Tag Archives: flavor

THE WELL-SEASONED COOK

30 Sunday Apr 2017

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What is it about food that stops people in their tracks? What single characteristic about the food that we consume is literally addictive? What is the most important part of the formula for a successful restaurant that attracts return customers and new customers and builds a reputation that will carry the operation for a long time? The answer is flavor. This does not take away from all of the other important components that must be in place: great service, an ambience that is conducive to exciting or comfortable dining, great food presentations, solid marketing, cost controls, effective training, and so on, but flavor is what drives people to a restaurant and builds the word-of-mouth reputation that will allow a restaurant to thrive.

So, with this understanding in mind, why is it that so many operations fail to invest the energy, time, and resources in understanding, building, and maintaining the type of flavors that set a restaurant apart? Could it be that many restaurateurs and chefs don’t really understand flavor? Could it be that a dependence on recipes without a strong foundation in taste and flavor is problematic? Could it be that cooks resist the most basic methodology for building correct flavors in a dish: “taste-season-taste”?

A cook’s palate is quite variable and very complicated. Just as an exceptional sommelier must not only spend years developing the ability to distinguish the nuances in flavor between regions, vineyards, and grapes; so too must a cook invest the same time and effort in building his or her “buds”. Additionally, a person’s palate can leave a sommelier or a cook at an advantage or disadvantage in this process. Taste and flavor is complicated, but it is extremely important.

Let there be no misunderstanding – if a dish does not taste exceptional it will not inspire, nor will customers support and promote your operation to others. Chefs, cooks, managers, and owners need to be focused on this fact.

So, let’s take a look at some facts about understanding flavor that must be at the forefront of everyone’s thought process:

[]         SEASONALITY AND MATURITY OF INGREDIENTS IS IMPORTANT

Unless you have bitten into an heirloom tomato freshly picked off the vine in the mid-July sun then you have not truly tasted tomato. The difference between a June local strawberry and one shipped from New Mexico in February is dramatic. August corn sweetened by the sun is heads above an ear that somehow appears in April from cold storage. Melons that are prematurely harvested so that they travel better and last longer on grocery store shelves are not even worth serving, and an avocado that is still a week away from maturity pales in comparison to the soft, sweet and savory taste and texture of one that is ready for that perfect guacamole.

When restaurants serve items out of season or prior to maturity then the consequence is something that fails on the flavor scale and does little to build a restaurant’s reputation for exceptional food. Allowing Mother Nature to do her good work will always serve a restaurant well.

[]         SEASONING CHANGES WITH THE APPLICATION OF HEAT

Seasoning a dish to the end game before the cooking process is complete will result in a dish that clouds the palate with excess. Many spices, in particular, increase in potency through the cooking process. In particular, peppers and spices such as curries, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice will act differently through the various stages of cooking. To this end, many seasonings are best applied at the end of the cooking process where they can be controlled.

spice 2

[]         DRIED SPICES LOSE THEIR AROMA AND FLAVOR WITH TIME AND HEAT

Proper storage of dried spices and herbs is as important as proper storage of more perishable foods. Heat, light, and time is not a friend of dried herbs and spices, yet in most kitchens these items are stored where all of these factors are present. That gallon container of dried oregano or basil that sits on your shelf for a year or so is not a bargain at any price.

[]         HEAT IS NOT ALWAYS A FAN OF FLAVOR

Currently, diners seem to be infatuated with the “heat” of spice that is derived from peppers. The chain of thought seems to be: “No pain – no gain”. Flavor should not hurt! Some peppers are not appropriate for anyone to consume. Ghost peppers that burn your mouth, esophagus, and stomach are not part of food enjoyment they are really more a part of a game of dares. Other peppers that are more subdued on the Scovil Scale are improperly used and as such focus on the pain of heat rather than the joy of flavor. Roasting those peppers, removing the seeds and pith, will allow the true pepper flavor to come through rather than inflict discomfort.

