Just as there are religious fundamentalists and evangelists. There are food fundamentalists and evangelists. Hell, I may be one — witness my homemade corned beef as an effort to find and, in some way, worship at the shrine of Real Food. After all, the true evangelists call to mind James 2:18, "I will show thee my faith by my works," and so I make corned beef from scratch. The fact that these works of my hands are good at worst and insanely great at best is beside the point. I have shown my faith by making the effort.
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Kevin Weeks is a Gather food correspondent (Paisano), personal chef, cooking teacher, and writer in Knoxville, Tennessee who spends too many hours on his feet, cooking. "Paisano" is a column focused on peasant dishes from around the world. To read more of Kevin's writings or connect to him click here. His blog, Seriously Good, is read by 75,000 cooks a month.
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Comments: 13
;-)
It's not a bad little piece.
Bert,
And I accept your applause.{g}
Sonia,
Fixed, thanks.
Joanne,
I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it.
One of the Fundamentals by which I've lived (and cooked and eaten oh-so-very-well) was imparted to me by the chef who taught me almost everything I know about food, a gentleman I worked with for nine years: Start with the freshest ingredients you can find, treat them gently and the result will inevitably be delicious. In other words; start fresh, don't over-season, over-cook or over-manipulate in any way, and it's gonna be good.
So, is there a difference between a food fundamentalist and a food purist?
"So, is there a difference between a food fundamentalist and a food purist?"
I dunno. What do you think?
But I'll tell you something about me, my only philosophy is it should taste, not good, but seriously good. Great if I can manage it. Quality ingredients matter a lot, but they're not always available. Sometimes the cauliflower is tired after a too-long journey. Sometimes the chunk of leftover chuck has been reading last falls Time magazine in the freezer. Sometimes all I have to work with on a lonely night at home is some dried pasta and a can of diced tomatoes. So I make them work however I can. I may abuse them in the process but hey, they're already dead.
This is not to say that asparagus cut from the garden moments ago isn't due reverence (and no one reveres asparagus like I revere asparagus) or that I don't make every effort I can to use the meat products from my favorite local farmer. But ultimately, I'm a pragmatic, albeit ambitious, cook. And ulitmately I have to provide my clients with good food at a price we agreed to.
And I've gotta run now, the Italian sausage I'm making only agreed to a 10 minute cigarette break while the bowl chilled in the freezer. My next client is going to be so tickled when I give him a pound of homemade sausage.
One of these days I need to learn to read a calendar.
Skip the nitrate, go with nitrite in the form of pink salt.