Korean-born chef offers mashup of many cultures, cuisines

“Korean BBQ: Master Your Grill in Seven Sauces” by Bill Kim with Chandra Ram (Ten Speed Press, $29.99)

Bill Kim had his eureka moment while working as chef de cuisine for Charlie Trotter in Chicago, circa 2005.

A cheeky female chef from New York took one look at him and said, “What are you doing working here?”

He married her the next year, and, in 2008, Kim and his wife, Yvonne Cadiz, opened their first restaurant, Urbanbelly, a move that let the Korean-born Kim explore the food of his homeland.

A second restaurant, Belly Shack, allowed them to add Cadiz’s Puerto Rican heritage to the mix.

All those influences, including Kim’s time in Atlanta, come together in “Korean BBQ,” in which the chef describes how a scared 7-year-old from Seoul came to find meaning in Chicago hot dogs, American-style barbecue, fancy French and, ultimately, his native victuals.

I had to laugh when I spied Kim’s recipe for Seoulthern Pimento Cheese — blame it on his early 1990s stint in Atlanta, when he cooked at the late, great Ciboulette, and discovered Fat Matt’s, Chick-fil-A, sweet tea and Georgia peaches.

His titular seven sauces are an avenue for describing his journey in food: Korean barbecue, lemongrass chili, soy balsamic, Ko-Rican, nuoc cham, Magic Paste and Korean pesto. Each one, plus his three dry rubs, comes with a handy list of recipes for using them.

While some of these recipes you might expect — Korean barbecue skirt steak, gochujang sticky chicken drumsticks, Korean barbecue salmon — others are a real scramble of global flavors: Korean baba ghanoush, Korean al pastor, lemongrass chicken egg salad, smoky catfish with soychipotle sauce, Korean chicken saltimbocca.

If you like shrimp and grits, but don’t do dairy, consider Kim’s coconut grits, cooked with coconut milk. Vegetable lovers may find inspiration in the chapter on barbecue vegetables and tofu (blackened barbecue tofu, cauliflower steaks with Korean pesto).

If you are looking for classic Korean barbecue, the cover of this book may be deceiving. Borrowing from other cultures has been his modus operandi since age 7. That’s the key to Kim’s success, and that’s what he describes here.

“Just Cook It! 145 Built-to-BeEasy Recipes That Are Totally Delicious” by Justin Chapple (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30)

Justin Chapple may be the culinary director of Food & Wine magazine, but he’s hardly a fussbudget in the kitchen.

He’s made his name as a teacher of nifty cooking hacks and shortcuts, which he delivers in a style that is giddy, playful, borderline-frantic, and yet wildly and supremely confident.

Happily, Chapple’s incandescent personality comes through in his clever and entertaining new cookbook, “Just Cook It!”

If you fear your paella rice will turn out crunchy and undercooked, or soggy and overcooked, try couscous instead of rice. Too distracted to focus on stirring (and stirring … and stirring) your risotto? Consider his no-stir risotto with shrimp and clams.

I wish I’d known about Chapple’s speedy preserved lemons when I set out to preserve the Meyers a friend sent me from her California tree just recently. I waited two weeks for my beauties to cure in a jar. Chapple’s version takes 25 minutes. What’s the secret? He simmers the fresh citrus in a briny bath for 10 minutes, then packs it away in the fridge.

And, where was this guy when I was looking for ways to doctor up ramen for an Atlanta Journal-Constitution recipe story last year? His bacon and egg ramen in buttery broth calls for boiling a chunk of pork in chicken broth (along with the ingredients of the flavor packets), spicing it up with sambal oelek, and dropping in a few eggs to poach. Yum.

Time-pressed moms and dads will find much inspiration here: from pulled chicken sandwiches (the filling is made in a slow cooker) to crispy fish stick tacos (30 minutes total) to Grandma’s Chili Mac (a cheesy, kid-friendly ground beef and macaroni that comes together in less than an hour).

At the same time, Chapple showcases plenty of health-conscious recipes, too. There’s an entire section on crudités and dips; a couple of clever panzanellas; and cauliflower fried “rice,” to name just a few.

And, if you’re cooking for company, you can’t go wrong with lamb roast with cheater harissa, chickpeas and kale — or elegant coq au vin blanc.

This new book is delightful, and full of all kinds of things I want to make at home.