[]         THE SOURCE AND TERROIR MATTER WITH FOOD AS WELL AS WINE

Just as terroir (soil composition, exposure to sun, rainfall and rain composition, wind and temperature) impacts on the quality and flavor characteristics of grapes and in turn the wine they produce, so too will terroir impact on a tomato, peach, onion, potato, green bean, chicken, steer, pig, or fish. Knowing where a product comes from will allow the cook or chef to understand its flavor characteristics and if necessary, adjust how it is handled to reach a desired outcome.

[]         “NEEDS SALT” IS NOT ALWAYS THE RIGHT ANSWER

Chefs and cooks, just like most customers, suffer from saltshaker’s elbow. There is no question that salt is not only a flavoring addition, but a flavor enhancer – bringing out or accentuating the natural flavor of other ingredients. But, salt, like alcohol, can cloud a person’s tolerance. The more salt you use, the more you will require in the future to achieve the same result. Chefs and cooks with great palates will use salt sparingly as an enhancer rather than a flavor in of itself.

[]         CONSISTENCY IS THE GOAL OF A COOK

Why do guests return to a restaurant? More than likely, a guest had a memorable experience (certainly including flavor) and returns with the expectation of that same experience. Flavor consistency is one of the greatest drivers of return business. Standardized recipes can help, but they fail to account for variances in ingredient quality and taste. Cooks and chefs must build an experienced palate if consistency is to be the foundation of a restaurants flavor reputation.

[]         TASTE AND FLAVOR ARE NOT THE SAME THING

Oftentimes misused interchangeably, taste is really one portion of the flavor experience. Flavor includes aroma, texture, taste, and even the visual aspects of a dish. How food looks will paint a mental picture of flavor perception.

[]         AROMA COUNTS

Never lose sight of the fact that we have 10,000 taste buds, while we have the ability to distinguish more than 1 trillion smells with our 400 types of olfactory receptors. Taste cannot stand alone without the introduction of smell. In fact, our flavor memory is more based on aroma experiences than taste. When asked to visualize foods like fresh bread from the oven, a recently baked apple pie, roast chicken, or a grilled steak, it is the memory of how each item smells that brings a smile to a person’s face.

[]         YOUR PALATE CAN BE TRAINED

Some individuals are certainly born with more acute “buds”, but most of us have the capacity to train our palate to recognize and adjust flavor. It is experience and time that allows a palate to grow and mature. A cook without a well-developed palate will struggle to understand or create positive flavors.

[]         FLAVOR MEMORY REQUIRES EXPERIENCE

Everything that we experience with food is imbedded in our subconscious – this is where our flavor memory is built and stored. In the process of building a palate an individual must learn how to bring those memories to the surface and out of the subconscious. For those without the gift of nature’s taste buds the best way to accomplish this is through repeated experience with a flavor. Cooks and chefs must try all foods – repeatedly. These same cooks must experience how these items change with the application of heat, through the use of different cooking methods, from ingredients of different quality, and with the addition of a variety of seasonings. There is no other way to reach this goal. Recipes with flavor experience equal success.

[]         GREAT COOKS AND CHEFS DO NOT LIMIT THEIR PALATE TO FOOD

All career cooks and chefs must invest the time in not only developing their flavor memory with food, they must also invest the time to understand those items that complement the food – wine, beer, coffee, tea, bitters, fresh herbs, floral introductions, etc.

[]         CONTEXT IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF FLAVOR MEMORY

One of the interesting variables with regards to flavor is the environment and the people associated with eating certain foods. Knowing that this can cloud a guest’s perception of flavor, it is important for cooks to work with the front of the house to create an environment that protects and enhances a flavor experience. Many people do not consider that the service staff can have an impact on food flavor, but in the process of understanding context a server can do a great deal through food description, recommendations based on a guests previous experience, presenting the food with flair, and simply understanding how important it is to capture the best of the food placed in the kitchen pass.

[]         FLAVOR ANTICIPATION IS AS IMPORTANT AS ACTUALLY TASTING

Restaurant food is part of theater. Chefs and Restaurant Managers are trained to build anticipation. The ambience of the room, the menu wordsmithing, the introductions by service staff, the recommendations of the sommelier, and the exciting presentation of the first course are all designed to build flavor anticipation. This anticipation becomes the memory that ends up embedded in a guest’s subconscious. Taste and flavor are important, but the thought of what an item is likely to taste like is equally, if not more important.

