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Chef JJ Johnson loves rice. If that wasn’t already clear from Fieldtrip, his local New York chain of fast-casual rice bowl restaurants, it certainly is after you’ve pored over just the first few pages of his sophomore cookbook The Simple Art of Rice. The James Beard Award winner writes lovingly of his family’s weekly gatherings at his Puerto Rican grandmother’s home in Pennsylvania where rice was often the focal point, not the backdrop, of their meals.
Danica Novgorodoff, the book’s co-author, has similarly fond feelings for the grain. Coming from European and Asian ancestry, Novgorodoff’s experience with rice struck her as remarkably similar to Johnson’s; both of their grandmothers taught them to use the length from the tip of their middle fingers to the first joint to measure the amount of water to cook rice in. It was Johnson who came to realize during his time studying at the Culinary Institute of America and cooking in Manhattan kitchens like Tribeca Grill, Jane, and the Cecil, that rice was seldom served. But the cooks occupying these kitchens, who came from every corner of the planet, all shared in common the experience of growing up with the grain. He understood that rice is universal.
In The Simple Art of Rice, Johnson and Novgorodoff pull from their trips around the world and the years spent cooking alongside chefs from varied backgrounds. Johnson has seen firsthand the rice farms in upstate New York, the American South, as well as the Indian Himalayas. He worked in Accra, Ghana where he was invited to the home of a new friend, where he tasted a version of jollof rice unlike any he’d tried before. Rice is so far-reaching that it’s impossible, Johnson explains, to label any one version of a common rice dish as the most traditional; there is such inherent variation from one community to another. So whether you pick up this book hoping to find the dish your grandmother prepared for you as a kid, looking for the fluffiest bowl of herby brown rice, or wanting some tips for how to expertly reheat leftover grains (or turn them into your best fried rice yet), you’ll no doubt end up using an entire stack of sticky notes flagging recipes to make ASAP.
Who this book is for
This book is for anyone who’s ever hoped to recreate the shatteringly crisp drum of Persian tahdig or a simple bowl of risotto so rich and velvety, you’d swear it was cooked in cream. Perhaps you’ve been nourished back to health with a comforting bowl of earthy chicken and rice soup so satisfying that you think, “being sick really isn’t so bad”.
Whether you grew up having rice at every meal or are new to the neverending list of feats this grain can pull off, every reader stands to gain from Johnson’s encyclopedic knowledge. Find out why a rice cooker really is worth its weight in gold, and how to cook rice if you don’t have one, a thorough explanation of the many varieties available today, as well as a general formula for cooking rice no matter the type.
What we can’t wait to cook
I think I’ll be cooking this book front to back over time, but there are a few dishes I’m rushing to make first. Djon Djon, a Haitian dish of rice and beans named for mushrooms that grow in northern Haiti, is comforting and classic, yet tinglingly spicy thanks to a fresh Scotch Bonnet pepper. The Cheesy Rice Grits With Bacon and Chiles will be on my breakfast table this weekend with some scrambled eggs and a piping cup of coffee, you have my word. And when I need something sweet in a hurry, Coconut Tahini Crispy Rice Treats will do the trick.
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