Chef JJ Johnson’s new cookbook celebrates rice, the humble grain that feeds the world
By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Chef JJ Johnson uses rice at home in many different ways — making crepes with his kids, using leftover rice for his wife’s lunch salad and frying it for dinner multiple ways. He calls rice a “Swiss army knife.” This fall he’s tried to prove that with a cookbook, “The Simple Art of Rice.” It embraces how the world has used the humble grain in everything from Seafood Paella to Thai Sticky Rice. There are dozens of global rice dishes, such as Mushroom and Goat Cheese Arancini in Italy, Chawal Roti from India using rice flour, and Spanakorizo, a spinach and feta dish from Greece.