Cooking must go beyond the process of applying heat. Cooking is a highly intellectual endeavor that benefits greatly from knowing how ingredients are grown, what environmental factors impact on their quality, how heat works in its various forms, what each seasoning ingredient brings to the pan and how a combination of seasonings work together to change a dish. Additionally, it is even important for a chef or cook to understand the psychology of eating and how environment and people can impact on the perceptions of flavor.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Taste-Season-Taste + Flavor Memory

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting and Training

**”Taste-Season-Taste” is a quote from Chef Michel LeBorgne.

A COOK’S FLAVOR MEMORY

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

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I imagine everyone would agree that the most important part of a restaurant dish is taste and flavor. This, of course, encompasses texture, aroma, and appearance, but to most – the intriguing part of enjoyable food revolves around what is perceived as the sense of taste.

What separates a remarkable cook from others lies in his or her ability to create consistent, mind-blowing, and memorable flavors. This is the ability that truly defines an exceptional cook or chef. This is what the best restaurants strive to hire, nurture, and promote. The ability to understand ingredients, how they interact, the nuances of taste based on season and terroir, and how to work with seasoning to re-create old memories and build new ones, is something that not every cook possesses.

“From a young age, I understood the idea of balanced flavor – the reason you put ketchup on a hamburger. I was that kid who wouldn’t eat something if there was something missing. I never really understood it until I began cooking professionally, balancing acids, sweets, spicy flavors and fat.”

-Michael Mina

Although some fortunate cooks are born with sensitive taste buds and olfactory senses that allow them to identify the make-up of a dish, most cooks need to work very hard at creating this ability. If an individual is serious about cooking as a life-long profession then it is essential that he or she build a flavor memory strategy. So, how is this accomplished?

[]         KNOWLEDGE:

First, and foremost, the cook must be hungry to learn, passionate about knowing, and committed to finding the answers. The cook must begin by dispelling assumptions about ingredients, traditions, and flavors. A carrot is not just a carrot! The seed, the earth, the climate, the caring approach of the farmer, and the handling during and after harvest all play into what that carrot will taste and look like. A cook will never truly understand a carrot until he or she has spent some time working with the ingredient, touching the seeds, tilling the soil, planting the seed, weeding the garden, nurturing the plant, pulling the carrot from the ground and dusting off the remains of soil, washing, storing and eventually tasting the difference based on the source.

Is this practical for every cook? Why not? If you are serious about cooking as a life-long career then why not invest in this important part of your education. Even a week on a farm will make a world of difference in a cook’s appreciation and knowledge about the ingredient. Carrots, just like any other ingredient, should not be viewed simply as a commodity that comes off the back of a delivery truck, but rather an essential part of the food experience – a gift from the farmer. Until you have this base of knowledge; until a cook has visited a ranch, feed yard and processing plant for cattle; until a baker has spent an afternoon in a wheat field and a mill; or until a cook has been on a commercial fishing boat – 20 miles off shore – it would be very difficult to really appreciate how important knowledge of ingredients is to the experience of cooking.

[]         BE INQUISITVE:

What is that flavor? Why do some people add a dash of fresh ground nutmeg to a béchamel, fresh rosemary stems to a roast leg of lamb, parsnips to a stew, bone marrow to boeuf a ‘la bourguignon, or spend time to sear meats before braising? Until a cook has answers to questions like these, he or she will find it challenging to build that essential flavor memory that will define who they are in the kitchen.

[]         FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE:

A cook cannot understand what he or she does not experience. Reading about flavor and taste is certainly valuable, but actually tasting, smelling, and chewing on a product at different stages of cooking is what builds useful memory. Everything that we smell and taste is imbedded in our subconscious mind. The more we experience a product, the stronger that database of flavor. An accomplished cook can summon those memories into the conscious mind and thus grab on to the knowledge that will allow them to re-create it. This is an amazing ability that we all have at varying degrees. I can ask anyone of you to close your eyes and stir up the flavor memory of a fresh apple pie coming out of the oven. Try it! You can easily smell and taste that pie right now. If asked to describe it, most people would simply say – apple pie, yet if you had never seen, smelled, or tasted warm apple pie right from the oven it would be impossible to have that memory.

