

Ricardo Larrivée says he initially found using a slow cooker ‘as exciting as boiling water.’ Now he’s written a book about slow cooking.