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A must for every chef’s toolbox: a good headlamp…

The Chef: Max Sussman is executive sous chef at eve the restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Max is the co-author, along with brother Eli, of Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef.

The Toolbox: A red roll-style knife bag. “I keep it pretty simple,” he admits.

The Tools: Whiplash is setting in compared with Chef Hetrick in yesterday’s installment. Turns out Max Sussman is quite the minimalist though he, too falls victim to Sharpie Love. “I’ve got my chef knife, a paring knife, some tongs, a couple silicon heat-resistant spatulas, and a few Sharpies,” he says. “I live across the street from the restaurant where I work, so I rarely need to bring much more than that. If we’re doing an off-site catering event, I may add an extra knife.”

Max and Eli cutting it up in the kitchen.

The Sentimental Tool: He tends to turn misty-eyed over his knife bag, since his girlfriend gave it to him. But he can be awfully sentimental about his 10-1/2” Mac Mighty chef knife. “No,” he quickly warns, “you can’t touch it.”

The Strangest Thing In There: Well, this is a first: “A headlamp,” says Sussman. “I once worked at a fishing lodge in a very remote part of Patagonia, Chile. The power was so unreliable with frequent brownouts, so at least once a week we’d have to turn the lights off and bust out the headlamps.” Even though he lives in the middle of civilization today, he still carries it everywhere with him. “The one time you need a headlamp makes it all worth it,” he advises.

The Tool That’s Inspired You: His Mac Mighty, of course. “When I cook at home, I like to use my knife and play around with different ways to cut ingredients. Cutting a pepper into a dice or julienne yields such such different flavors and can also change the whole look of a dish,” he says.

What A Psychologist Would Say About His Tools: “I think he’d say that I’m either a minimalist who like to keep things simple, or a drifter with a fear of commitment.”

His Voyeuristic Side: “I’m a knife guy, so I’m always curious about what type of knife other chefs use,” he says. “But I’ve noticed that even if everyone uses pretty much the same tools it’s what you do with it that counts. So I’m always looking out for other people’s technique and ingredients as well as their toolbox.”

Watch Max & Eli on YouTube and follow them @FreshmanKitchen on Twitter.

Cookbook for college students

By Jane Ammeson / H-P food columnist

Elizabeth Schiele          September 23, 2009

Brothers in the kitchen: Eli and Max Sussman sign their new cookbook, “Freshman in the Kitchen,” and conduct a cooking demonstration at two events. 6 p.m. Saturday. $10. Whole Foods, 3640 N. Halsted St. Information, 773-472-0400. And 6 p.m. Tuesday to benefit Common Threads. $60. The Chopping Block, Merchandise Mart. Information, 312-644-6360.

Thanks to the Chicago Tribune for including us in the Good Eat’s Section of today’s new-sa-paper!

This cookbook is for the kid who thinks a grilled cheese sandwhich is a gourmet dinner

Thursday, 3 September 2009, 14:17 | Category : Author Visit, Culinary
Tags : Freshman in the Kitchen, Jane and Michael Stern, Kerrytown BookFest, Sussman

Eli and Max Sussman will bring their message that enough’s enough when it comes to microwave popcorn, take-out pizzas and little cardboard boxes filled with gelatinous goodies to the seventh annual Kerrytown BookFest in Ann Arbor Michigan September 13. They are part of a literary ”foodie day” which stresses locally grown food that includes the talented road dogs of Jane and Michael Stern who are sponsored by Michigan Radio.

The two brothers, (Eli went to MSU and Max to U-M) have collaborated on a cookbook, “Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef”, published through Ann Arbor’s Huron River Press. The two brothers got their first lessons in cooking their parent’s home in Huntington Woods. They will do a demo at the BookFest in the Hollander’s upstairs Kitchen shop at 2:00 P.M. For more details on the BookFest go to www.kerrytownbookfest.org

Thanks to the Daily Press in Newport News, VA for including us in the graduation gift guide. Getting included in gift guides make us feel warm and gooey inside.  If sales in VA spike, we only have one place to thank for that.

Anyone who has gone to college is well acquainted with what used to be the Freshmen 15 and has now turned to the Freshman (or woman) 20. It’s those extra pounds that come on due to late night study sessions, sometimes a little binge drinking and the oh so fabulous meals made up of creamy chicken ramen, ready made stuffing, delivered pizza and dining hall murder burgers. Lucky for the new class of Freshmen (as well as anyone who wants to learn to make a quick and delicious meal on a budget and on a time constraint, Max and Eli Sussman have authored the cookbook Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef to make the culinary college experience a little more delicious, healthy and quick.