A cook or chef can oftentimes know how a dish will taste before it is simply made by accessing those flavor memories and how they would likely interact. Without first-hand experience, this would be impossible. What is remarkable is that this same cook or chef, given less than stellar ingredients (hothouse tomatoes out of season as an example) can determine what to do with them to build to a similar end result. “How can I make this tomato perform in a similar fashion to one that is sweet and full-flavored in July.” This is why chefs can design a menu and know how the individual items will likely taste even before testing the recipes. Building your flavor memory through first hand experiences is critical.

[]         A BIT OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE:

The study of concepts like the Maillard reaction (“caramelization that gives food a distinctive flavor through a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars” – Wikipedia.) will help a cook understand what to do with a dish in an effort to reach a particular flavor goal. Knowing what happens to less than tender meat during braising that breaks down the fibers of the muscle and understanding at what point that happens is chemistry in action.

[]         DISCIPLINE:

Building this memory is not a “one time only” process – it is a lifetime commitment to understanding and the discipline necessary to seek that knowledge.

[]         VISION:
Once that flavor memory bank is starting to fill up, the cook can envision how to create a dish, how the ingredients will work together in a recipe during the building phase, and what the end product is likely to taste like. This is as structured as an engineer building a drawing of a new structure and knowing how it will support itself. When a cook reaches this point, it is remarkable how they become able to create signature dishes that separate their operation from others. This is when a cook becomes indispensable to a restaurant, and this is when a cook is well on his or her way to becoming a chef.

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When a cook commits to building a base of knowledge, when he or she commits to a lifetime of building flavor memory, and when that same cook understands how important each of these steps is – then he or she can be set apart as a true professional. This is how a cook masters the trade.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Build That Flavor Memory

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant and Culinary School Consulting and Training

***Picture:  With my friend – Chef Jarrad Lang

TASTE and FLAVOR

19 Sunday Jun 2016

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Painted in Waterlogue

There seems to be an unwritten rule when it comes to eating in America – “If something is good then more of it will be even better.” A classic American hamburger becomes better if it is twice as large as the original, a beverage is somehow improved if it is supersized, an 18 ounce steak is far superior to a 6 ounce steak, and if a beautiful wine from Oregon or California is distinct and delicious then it would only make sense to drink a full bottle rather than a glass or two.

There are ample reasons why this logic backfires, yet more often than not restaurants and home cooks tend to fall into the trap of bigger is better. Excessive portion sizes pack on the calories and subsequent weight gain that plagues far too many American consumers, those supersized drinks contribute to many other health issues, and excessive alcohol only leads to a terrible 18-24 hour hangover. What is just as significant, and the reason for this article, is how “bigger” takes away the joy of taste and flavor intrigue.

In the long run, nothing supersedes the importance of taste and flavor when it comes to a great food experience. Presentation, room ambience, beautiful china and glassware, and certainly excessive portion sizes can never replace the significance of taste and flavor. It is this combination of flavor components that give a diner pause, this combination that excites the sensory touch points in the body and builds unforgettable memories of what it can be like to eat well.

Taste is a portion of the overall sensory experience – it is flavor (a combination of taste and smell) that defines great food. But, flavor can go beyond even these two components. Flavor can, and does, include texture (mouth feel), appearance, and even social interaction. It is the chew of a steak that brings out the nuances of flavor, the chew of a New York bagel that makes it unique, the crunch of a potato chip that creates an experience, and the soft and warm texture of a vine ripened tomato that demonstrates all that a tomato can be. How this food is presented may not have a physical impact on flavor, but it does help to build positive or negative perceptions about what the flavor might be.

“There are about 700 flavors that you can smell, but only five you can taste. A lot of times what you’re perceiving as flavor has nothing to do with palette, but it’s more to do with scents.”

– Grant Achatz

Yes, eating and in particular – dining, is a social event and although it may not be physical – the social environment, the people with whom you dine, will have an impact on the memory of taste and flavor. This is why we are rarely able to replicate the flavor experiences that we have had in restaurants or homes without the same people dynamic in place.

