Carne Meat recipes from the kitchen of the American Academy in Rome

Carne is the fifth in the series of cookbooks documenting the renowned farm-to-table meals served by the Rome Sustainable Food Project, founded by Alice Waters, at the American Academy in Rome. Following volumes on biscotti, vegetables, pastas, and soups, this cookbook focuses on Executive Chef Christopher Behr’s favorite subject, meat: beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, and poultry.

Chef Behr also offers more than a dozen recipes for side dishes, or contorni, that he serves alongside meat entrées: salads (including Radicchio Salad with Green Apple Balsamic Vinaigrette with Walnuts and Grilled Cucumber Salad with Yogurt), bean dishes, Sweet and Sour Squash, Pickled Green Tomatoes with Garlic, Hot Pepper and Mint (a dish that sold out within hours when he offered it at BKLYN Larder), and his legendary roasted potatoes that are crisp and golden on the outside with the
creamy consistency of mashed potatoes on the inside.

The Italian food of the Jersey shore is near and dear to Chef Behr’s heart, and when he’s homesick he cooks those iconic dishes, from meat loaf to short ribs, although his versions reflect his experiences in California, New York, and Rome—they’re lighter than the classic version but nonetheless deliver all their robust satisfaction.

In college, while majoring in English Lit, Christopher Behr saw a “cook wanted” sign posted at his favorite bar. He offered to work for beer money, and without any formal training, ended up running the kitchen for the next two years, often skipping classes because he’d rather be cooking. He then went to culinary school, and was eventually hired to cook at the esteemed A16 in San Francisco, a restaurant pioneering Southern Italian farm-to-table cooking. He next was named chef de cuisine at SPQR, and in that capacity was sent twice to Rome to study the food there. After working in New York City at the Balthazar Bakery at Pulino’s, he went on the BKLYN Larder where he propitiously met Mona Talbott, who eventually proposed him as sous chef for the Rome Sustainable Food Project. In 2014, he became the program’s executive chef.
 
Annie Schlechter has been working as a photographer since 1998. She spent from September 2009 to June 2010 living at the American Academy in Rome. Her clients include New York Magazine, Veranda, Country Living, Condé Nast Traveler, Better Homes and Gardens, Coastal Living, House Beautiful, Travel and Leisure, and The World of Interiors. 

Tamar Adler is the author of An Everlasting Meal. She has cooked at Chez Panisse, is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine, and a contributor to Vogue.