“I’m making pork belly tacos and fresh orange sorbet served in oranges,” Eli Sussman said, when asked what he was currently working on in the kitchen. The twenty-three-year-old LA resident and Detroit native has a passion for food – specifically making great food affordable and accessible. However, the radio promotions manager has no professional culinary training…which is all the better as testament to Freshman In the Kitchen, a cookbook he co-wrote with his brother Max, designed to inspire and take novice chefs on a step-by-step journey through the kitchen. The cookbook starts out with easy and simple recipes and techniques and gradually increases in terms of difficulty. Like many of us who spent at least some of our time in college living in a huge house with a bunch of friends and an often dirty kitchen, Eli used his first-hand experiences to write a book that a college student (or new chef) could relate to and understand. LAist had a chance to talk to Eli about the cookbook process, why it’s important to cook, the LA food scene…and their national debut on The Today Show.

What inspired the cookbook?

The cookbook was inspired when both Max and I were finishing up college and we felt there was a need for an easy to use cookbook with affordable recipes of delicious food written for college kids by thier peers. We wanted to showcase tips on how to grocery shop, set up a kitchen and present time saving tips throughout to keep a college kid engaged. It’s not only about cooking but getting the user comfortable in the kitchen doing thier own thing.

Your brother, Max, is the head-chef at high-end Eve Restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. So how did this project come together, with you in LA and him in Ann Arbor?

When I first moved to LA, we were writing it and testing recipes just sending things back forth over and over via email and talking 10 times a day on hte phone until we got recipes to a point where we agreed it was ready for the book. Then my brother actually went to be the head chef at a fishing resort in Chile, so some of the book was written LA-Michigan the other portion LA-Chile.

Have you always been into cooking? Where did the interest come from?

We got into cooking through our parents. My mom cooked from scratch 5 nights a week so we were usually asked to help out in some capacity. As we got older, we started doing more and more cooking. At first it was just a useful skill to get a job, but then I became much more passionate about it in college. My brother and I returned to our childhood summer camp to run the kitchen and that is where our ability to work together to design meals as a team and work in tandem really exploded and we thought to ourselves how fun it was to bounce ideas off each other and cook side by side.

How did you guys come up with and create the recipes?

All the recipes are original conceptions or our own interpertation on a classic. We came up with things we would want to eat ourselves and that would appeal to our friends and peers. We also made sure to think about what would take less than an hour to cook, would not be confusing all while staying under a reasonable price point for a high school, college student or recent graduate. So no, there aren’t any foie gras or squab recipes.

What is the most valuable lesson you learned in the process of creating the book?

Creating the cookbook took an incredible amount of time, dedication and personal investment. We found out firsthand that creating recipes takes precision and organization and both myself and Max are sort of fly by the seat of our pants in the kitchen. We like to find things in the fridge and put it together. With a recipe you have to be incredibly specific because you are teaching people how to re-create a dish. There were several recipes that we tested 15 times back and forth before we got them where we wanted. To develop the entire book’s content, to help with the look and layout and to get to a point where we felt it was a complete product we could be really proud of took well over a year. And we both spent many days in a kitchen cooking things, tasting, refining…and forcing people to eat things and give feedback.

Why is it important for college kids to cook?

In today’s economic climate, cooking at home can save you tons of money. If you were to cook a dish from our cookbook, it’s going to less expensive than eating out and there is bound to be leftovers you can eat for lunch the next day and maybe even stretch things into several meals. Especially in LA where a meal can easily run you $25 a person, you can stretch that money much more buying your own groceries and cooking at home. $25 can easily make recipes in our cookbook that serve 2 or more people.

What foods can’t you live without?

I love all meat and could probably be happy eating nothing else. I could be content eating beef, chicken, lamb, turkey for every meal. I also eat tons of pastas, potatoes, breads of all kinds…so yea – lots of carbs and protein.

What should everyone have in their kitchen?

I love to use fresh basil and rosemary when I cook. Pasta dishes with a simple tomato and basil sauce are really fast and easy. I think every kitchen should have heads of garlic, onion, fresh basil and potatoes.

Who is your favorite celebrity chef?

Anthony Bourdain. He’s articulate and hilarious and his show is awesome. He makes me want to quit my job and travel the world sampling the cusine of other cultures.

LA has the best….

LA has the best korean BBQ. All you can eat Korean is the best thing to happen. Ever.

Favorite late-night food in LA?

Canter’s Deli – hands down. They have about 1000 things and the Fresser is my go-to late night food. It’s open 24 hours and there are always crazy characters in there. Also the Kogi truck is amazing if you can find it.