Chefs and cooks are the gatekeepers of flavor in a restaurant and in that role they must have a deep understanding of what it takes to build taste and flavor and know how to manipulate the dining experience to its fullest. The accomplished chef or cook must be able to:

[]         BUILD ANTICIPATION

If you look at the dining experience as theater then you can quickly see how each scene can build as the chef guides a guest to a definitive point of sensory pleasure. This begins with those initial contacts with food in a restaurant. Nothing should be viewed as utilitarian – everything is important in the process of building anticipation of something great and unique. The quality and temperature of the butter, the crusty, chewy artisan bread, the tasting amuse bouche, and the quality of the ice water are all very important. “If the bread and butter is this good – imagine what the entrée will be like.”

[]         EXCITE THE PALATE

Every item of food should be well choreographed to stimulate the olfactory senses and taste buds. This is where a cook’s knowledge of flavor comes into play. It is not only important for each dish to be well designed from a flavor perspective, but even more important to ensure that each dish build up to the main character in the meal – the entrée. Each dish should not remain independent, but be part of the entire work.

[]         CREATE A REASON FOR PAUSE

When a guest stops his or her conversation at the table and captures the moment to savor what he or she is tasting- then the chef has been successful. Whether it is taste, aroma, texture, or presentation, the key is to always design each dish to create a reason to pause and take note.

[]         BRING THE FOOD TO CENTER STAGE

The social nature of dining is critical to the experience, but when social interaction turns to discussions about the food or drink that the guest is consuming then eating transitions to dining and the memories will be forged forever. More often than not, the process is really about knowing the food you are working with and understanding how to allow the ingredients to rise to the occasion. Great cooking is all about knowing how to make this happen.

“The simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare it well. You want to truly taste what it is you’re eating. So that goes back to the trend of fine ingredients. It’s very Japanese: Preparing good ingredients very simply, without distractions from the flavor of the ingredient itself.”

– Joel Robuchon

[]         DEFINE A WOW EXPERIENCE

Create the unexpected, exceed expectations, build flavor combinations that are new and unique, and concentrate on melding taste, aroma, beautiful visual combinations of food, and satisfying textures and you will establish the “wow factor” that chef reputations are built on, and lasting guest experiences are made.

[]         LEAVE THE GUEST HUNGRY FOR MORE

Don’t allow yourself to be coaxed into the “bigger is better” trap. The best flavor experiences always leave the guest wanting more. Too much of a good thing quickly loses its value. The amuse bouche should be one bite, the appetizer just a few more, the entrée portion size less than 6 ounces, leaving room for a fresh, unique, small tasting of a dessert. Note that the average person cannot digest more than 1 pound of food at a setting. Anything more is gluttony and in the end will diminish the experience and tarnish the memory. You want the guest to leave with a high level of anticipation for his or her next visit.

[]         BUILD LASTING MEMORIES

Think back to your own experiences with food. It doesn’t matter whether it was a white table cloth restaurant or a bar-b-que shack on a busy highway – if the flavor experience was a wow you will always hold that memory close and likely tell dozens of people about it. There will always be that desire to return and rekindle that experience that has been imbedded in your subconscious. This is what the chef and cook strives to do, this is the sign of success that these individuals seek to achieve, and this is what brings professionals to a life of cooking.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant and Culinary School Consulting and Training

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This is the latest novel by Chef Paul Sorgule. Order your copy through amazon by clicking on the following link:

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BUILDING A COOKS PALATE

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Setting aside the role that a restaurants ambience plays in the dining experience, minimizing the significance of plate presentation, and even disregarding the value of exceptional service, the core reason that guests flock to a great restaurant is the flavor of the food. In the kitchen, the skill that a cook has with a knife, the speed and organizational skills that he or she demonstrates on a busy line, even the quality of the tools at a cooks disposal pale in comparison to the quality of his or her palate. Does the cook have the ability to marry flavors and consistently produce a product from their flavor memory? Can that cook determine what is lacking, what is needed, to bring that dish to the expected level of excellence? Does the cook have the ability to adjust seasoning to compensate for an ingredient that is out of season or picked before it is mature? If the answer to these questions is YES, – then the other components of success will come in due time. A great cook needs exceptional “buds.”

