I get asked all the time about cooking shows. “Do you watch Top Chef?”, “Have you been watching the latest season of Master Chef ?”, “Are you into the Great British Bake Off?” and of course, “What’s your favourite cooking show?”. Because I get asked about this so much I thought it was time I did a post about it. So, let’s talk about it.
Today we are going to get down to the nitty-gritty and I’m going to tell you what I really think of modern cooking shows as a whole, cooking as entertainment, as well as what I think actually is the best cooking show out there right now.
This is…
Cooking Shows – The good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Ugly
Cooking shows are not a new phenomenon. They date all the way back to 1946 when the first-ever cooking show “Cookery” aired on the BBC. It was 10 minutes long and the Chef/Host Phillp Harben, widely recognized as the first celebrity Chef, made lobster vol-au-vents. A few months later James Beard debuted his American cooking show “I love to eat.”. From then on food has been a mainstay on televisions around the world.
The important thing about those original cooking shows, and really all cooking shows up until the late 1990s early 2000s is that they were all about teaching people about food and cooking. They were entertaining, yes, but they weren’t entertainment.
Today, many, many cooking shows, or more accurately food shows, have nothing to do with teaching people about food. They are overdramatized, unrealistic, and create a disrespect of food and cooking which creates an unhealthy relationship with food. You may think that I am being overly dramatic right now, but am I really? Think about it.
The food itself has become entertainment. With that, expectations of what food should be have risen and become unreasonable. Yes, if you are going to a restaurant or hiring a chef, then the food should be amazing. Otherwise, what are you paying for? The problem really starts in the home. We see “chefs” cooking ridiculous things in competition shows. Or we watch a really well-shot video of avantgarde food with dramatic classical music behind it, and it raises the assumption that this is what food has to be. Gone are the days when a well made but simply made shepherd’s pie will suffice. Now, the shepherd’s pie has to have truffled potatoes, with foie gras, and goddamn gold leaf for people to want to eat it. And, because most people can’t make that at home, they just don’t bother trying. That’s a problem.
In Canada right now, 54% of people eat out at least once a week. When looking at just millennials that 54% becomes the number of people who eat out at least three times a week. That’s crazy! Obviously, I understand that there is a lot more going on here than just food tv, but millenials happen to also be the group that watches the most food tv.
The Bad
One other problem that modern food tv has created is what I like to call the oxtail effect. Oxtail is literally the tail of a cow or ox. Fifteen years ago you could buy oxtail for pennies. Very few people wanted it, and so it was classic peasant food. The type of thing that requires a lot of effort but that in the right hands can be absolutely delicious. As I sit here right now, the grocery store nearest to me is selling oxtail for $19.82 a kg. Keep in mind, oxtail is mostly bone and cartilage. So why is it so expensive? Because about 10-12 years every person on the food network, every show, everything was using oxtail. This drove the price through the roof and it has never come down. Now, all those people who used to rely on cheap cuts of meat like oxtail to survive can’t afford it. Now, they are forced to turn to cheaper alternatives which usually come in the form of frozen meals.
Again, I know that food tv is not the only problem here. There are a lot of food security issues that we are facing beyond this. But, it is a contributing factor.
The Good
Okay, so this post has obviously gotten away from me a little bit and has become less about cooking shows and more about societal food issues that we are all facing. I think it is important that we talk about these things because they are happening to us and all around us. But, this post is supposed to be a cooking shows, so let’s bring it back.
Cooking Shows I don’t watch.
If it is a competition, I’m probably not watching it. The only cooking competition show I have watched in the past 5 years has been “The Final Table” on Netflix. Mostly I watched it because a lot of the Chefs are highly regarded and I wanted to see what they’d do. I thought it was okay but I probably won’t be watching season 2.
Chef’s table is a show that I watched the first season of but I can’t watch it anymore. I find it has almost become a characture of itself. Anytime I try to watch it I just think of this…
Shows I do watch.
I like “The Mind of a Chef” though I don’t think I caught the last season. Other than that there is really only one other cooking show airing right now that I watch and in my opinion, it is the best one on tv right on. It is “The Chef Show” on Netflix.
