The joy of six

Take half-a-dozen quality ingredients and a few tips from chef Conrad Gallagher, and you could be serving restaurant-quality food tonight. Michael Bateman learns to cook by numbers

Wouldn't it be dramatic to invite your friends for dinner and then serve them dishes the equal of any Michelin-starred restaurant? But then reality kicks in and you realise that all the best chefs have a veritable brigade of specialised helpers – one to make the starters, another to cook vegetables, a third for the fish, another for the meat. Not only that, but however well that fabulously photographed recipe book has been simplified for home use, you still find yourself reeling from the sheer number of items you need to shop for.

So what a relief to be able to turn to Take Six Ingredients, a new book by the Michelin-starred chef Conrad Gallagher. In it, Gallagher provides recipes for 100 top-of-the range dishes which are true to the book's title (some recipes even use fewer than six ingredients). Gallagher admits he didn't quite know how much he'd taken on when he accepted the commission. "I found myself saying, 'We need nine or 10 ingredients,'" he remembers. "But my publishers were firm. So we decided that, besides the six main ingredients, we'd allow three basics: salt, pepper and oil."

But those ingredients had better be the best, he adds: "Maldon sea salt, freshly bought whole peppercorns and the best olive oil you can afford." Oh yes, and the six main ingredients had better be the best quality too. Remember: this isn't a book about making something from the stuff at the back of the fridge. This is Michelin-star cooking, reduced to its essence – no easy task.

Many of the recipes in the cookbook are derived from the menu of Gallagher's famous Dublin restaurant, Peacock Alley, described by Ireland's foremost food critic, John McKenna, as "thrilling, outrageous, unique". Appropriately, Gallagher's book is published tomorrow, on St Patrick's Day, although its author won't be around to celebrate. Gallagher closed Peacock Alley seven months ago to move to New York, where his new restaurant/bar, Traffic, on the Upper East Side, has opened to rave reviews.

A farm boy from Donegal, Gallagher's passion for cooking developed under the tutelage of a local hotel owner. At the age of 16, stirred by tales of New York, he set off alone. Working in a downtown restaurant, he was talent-spotted by the head chef of the Trump Plaza and invited to join the staff of 200 chefs there. A visit to the Plaza by the legendary French chef Alain Ducasse, resulted in a job offer. In Ducasse's Monte Carlo restaurant, Gallagher sharpened his skills.

He was ready to come back and conquer Dublin, but the banks weren't quite as ready to lend money to a young man with no track record. "So I found a restaurant that was failing and turned it round," says Gallagher. "I took a bunch of reviews to the bank and suddenly I got a loan to start my own place."

Somehow, between winning plaudits for Peacock Alley, Gallagher also found time to pen One Pot Wonders in 1998. The book sent a clear message that you don't need a clutter of equipment to cook a family meal. Gallagher's new book follows the same spirit. "Cooking for family and friends," he says, "is a real treat if you don't have to assemble a huge list of ingredients before you get to put a pot on the stove."

As with One Pot Wonders, the emphasis is on freshness and quality. But Gallagher is not ashamed to profess his fondness for the finer things (the first recipe in his book is rich scrambled eggs with foie gras, truffles and chives – add butter and cream to make up the six ingredients). So get cracking. Now is as good a time as any to become a six maniac.

'Take Six Ingredients' is published tomorrow by Kyle Cathie, price £14.99