Where does this ability come from? Are cooks born with this skill or can his or her palate be built? Here are some things to consider:

  • BENCHMARKS: One of the first steps in building a palate is to train and develop your flavor memory. There are so many references in cooking that can only be understood if the preparer has experience with certain food items. How could you ever describe the difference in quality from a perfectly developed loaf of artisan sour dough bread unless you have tasted such a product, numerous times? Could you even begin to understand what a real strawberry tastes like until one has been picked at the peak of ripeness on a warm, sunny day and immediately popped in your mouth? A perfect duck leg confit with properly prepared flageolet beans, and Andouille sausage from central France will paint an indelible picture in your subconscious and as such become a trigger to your food flavor memory. Benchmarks are the portal to building a responsive palate.
  • THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TASTE AND FLAVOR: As Stuart Firestein, a natural biologist from Columbia University states: taste is something that stimulates the five critical sensations in your mouth: Sweet, Sour, Salt, Bitter, and Umami. Flavor builds the experience by adding smell, texture, multiple tastes, and the expectation of eating. One might even add that flavor is sometimes determined by the experience of sharing the meal with treasured friends or family. “The flavor of the roast is determined by the handshake of the host.”
  • TO SALT OR NOT TO SALT: The question of flavor really comes down to which ingredient is designed to play the lead role in the experience. Salt is a fantastic mineral that carries with it the ability to bring out, or enhance the flavor of the ingredient that it touches. Salt should not be the main character, but rather serve as a complement. Americans, both working in the kitchen and sitting in the dining room suffer from saltshakers elbow. When in doubt – add salt. The far too common solution to a lack of flavor substance is to add salt, to the point where the primary taste is that of the complement rather than the primary ingredient. Many are so addicted to the flavor enhancer that they add more before even tasting the product. Great flavor memory will allow the cook to sparingly use salt to bring out more of the flavors that made that initial eating experience – special.
  • TO SAUCE OR NOT TO SAUCE: Is sauce an essential ingredient to every plate, or is sauce commonly used to compensate for poorly prepared food? Is the sauce, like salt, a component meant to complement the primary ingredient, or is it used to mask the flavor, or lack there of, in the primary ingredient? In Medieval times Chef Taillevent used sauces to hide the flavor of tainted meat since refrigeration and other forms of preservation had not been introduced or perfected. This is not where cooks want to reside today. Complementary sauce work can add complexity to the dish, but should only be used after a cook understands how the primary ingredient should be cooked and how it should taste if prepared properly. As an example, a properly roasted chicken is a stand-alone item and really does not need a sauce.
  • UMAMI: A more scientific description of umami, from the Umami Institute would be:    “Taking its name from Japanese, umami is a pleasant savory taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. As the taste of umami itself is subtle and blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavors, most people don’t recognize umami when they encounter it, but it plays an important role making food taste delicious” In laymen terms: umami can be described as savory or well-rounded, pleasant flavors. There are some foods that are naturally higher in umami sensation, such as mushrooms, pork, aged beef, tomatoes, and soy sauce.
  • WHAT ABOUT HEAT: Heat is in when it comes to creative, fun foods today. Whether it is Thai, Mexican, Southwestern US, Chinese, or Korean cuisine, guests are gravitating towards foods that you feel, rather than simply taste. What many cooks and customers fail to differentiate is heat from flavor. As an example, chili peppers are the rage and many people refer to the Scoville Scale as a badge of honor – “How much capsaicin heat can I withstand?” Jalapeno (1-4,000 Scoville units) is surpassed by Serrano (20,000) Habanero (350,000), or even Ghost peppers (up to 2 million Scoville units).

            What many people have lost sight of is the fact that each of these peppers has distinctive, and complex flavor profiles that can be masked by capsaicin. Removing the seeds and pith, and roasting the peppers first will reduce the heat and accentuate the rich flavors that will allow a cook to understand how to use them in building a flavor experience in a dish.