There are a few reasons I like this show but the biggest reason is this, there is no bullshit. All this show is about is Jon Favreau wanting to hang out with Roy Choi and learn from him and cook with him. That’s it. They make good food, you can learn something by watching it. It is entertaining without being entertainment. And, you can tell that they are having fun and enjoying themselves. That’s what food should be about.
Conclusion
Alright, I feel like I have dug myself into a pretty deep hole with this one. If you like food tv and watching cooking competitions, good on you. I don’t want to make you feel bad about that. I just think that it is important to watch those shows with the understanding that their relationship to food and cooking is the same as porn’s relationship to sex. They are not the same thing. They’re barely even related.
All I can say is that as entertaining as cooking shows can be they will never be able to provide the same satisfaction that actually cooking can. Taking the time, putting in the effort, and being rewarded with something delicious at the end, that is much more satisfying than watching Gordon Ramsay yell at yet another unprepared novice on Hell’s Kitchen.
It is that time of year again, parents are sending their little ones off to school. University kids are moving out on their own once again. And, summer vacations have all but come to an end. Getting back into the daily grind can be a bit hectic, and overwhelming. Things get lost and fall through the cracks as time seems to slip by ever quicker. Eating well should not be one of the things that get away from us.
Today, we are going to talk all about meal prep. We’ll look at how you can maximize the time you have to cook to prepare food for a few meals at once without getting overwhelmed. The same principles apply whether you are a college kid out on your own for the first time, a young couple making their way in this crazy world, or a parent of three. Let’s get to it.
Meal Prep 101
Why meal prep?
Picture this, you just got home from work it’s about 6 o’clock and you are exhausted. It was a rough day. Everything you did just seemed to be not enough. There seemed to be something in the air that was making everyone a little cranky. Once you were finally able to leave work you got stuck in traffic for an hour. Now that you’re home you are starving since you haven’t really eaten anything since noon. The last thing in the world you want to do is cook dinner so you pick up your phone and order take out. It’s the second time this week and it’s only Wednesday. While you’re waiting for the food to arrive you snack on a bag of chips as you sit and zone off into space watching tv or scrolling Instagram.
Maybe your story is a little different than that one. Maybe you had to run around picking your kids up from different after school activities. Maybe it’s 7 o’clock by the time you get home. You aren’t going to be cooking too much at this point. More than likely you stopped at the grocery store and bought a cooked chicken and a premade salad. Or, it’s pizza night again.
The truth is that we are all busy. It doesn’t matter what our circumstances are, there are always things going on and there is never enough time. But we shouldn’t sacrifice eating well. It is a really important part of a healthy life.
So, what can you do?
The short answer is to plan your meals around your busy schedule and do meal prep. But how do you actually do that?
The key to this really is planning. Take a bit of time, between 15 to 30 minutes and map out your meals for the next week. Looking at your schedule figure out at least two days that you will have time, 1-2 hours to cook. Plan out when the best time to go to the grocery store is. I recommend around 9 pm. There isn’t usually anyone there and you can zip in, get what you need and zip out. Then cook based on the plan you’ve made.
How to build a meal plan
Building a successful meal plan is like doing a puzzle. There should be no spaces left and you shouldn’t have any extra pieces left over at the end. Start with the edges just like doing a puzzle. In the case of meal planning, the edges would be the main ingredient. This would usually be the protein. Now, fill in the rest of the puzzle with vegetables, starches, and sauces.
Buy as few ingredients as you can while still maintaining a varied diet.
There are some ingredients that you really can’t buy in small quantities. Things like cabbage for example. So, if you plan on making a stew or soup with cabbage plan on making coleslaw and using what’s left in a stir-fry. Essentially, the idea is that you buy as few ingredients as you can while still maintaining a varied diet.
Try at least one new recipe or ingredient each week.
Plan for variety. Try not to get stuck in a cycle of making the same meals every week. This will get boring to eat and to cook. Build into your meal plan the idea that you will try at least one new recipe or ingredient each week and it will keep things exciting. This will also make you a better cook.
You should also, on occasion, plan for a night out or to get take out. I think it’s important to build this into your plan once or twice a month. Acknowledge that you are going to order a pizza sometimes, or go out for burgers. By building this into the meal plan you are taking away any negative feelings and instead have given yourself something to look forward to as a fun night.
