Peasant Food is Soul Food

Okay, first the serious stuff … many people claim that local food is "elitist," some of the world's great cuisines - Chinese, Italian, country French, Indian - come from people who had the least to work with - peasants. However, few of us are farmers so unlike peasants our livelihood is not directly focused on feeding ourselves. Still, the point is this, the food we consider sometimes to be beneath us, “food for the poor”, is best because it focuses on food sourced at the source ... if that makes sense! And, more often than could be explained in a blog, it is soul food! Many, and I mean MANY famous and not so famous chefs are leaving their Michelin 3 Star restaurants to open small, cozy little places where jackets are frowned on but the food is elevated peasant food!

The “local” angle is explained like this … peasants are small-scale farmers, ranchers, herders, hunters or fishermen and this means that they are close to their food source - they are “Localvores” by necessity. By US standards, peasants appear to be poor and many of us feel sorry for the "meager" lives peasants lead. In fact, peasant culture is rich in traditions passed down through the generations along with recipes for dishes like Cassoulet and Osso Bucco. These classic recipes are typical of peasant cuisine with often translates into hearty one-dish meals that combine "lesser" cuts of meat cooked in a savory broth with seasonal vegetables and some form of bread. Think Beef Bourguignon and a French baguette; Ribolita, which is a Tuscan bread soup, or Huevos Rancheros and you are thinking peasant food. How about Coq Au Vin … stewed Chicken with Wine and always served with bread! This is peasant food at its best and if you are lucky enough to know someone who really knows how to prepare this dish you are money! Each of these dishes reflects a side of our culture that is pure, rooted in common things. And, the genuine connection between peasant food and soul food becomes obvious! In words you can simply say … it is any food that makes your heart warm!

Now, the fun stuff and more to the “ranting” point! You can go out to fine dining establishments all over the world. Pay a small fortune and have a nice meal. But isn’t it kinda stuffy? The freaking opposite of quant? You go in, order something off the menu and get a child’s portion that costs $40 and usually is out of season! What the hell is up with that? One thing is certain about peasant food and soul food ... it is always SEASONAL and usually made from what is available. And all the while you are enjoying Beef stew or Shrimp and Grits you are full of love for life … filled with the laughter that surrounds this kind of dining experience. No tie’s or jackets required … not waiters telling you what wine to drink with that fish! And the best part is … it really is more enjoyable (spoken aloud with a higher pitch voice). Two of the best restaurants in Paris right now are serving casual “peasant food” with an upscale twist. And the price asked reflects this … $20 for that same piece of fish, ½ the price of the Coq au Vin at the POSH beat you down the road to the bank high-end establishment. Do you know what being over charged really means? Being cheated out of a moment in life! It isn’t the money, well sometimes it is, but it is the simple fact that you know, deep down in your heart that you could have had just as good a meal, paid less and not felt like you would be scolded for dropping your knife on the floor! Come-on ya’ll, as we say in the South, get off your stupid think you are better arse and get back to just cooking! I don’t care if you have Michelin 3 stars … I wanna know if you can cook something simple and beautiful, using what you bought at the market today!!!

I believe that soul food and peasant food are intertwined in a relationship of love … they both nurture us with aromas that makes us want family nearer, friends abound and love one’s within hugging and kissing distance! If you don’t know what I mean then you are missing out …

Creating A Great Menu

Creating A Great Menu

It’s a pet-peeve of mine, restaurants and chefs that don’t change their menus but once a year, or longer.  I believe in changing with the seasons.  And, I get bored. Thus, I end up changing my menus roughly every 3 months.  So what’s in season, what farmers are growing and what our fishermen are catching is where I begin. But sometimes it’s is the craziest, wildest idea that through practice comes out to be a wonderful dish that we can recreate nightly.

It sounds easy but it is much harder than you think! Think about it this way; only so many things can be sautéed or flashed on the stove top, only so many proteins can be grilled and only so many can be fried. Not everything can come from one section otherwise … the kitchen slows to a crawl and everyone’s in ‘Barney’! Kitchen reference to when things go horribly wrong.

Each new dish must be inventive, interesting and showcase local fair with balance. This is the key; each dish must have a single pronounced flavor forward with subtle flavors underneath but they must be in harmony to work perfectly on the taster’s palate.  I look for dishes that also a textural component and a balance of acid and sweet. So each dish must have these in common before the recipe is perfect. Usually, we try a recipe, make changes, re-try them again 50 times before it makes it to a menu.

So how do you do this? Here is an example of how a simple idea turned itself into a menu item back in January.  I start with one thing, and then write down everything I like with that one thing. Scallops i.e.. Thoughts drive towards butter, potatoes, and bacon. Stop. Okay, butter and potatoes, mashed potatoes but something more eclectic than a puddle on the plate. Yes, a potato croquette, but with Chive and made with semolina flour. Check!  Now bacon, maybe a source of texture on our dish and an underlying flavor…. Yes, crunchy bacon with each Scallop gives us texture and a bacon vinaigrette for a small salad will give the dish acidity and balance. What about something to balance that acidity? A Fruit? Yes, Peaches pair well with shellfish, hmmm, what a about a spiced jelly? It’s a southern thing but would work perfectly with this dish. That’s it. So I ended up with seared Diver Scallops balanced on creamy Potato Croquettes; top scallops with spicy Peach Jelly and crumbled Bacon. Serve a petit salad tossed in Bacon Vinaigrette. Each of the individual parts of this dish is a recipe on its own … each has to perfected and written into recipe form.

