“Mom…..MOM! I am SOOO hungry! Do you have any pine needles? I’m starving!”, screams the child of the future.
I remember vividly, it was 1979 and the new buzzword of ‘people in the know’ was Sushi. My friends and I all of 16 and 17 years old. went to our very first Sushi restaurant in Denver, Colorado, the mecca of fresh seafood. You can imagine how that experience went… not so good. I think, I mean I know, that we buried our waiter with questions, “What do you mean it’s not cooked, it’s RAW? and so on. We ended up eating something cooked that we could say. This was not a good start.
Then came the Nouveau Cuisine movement. It was [I swear] 1 or 2 peas, a bite size bit of meat and a sprig of something for interest at 38 bucks. What were we thinking? Was it just another way to show excess and wash our arrogance down with a nice white Zin? I’m not sure, I was just 20 but it just seemed odd.
Fast forward to today, the 2012′s, the ‘we know everything about food era’. How it’s grown, who were its parents, what farmer use what soil to grow that heirloom tomato that has had its DNA traced back to the Mayflower. awesome right?
I don’t know…..I enjoy food and cooking as much as anyone out there and probably more than most. But my question is, have we all become so jaded that we can’t enjoy just eating?
First of all, let me make one thing clear, the raw product should be good, as good as you can get and afford. Not a freak science projects, grown on the other side of the earth, picked and shipped 2 weeks ago or meat that is harvested inhumanly- to best of your knowledge. It is very important to put good things in our bodies and our families bodies and friends bodies. But to what end?
I want to pose a few quick questions, would you turn down your grandmothers chocolate cake because it’s not gluten-free? How about that favorite dish you had every year for your birthday and your mom made it special just because she knows you like it? Do you stick to your guns or is there some flexibility in your views?
My view as a cook and chef is to try everything, everything in moderation and practice moderation in moderation.
Some of the best food I have eaten was off a street cart in a market in any other country than the USA. Thailand, France, Italy, anywhere else but here. Is it the best of ingredients? Do I know the farmer? Is it described and greens from _______ farm and ________cheese aged for ______ days? Fill in the blanks.
What I do know is that most of the product did not come from a major distributor, there are no semi-trucks dropping off cases of meat and produce to the side of their 3′ x 4′ cart. They bought what they needed, when they need it. I could not ask for a better way to eat.
Back to the whole chemical cooking thing and is cooking getting too creative. Yes. I thinks is cool and the skill and knowledge to produce that style of cuisine in worth a degree in chemical engineering and organic chemistry. Do I crave it? Does it satisfy my soul? Will it be timeless?
I am in awe of Ferran Adria and what he has done to the food world, but I always look towards Jacques Pepin for how he makes food, life and not an experiment.
I hope that all this information that we all have gained doesn’t get lost to history as all the other trends of the past.
See all of you in Grand Junction at Mountain Winefest this weekend.
Glenn
