Cooking is a humbling process

While I have to agree with the title of this article from Designobserver.com, the rest of the article held me enraptured and made me think of the tangle of pots and pans to which I lovingly turn when I need something to prepare a new dish … apparently, I am not alone …

“One big balancing act of artistry and skill. It has everything to do with design. Cooking is a humbling process, and real chefs tend to be rigorous and unforgiving perfectionists. There’s no room for error and there’s always a better flour, a purer olive oil, a sharper blade, — in short, a better way to do the same old, same old so that it becomes the new-and-better-than-ever. The language of menus — with its reductions, its purées and coulis — dwells in a world all its own, and cookbooks devotedly honor such specific, and occasionally rarified jargon. Food, of course, is life. Everyone eats, and therein lies the intrinsic appeal: whether you live on pizza in your feng-shui penthouse, or you produce chateaubriand on a battery-operated hotplate, chances are you have some relationship to food.There’s an entire sub-genre of food writing, of a kind of culinary patois that involves chefs, critics, experienced kitchen people and even neophytes (like me) writing about all manner of things edible.”

The article, which I truly loved because of the many entirely appropriate examples, is one I wholeheartedly recommend to you to read in full.

A Good Pan Is Hard To Find (DesignObserver.com)

A Mayonnaise with Attitude

Just read this amusing article from the Financial Times of London and thought it well worth sharing here with the readers of Off the Broiler.

“Aioli is a true blast of the warm south. It evokes the Provence that we dreamed of as we pored over our Elizabeth David, dreaming of Cézanne, the mistral and Alphonse Daudet. Aioli is not just a garlic mayonnaise. Not only does it mean a meal as much as a sauce but it signifies a whole way of eating. Aioli is a lunch – it would be almost improper to eat it in the evening – and the sort of slow, meandering lunch that extends well into the afternoon …”

So when you have carefully followed the recipe for aoili given in this article, what might you wish to serve it with? Bowls of raw vegetables but remember that a large piece of boiled salt cod, flakes of the fish should be dipped in the sauce, or boiled potatoes and any other cooked vegetables are also permissible… meat is perfectly permissible as well …

Do remember to have a bowl or two of parsley, flat or curly, as a final digestive … and it will sweeten the breath redolent of garlic as well.

A Mayonnaise With Attitude (Financial Times, August 5 2006)
and the recipe appears to be a good one …

More Inspirational Posters

Star Trek Inspirational Posters (click for link)

In Praise of the Double Thick Cut Pork Chop

Last night, Rachel cooked up the double thick cut pork chops I got from Kocher’s. This would have been another Nice Weather = WEBER entry, but I was permanently attached to my computer for about 13 hours yesterday working on a client web server issue, and thus the mighty metal grill stayed cold that evening. However, I must say, the regular cast iron pan does wonders for thick pork chops — the meat came out perfectly done and juicy.

I had marinated the chops above in a similar method to Josh Ozersky’s competition entry at Grill Kings (click for video) from a few weeks ago, but with some minor modifications. To his blend of soy sauce, lime juice (he used lemon originally) garlic and white vinegar, I added mustard and a bit of orange juice, and let them marinate the whole day. Rachel then prepared a fresh teriyaki glaze according to our tried and true formula along with some nice fried rice and a cucumber salad recipe by eG Society member Shalmanese.

I gotta say, after 13 hours of banging at the computer, double thick cut pork chops really hit the spot.

Living with food fascists … does this category sound faintly familiar today?

Sometimes I have felt that the simple ways in which I often cook, serve, and share food with others is under constant scrutiny from others. Apparently, this is a common enough occurence to occasion the article cited here.

From the Financial Times of London:

“The preparation for your average dinner party these days often begins with having to ask your guests whether there is anything they don’t eat. We used to do this to be polite to vegetarians and anyone with violent allergies. Now we get long lists from those on a low-GI diet, those demanding rapeseed oil over olive and which sauces should be withheld. Food is examined as never before. Food has become the new fitness – a way of measuring your commitment to yourself… you only put things in your mouth that are going to respect the temple that your body has become. This would be fine if such obsessives didn’t demand we follow suit … the food fascists need to proselytise. Children’s eating habits have become the new benchmark of parenting. Food fascists, of course, try to back up their restricted choices by pointing out they are doing so for their health. Occasionally food fascists slip up. Diktats once written in stone have to be revised. Some food fascists are cracking under the pressure. My former vegetarian sister-in-law (former on both counts) used to dig packaging out of bins just to check the ingredients didn’t contain any animal products. Ten years later, she’s eating bacon sandwiches. A French teacher of mine was vegetarian – a diet she stuck to with religious fervour – but had one curious exception: foie gras…”

I really laughed out loud while reading this article … can the Food Fascists really live on what they want us all to eat? Is that ascetic life really worth living for someone as interested in food as I am? Not only a good article but it also provides one with numerous “defenses” to ward off these people with panache …

Living With the Food Fascists (Financial Times, August 5 2006)