My cooking style – it has evolved over 35 years
Yep, a question I get asked a lot, what is your favorite
thing to cook? And what is your cooking style, how would you describe it? Two
of my favorite questions I get when people find out I am a chef. As for my favorite thing to cook, anything in
season right out of the garden or from the farmer’s market. I truly get
inspired by the food I see, it made it really tough to wander the food halls in
France last fall and not have a kitchen to cook in on the trip, next time! I
think this desire to cook what is fresh and in season really stems from the
power of the seasonal rhythm. I always ask chefs what their favorite food
season is and why? Mine, it is a tie between Spring and Fall. Spring the new
awakening in the garden, the early vegetables, and bright flavors that signal a
new beginning. As for Fall, the comforting warmth and earthiness of the harvest
bounty. I love the slow cooking of stews, soups and hard squashes, root
vegetables and the aromas that are a clear sign of moving into the winter
slumber. So you can see that by shifting to a seasonal mind set for me it has
informed my larger cooking style of simplicity. Cooking with fewer ingredients
has continued to drive my culinary approach at home and even at work. Over the
last 10 years I have really found the sweet spot for me of trying to stay with
in 6-8 ingredients or less when creating a dish. I have also challenged the
chefs working for me to strive to self edit and reduce the number of ingredients
as well as number of steps. It can be a real challenge to achieve this balance of
simplicity that delivers an amazing finished dish. What it does is allow the best ingredients
possible to shine through in the final plate. I have found over the years that unnecessary
ingredients can have a tendency to “muddy” the flavors in a dish. Stripping the
recipe down to it basic fundamental flavors and then rebuilding it with fewer
ingredients can and usually delivers a far superior result. It has become
second nature for me to approach cooking this way each and every meal at home,
even if I am working off a recipe from someone else, I usually tweak it to be
less ingredients and more about the focus of the quality I am putting in the
dish. I will leave you with a fall example of how I cook, Fig, roasted beets and
Pear Salad. The fig tree is still booming with fruit, combined with a ripe
pear, perfectly roasted beets, all sliced and arranged on a plate, drizzled
with EVOO, Fig Balsamic Vinegar, cracked black pepper and kosher salt, that is
it. The flavors come together on the plate to create a beautiful bite of fall,
you can feel the crisp cooler air moving in and the leaves turning. Cooking this way for me continues to be a
journey, because each new / fresh ingredient inspires me to listen, learn and
grow. Being a chef is always about
learning and loving the life we live.