  • BACK TO FLAVOR MEMORY AND GREAT “BUDS”: To be a great cook requires that each individual experience food, savor the experience of eating and dining, pair foods to determine how ingredients work together, and go through this process many times. Set your benchmarks, build that sub conscious database, and learn, through trial and error how to distinguish the role of each ingredient working together in a dish. When this occurs, a very good line cook becomes an irreplaceable part in the creation of a dining experience. This is what customers come back for – the consistent tastes and flavors of foods that are designed to work together. When this takes place, menus start to make sense, wine lists truly interact with food, and a restaurant signature is born.

Great cooks have great palates, great cooks are always anxious to try to new foods in quest of expanding their flavor memory, great cooks understand what a dish needs based on the benchmarks in their sub conscious mind, great cooks truly connect with the ingredients.

TASTE-SEASON-TASTE (Chef Michel)

PLAN BETTER –TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

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IT’S ALL ABOUT CHEW

31 Saturday Aug 2013

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“Chew your food!” I am sure we can all remember hearing that from our mother and grandmother along with: “close the door, wipe your feet, wash your hands”. It was part of Parent 101 to state those requirements of existence sometimes for obvious reasons, sometimes simply because it sounded right. Human nature, for a rebellious adolescent was to ignore those directives or seek out an escape from their core meaning.

Restaurants accommodated that rebellious streak in various, creative ways: doors with automatic closers, advanced technology floor mats that suck the dirt off your shoes while you walk, latex gloves for staff to use in lieu of washing your hands 50 times a day (if I had only bought stock in latex 30 years ago), and food that requires very little effort to digest (chewing is such a waste of energy).

I can remember a steakhouse chain in the 60’s and 70’s called Bo…..za (named for the home of Hoss, Little Joe and Hop Sing) that advertised: “our steaks melt in your mouth” (steaks are not suppose to melt in your mouth). This chain used some type of tenderizing agent for their less than prime cuts of meat.

Real bread in the 50’s and 60’s became “wonder bread” designed to build strong bodies with a product pretty much void of texture and real nutritional value. The product was “manufactured” to be light, soft and white. Jell-O was the dessert of the decade (available in a variety of colors) – nothing to chew and if you work at it the gelatin might eventually melt in your mouth, French fries were made from cooked and extruded potatoes, hamburger buns were as light as pillows, and our shellfish became Surimi made from pureed and extruded fish stuff. Shape it, paint it to look like crab or lobster and voila – shellfish without the work.

What had we become? Were we a society of wimps who couldn’t even chew our food, wipe our feet, or close the door behind us? In the process we lost our ability to truly “taste” food. An important part of taste is experiencing the natural textures of a product and chewing brings out the flavor. Without chewing, we might as well just give up and drink Ensure. Webster offers a variety of synonyms for “chew” and none of them go beyond the physical process: to munch, chomp, champ, crunch, nibble, gnaw, consume. What these words fail to point out is that chewing is an enjoyable part of the experience of eating. Chewing certainly, as we all probably realize, helps in and begins the process of digestion, but more vividly begins the process of sending flavor signals to the brain. Chewing and taste do go hand in hand.

Fortunately, over the past 20 years chewing has experienced a come back as part of the American food experience. We have returned to the future and relish in the process of chewing wood-fired pizzas and intensely flavored artisan breads. Gone are the chemical meat tenderizers in steakhouses as we enjoy the fact that even Kobe beef must connect with the jaw to build the experience. Customers wait in lines to purchase those fantastic New York bagels and work hard at tearing and chewing this wonderful boiled and baked extraordinary (tough by design) hand food. Even fast food restaurants are trading in their ground and fabricated chicken nuggets for real pieces of whole meat. We “chew” a great red wine to build the full mouth attack on this beverage of the gods and have returned to “under-cooking” fresh vegetables, as they should be to preserve their color, crunch and nutritional value.

Thankfully we have come to our senses (I think chefs, dietitians and farmers had a lot to do with it) before we found ourselves without a need for teeth and absent any way to distinguish true flavor. Put the straws away, bring the steak knives out of storage, make sure your serrated knife is sharp enough to work through that dense and flavorful artisan bread, build up those jaw muscles and get ready to taste and savor food the way it was meant to be. “Chew your food” – now it makes sense.

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