This is one dish, a small plate but a great dish to add to our starters menu. I offer four starters so the others cannot come from the sautéed station. They could be a grilled local sausage with crispy fried onion and a gastrique of mustard and Albarino wine.  I think you get the idea and a small peek into the workings of a professional kitchen. So when I change my menu for the seasons or because I am bored cooking something understand that it comes with great effort and pains!

What Gets Me

What Gets Me

Okay, okay so what gets me? Well, I can live with the cuts, the burns, the long hours, bad customers that change my menus, poor service from distributors, staff that have trouble with etiquette, all the cleaning and when a recipe goes wrong.

I should explain each more thoroughly. 

Being cut on the job is never a good thing, not just because it hurts but because it happens at your own hand. To this end and why it doesn’t “get” me is that very fact. If you cut yourself, it is your fault! Insert laugh here. Luckily, I am good with a knife and rarely (1 every 3 years) cut myself! But, it’s part of the gig when you wield a knife for 8 hours a day.

Pans spit when working a good sear on a protein, that’s it! Many times the proteins have a pocket of water or moisture within them and the heat forces it out; when it hits the cooking substance it rockets out … usually towards you! Just part of the gig!

If you want to succeed, create the new, improve the past, you must work hard at your craft.  That’s a fact I feel sometimes is not practiced anymore. You must practice that craft with great vigor. Me, I usually cater to high proteins, caffeine and or music stimulants! Alas, it’s part of the gig!

Bad customers, ah where to begin? If you are late for your reservation without notification, you are a bad customers. If you change the menu without bound or understanding of the complexities of acids in relation to proteins in each dish, you are a bad customer. Sauce on the side is just plain foolish.  But again, it’s part of the gig! People always think they know everything they like.

 

I think you are getting the point now so I will conclude.  These things listed are parts of conversations with fellow in the biz, and what makes them want to stop producing great food.  But, they are not “What Gets Me” . for me it’s simple, it’s the odor of cooked food on my clothes at the end of the night. Sounds stupid probably but when I am done for the night and want to enjoy a cocktail, tall pint or lovely glass of wine; I don’t want to smell the Halibut Buerre Blanc!

For "Beans" Sake

For “Beans” Sake!

Sometime I think beans get a bad rap, it’s the gas thing for most; sorry, that was a bad play on words!  But the protein benefits are enormous and the flavors we can achieve from manipulation are endless!  Think about it this way, it looks like a pill but has ten-times the benefits.

Legumes have always been considered a fundamental part of the old world diet, valued not only for their versatility and affordability, but also for their nutritional qualities and enormous variety of gastronomic uses that have long formed part of the repertoire of regional dishes: potaje, fabada, cocido, lentejas con chorizo, fabes,  fagiuoli all'uccelletto, Cassoulet with bacon lardoons and more. In addition to their traditional dominance, these bean varieties are also building new roads into the future, with exports on the rise and new gastronomic adaptations.

For a long time the French, Spanish and Italians have been using beans as a mainstay, as a large  part of the great gastronomy.  In France, as my great-grandmother told me, slowly sautéing white beans with bacon and onion until the render out their starch causes the ending dish to be complex with a natural enzyme that unless cooked this way will not come forth.  Layer the sautéed mixture with stock and cream and roast slowly for an hour and you will have a flavor unmatched. In Spain, as I’ve studied, the many methods of utilizing Lentils goes back to the time of Christ. Italians even further back.

So, add some Fabada or some Cassoulet back into your diet and feel the energy increase, your strength uplifted, and finally your gastronomy the better from this powerful little pill!   

Food Phrases.

Famous Food Phrases, and new ones.

We are all constantly trying to improve our knowledge of our craft. Since my craft is food and beverage I thought it would be a fun examination of terms used to describe food, phrases about food and specifically words that conjur up clever thoughts about eating in general!

 

As far back as 350 BC we know of writings about food when Archestratus writes 'Hedypatheia'; one of the earliest cookbooks, mentioned by Athenaeus in his writings.  Not only were the early cookbooks filled with the knowledge of the day but also about the culture of that time.  Culture and the natural trend of language to evoke pleasure from and to allure people to new foods has been going on since man created fire and someone needed to say how specifically AWESOME that was.  I wonder how that conversation went … “Uggg …. SEEE, ouchchchchch!”