I wish LA had…

I wish LA had more late night food options…for such a big city, it’s pretty weak in non-fast food 24 hour locations. After 11 on a week night, it’s tough to find things open. It also desperately needs a Coney Island, which if you aren’t from Michigan is sort of like the Greek equivilant of a deli. It’s fast service and has greek salads, pita sandwiches, souvlaki, avoglemeno soup… Any high schooler from Metro-Detroit lives off on coney islands.

Best LA dining experience?

My Best LA dining experience has got to be anytime I’m eating tacos on the street, picking up schwarma or going with friends to any of the Korean BBQ joints. The high end restautants in LA, like AOC, are right up there with the best I’ve ever been to, but this city gives you incredible options for sushi, Korean BBQ and mexican food all within a few miles. And Zankou is my jam for sure

The center of LA is….

The center of LA is wherever you are and that’s why I love it. If you are in Silverlake for the night…it’s the center…at the beach in Malibu…that’s the center…at a show in Hollywood….it’s got all these great areas that function independently so whatever you are in the mood for there is a mini-city to fulfill that. People knock the lack of connection between areas but I sort of like that. You can be totally isolated in one neighborhood inside of one of the biggest cities in the US.

What’s your favorite recipe from the cookbook?

I love the chicken with artichokes and sundried tomatoes recipe. The flavor is fantastic and it seems fancy to college kids but it’s fairly simple recipe. That is the recipe i suggest the most to make. It’s not that heavy and it looks great if you serve it to people.

What’s next for you guys?

We are going to be the Today Show on April 17th (tomorrow!) preparing our Salmon and Goat Cheese Napoleon (recipe below) with Kathie Lee and Hoda during the 10am hour. This will be far and away the biggest thing to happen to my brother and I since the book came out in August of 2008. It’s awesome because we set out to write a cookbook because we thought it would be fun to do together and there was a need for it, but we never really in our wildest dreams thought we’d get to share our book with a national audience on the Today Show. Also I want to meet Kathie Lee. She seems absolutely hilarious.

Where we can find the book in LA?
The book is available at various Barnes and Noble and Borders locations and Cook’s Library in LA and at our website, www.freshmaninthekitchen.com

Freshman In the Kitchen’s Salmon and Goat Cheese Napoleon

• 10 ounces salmon filet
• pinch salt and pepper
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• ½ teaspoon dill
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin or blended olive oil
• 1 zucchini
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 Roasted Red Pepper
• ½ pound goat cheese (Chèvre)
• Wild Rice Pilaf

Serves 2

1. Season salmon by sprinkling it with the salt, pepper, thyme, and dill.
2. Heat olive oil in a nonstick frying pan and cook salmon on medium for 10 minutes, turning over halfway through.
3. Cut zucchini in half width-wise, then in thin slices lengthwise. Sauté or grill until tender with the garlic and chives.
4. Cut Roasted Red Pepper, goat cheese, and salmon to match zucchini slices.
5. Layer salmon, goat cheese, zucchini, and roasted red pepper to form a tower. Secure with toothpick if necessary.
6. Serve with Wild Rice Pilaf.

I had the great pleasure to speak with Eli Sussman, co-author of the just-released cookbook, Freshman in the Kitchen. As a recent graduate from Michigan State University, Eli knows a thing or two about what it’s like for college students to try to eat a decent (and economical) meal in between darting off to lectures, class, the library and the bar.

He and his brother Max, who co-authored the book, have spent years cooking in restaurants, summer camps and for friends and family. From line cooks to food runners, these brothers have done it all in the kitchen and they are anxious to share their tricks of the trade and their favorite recipes with you.

Just a few days after their appearance on the Today Show, we caught up with Eli to talk to him about his new book.

Where did the motivation come from to write Freshman in the Kitchen?

My brother Max and I have been in the food and restaurant business for years. We wanted to create a cookbook that was for anyone — the novice in the kitchen to someone who is very comfortable with cooking. Since we have been working in restaurants all of our lives and we’ve amassed a good deal of skills and knowledge between us. We wanted to share that with people in a way that is fun, simple and takes the fear out of cooking.

Freshman in the Kitchen is a progressive cookbook because it starts out with the beginner chef in mind and then evolves to involve more involved recipes. It’s really for anyone who wants to feel more comfortable cooking for himself , their friends or for their family.

Read more: Interview with Freshman in the Kitchen’s Eli Sussman

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yes! Here is the video from the TODAY Show! Thanks again to all who watched and thanks to Kathie Lee and Hoda for having us on the show.

Click here for the show.