Chef Alex Raij Launches New Basque Cookbook

BlueStar, manufacturer of customizable, commercial-style appliances for the home, announces award-winning chef Alex Raij as its newest BlueStar All-Star. Raij today also celebrates the launch of her first cookbook, "The Basque Book: A Love Letter in Recipes from the Kitchen of Txikito," co-authored with husband and partner, Chef Eder Montero.

Chef Raij and the other BlueStar All Stars desire to achieve restaurant quality results at home. That's why they choose to customize their home kitchens with high-performance BlueStar products. Handcrafted in the U.S. since 1880, BlueStar products are designed for discerning home chefs.

Chef Raij, a James Beard nominated chef, is the owner of El Quinto Pino, La Vara and Txikito restaurants in New York, renowned for revelatory preparations of simple ingredients. In this much-anticipated cookbook debut, Raij and Montero share more than one hundred recipes from Txikito-all inspired by the home cooking traditions of the Basque Country-that promise to change the way many home chefs cook.

One item that Chef Raij knows will change the way she cooks in her own home is her new BlueStar commercial-style gas range.

"As a professional cook, you are exposed to many pieces of equipment with special uses but we know that the best things really last and are versatile," said Raij. "My BlueStar range is beautiful, but it's also powerful, with high heat burners just right for achieving a rapid boil, high-heat sear or the perfect sauté. It also can be turned down to a true low, gentle heat."

The chef customized her BlueStar equipment to match her cooking style as well as her design style. She chose a BlueStar 36" Platinum Range in Oyster White, a creamy, soft color that coordinates with the silky modernism of her home. She added painted knobs in Curry Yellow for a pop of color suggestive of the Basque region's colorful terrain. The coordinating BlueStar kitchen hood also is in Oyster White. The BlueStar Platinum Series offers unsurpassed power and performance, including 25,000 BTU burners, an interchangeable griddle and charbroiler and an extra-large oven with true European convection and 1850° infrared broiler.

One of Chef Raij's favorite recipes to make at home on her new BlueStar range is Lomo en Adobo, a recipe included in the new book. It's a paprika and garlic-cured pork loin that can feed an army or just one. "You cure a whole boneless pork loin ahead, then roast it and slice it; or you can cut it into boneless pork chops and pan roast it or slice it thin and serve seared as you would Canadian bacon with two fried eggs. It's a recipe that keeps on giving," said Raij. "It also takes you on a grand tour of the BlueStar, from cooktop to oven to griddle. The BlueStar is so precise. It needs you to be engaged with your food but it is incredibly responsive to what you might need from it."

BlueStar makes each product by hand after the customer orders it and customizes every little detail. Home chefs can order the ranges with any configuration of burners and other cooking surfaces like built-in griddles, grills and French Tops. The company's new built-in refrigerator is customizable as well; it is available in stainless steel and more than 750 color and finish combinations to match BlueStar cooking and ventilation products. To customize a dream BlueStar range, BlueStar offers an online interactive "Build Your Own BlueStar" tool.

For information, visit Bluestarcooking.com. To order The Basque Book, visit Amazon.com.

CREDIT: Reprinted with permission from The Basque Book by Alexandra Raij with Eder Montero and Rebecca Flint Marx, copyright 2016, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.
Photographs copyright 2016 by Penny De Los Santos

BlueStar cooking and refrigeration products are designed for discerning home chefs who demand restaurant-quality results in their own kitchens. In business since 1880, the Pennsylvania-based manufacturer specializes in handcrafted gas ranges, cooktops, electric and gas wall ovens and complementary kitchen ventilation hoods. The company's spectrum of highly innovative appliances stays true to an authentic restaurant kitchen experience at home. Available in over 750+ colors and finishes, and with almost infinite configuration possibilities, BlueStar offers unmatched options for customization. For more information, please visit http://www.bluestarcooking.com.

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