Other fun phrases from the ‘early years include in 255 BC the term 'don't upset the apple cart' was first used by Roman playwright Plautus in 255 B.C. in his play 'Epiducus'.  Doesn’t really apply today in literal terms but certain in irony!  Now we say “leave the door closed”.  In 100 AD The world's oldest surviving cookbook, De Re Coquinaria ("On Cookery"), is attributed to the 1st century Roman, Apicius.  Who was also the first to say “the first taste is with the eyes”.  Now, he must have had a restaurant and wanted to make food pretty.  In 408 AD the Visigoths attacked Rome and demanded 3,000 pounds of pepper as part of the city's ransom; and Alaric I said “with this spice the world is better”.  Really? Come on, they didn’t have any pepper in Germania?  Now the phrase is “variety is the spice of life".

 

A good meal ought to begin with hunger.
French Proverb

Choose rather to punish your appetites than be punished by them.
Tyrius Maximus

Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
Turkish Proverb

For its merit I will knight it, and then it will be Sir-Loin. Charles II

Food Pimgrims

Food Pilgrims?

I read many articles, follow many blogs and try to keep up with trends in my industry. Among the many articles and blogs I read are references to “food pilgrims”. And I began to think … am I a food pilgrim? Are you? Let’s see, what precisely is a food pilgrim? A pilgrim (lat. peregrinus) is one who undertakes a pilgrimage, literally 'far afield'. This is traditionally a visit to a place of some religious or historic significance; often a considerable distance is traveled. So a food pilgrim is one who seeks out a great/historic/life changing food experience? Perhaps it is just one who seeks travel destinations based on a cuisine or a particular restaurant or chef. I think this sounds right. If you ask Sage, who writes a blog @ foodpilgrimage.com you would get the 7 reasons to be a Food Pilgrim. She begins her list with “A Life of Passion”. Now that’s right up my alley. She explains, “Life is richer when each meal is transformed into the ultimate pursuit of pleasure.” Go Sage (funny quinki-dink, the etymology of her name), I could not agree more and perhaps this is the best aspect or greatest virtue to being a food pilgrim if in fact I am or should try to be.

But I cannot say with great conviction that I seek out a far destination solely based on a restaurant, a location that thrives on excellent food or even a particular chef for that matter. This year Peggy and I went to Old San Juan, Puerto Rice for vacation. We just love architecture and the Spanish culture. While I love Spanish food, this trip was not solely for this reason. I wanted the full Spanish-Caribbean experience; the beaches, the people, the music and of course the food. However, I did research out the best restaurants, most authentic places where locales go to eat prior to leaving on my journey. I go to Europe every chance I get but I do not seek a destination/city for a particular restaurant. But I would I guess if I had unlimited resources. But since so many other things motivate, thrill and bring serious joy and passion to my life, I can usually find many reasons to visit a city. Last time I was in Paris I did the same thing. But I did not go to Paris simply to eat at a particular café or restaurant. I went for the whole experience. Same goes for Vienna, Prague, Sevilla, Lisbon, Roma, Florenza, Amalfi, Porto, Siena, Lucca, Montalpucciano and many other cities I have visited in the past ten years. It was for the whole experience or sometimes to visit friends. But I always search out the places I want to eat with great enthusiasm and vigor. I will spend as much if not more time finding these places, making phone calls, sending emails etc ….than historic sights and historical information!

On the other hand, I will drive to Charleston, some 55 minutes for a great meal at a specific restaurant. Is this a “far afield”? I usually make the trip to Charleston because I have a special evening, an anniversary or birthday and thus want to go out of town. But sometimes it is to see what a Chef is doing that makes headlines. Like when McCrady’s chef Sean Brock won a James Beard Award, I went up to see what changes had been made to the restaurant and what foods they were doing. So, in a vague sense I maybe a food pilgrim.

Another reason Sage gives for aspiring to be a food pilgrim is #4; Quality over Quantity. She surmises, “Spending more time and more money on better food has the happy byproduct of forcing you to eat in reasonable quantities. Though nearly blasphemy in our “more-is-better” culture, with its “Gonna get ma’ money’s worth” mantra, eating less of a quality food will satiate your senses, and your spirit, not just your thymus and your belly.” Well, enough said, I am a Food Pilgrim! I not only have aspirations but a thriving appetite for quality food and I do seek out the best places to eat based on this new mantra! I have been wanting to make a pilgrimage to Phoenix, Arizona to visit Matt Bianco’s “Pizzeria Bianco”; heralded as the best pizza in America from EVERYONE I respect in our industry. So I guess I could be a food pilgrim. Would I be willing to travel to Phoenix just for some of Matt’s delicious pie? Probably not, but if I were near the area and it wasn’t that far a drive ... yes, I probably would go! Or, what a pilgrimage to a farm to get fresh produce or vegetables .. isn't this a pilgrimage? I think so.

There is another reason I took notice of this trend. My Gastro-pub is somewhat of a journey, albeit only 15 minutes from downtown Beaufort, but to many considerably further. The thought that reached out to me was how important it is to find out from our patrons … did they journey far to be with us? Are we the kind of place people will consider making a food pilgrimage? This thought, and question has me hoping to be, and hoping you are also …. Not just a passionate person about food but one who seeks out specials places to enjoy a meal and friends. Cheers!