How do you stick to the plan?
Sticking to your meal plan comes down to practice. Really, you just have to do it. But once you do it for even just a few weeks, you will notice that you are less stressed, you are spending less money, and you are eating better. You may even find that you enjoy cooking a bit more because there is a lot less stress.
Try not to be too hard on yourself if you mess up. Life is ever-changing and despite your best efforts sometimes your plan will just go to hell. Live with it, learn from it, and get right back to it. But don’t beat yourself up over it.
Prepping your meal plan
Now that you have a meal plan in place it is time to prep it. Take that 1-2 hour every 3-4 days and cook. Cook 1-2 big items like chicken, roast beef, or chili. Figure out how you can use those in multiple meals. Chicken, for example, can be a chicken dinner one night, a pulled chicken salad with lots of fresh vegetables the next night and chicken soup the third night. All of that can easily be prepared in 2 hours. Roast beef can be roast beef dinner the first night, really great sandwiches with horseradish mayo, arugula, and cheese, served with a salad the next night, and beef and barley soup the last night. Again, this can all be prepped in an hour or two.
Containers
Preparing all kinds of food is great, but unless you have a way to properly store the food, it is all kind of pointless. Invest in some multi-compartment containers. They are inexpensive and will do wonders for your meal prep game. Just build your meals in them, then you can quickly grab one, heat it and eat it. The meal will be fully portioned and ready to go. You can find a variety of meal prep containers here.
The point
The point is that eating well, even on a busy schedule isn’t impossible. It isn’t easy, it takes work and effort but isn’t it worth it? If you think it is then it’s time to get going on it.
I have put together a little infographic and meal prep guide that you can use to get yourself on the right track. You can download it here.
Also, if this all seems like too much work and you live in the Halifax area I do offer a meal prep delivery service. You order 3 – 5 days worth of food, I prepare it and deliver it. You just have to reheat it. You can check that out here.
People ask me all the time about what my favourite cooking shows are. Truth be told, I don’t watch many cooking shows. I do however love movies about cooking. So, today I thought I would put together a top 5 list of my favourite food/cooking movies.
This list is composed of scripted movies only. I left all of my favourite food documentaries off of this list. Maybe I will do a top 5 food doc. list in the future. Who knows?
I’m going to do my best not to give too much away about the movies on this list but be aware that there may be some spoilers. Okay, enough said. Let’s take a look at
5 – Dinner Rush
This movie centers around one night in a busy restaurant in New York. It is about the old ways versus new ways. About a son trying to prove himself to his father. This movie has gangsters, it has food, it has pretty realistic restaurant and cooking scenes.
All in all this a really well-made movie which you will likely enjoy whether you love cooking or not. Check it out.
4 – Julia & Julia
It should come as no surprise to anyone that I loved this movie. I love all things Julia Child and this movie was very well done.
This movie is based on a blog by a woman named Julia who cooked her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking”. The story follows both Julia Child’s journey and the modern blogger Julia’s journey. It intertwines the lives, stories, and timelines of these two women in a well-crafted narrative that leaves the watcher feeling a connection through time and space.
This is a great, kind of heartwarming movie that if you haven’t seen you absolutely should.
3 – Soul Kitchen (2009)
Soul Kitchen, where to begin? First of all, this is a German-made movie with English subtitles. It has a very German sense of humour. It is a well-made movie and a well-crafted story.
Soul Kitchen is about this young Greek-German guy named Zinos who owns a really shitty restaurant in a warehouse in Hamburg. The story follows the trials and tribulations of Zinos through the restaurant and his personal life. If you don’t mind reading subtitles you should check this movie out. There is a reason why it made it to number 3 on this list, it is really good.
4 – The Hundred-Foot Journey
An Indian family moves in across the street from a Michelin Starred restaurant in the French countryside. The family opens there own restaurant cooking food from their village in India. Needless to say, the owner of the high-end French restaurant (Hellen Mirren) is not too happy about it.
This movie is funny, heartwarming, and moving. On top of that, the food is absolutely beautiful and the cooking techniques are well researched and executed. If you are looking for a movie that will bring the whole family together and keep everyone invested for two hours, this is the movie for you.
5 – Chef
I don’t know of another movie that so perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be a Chef.
This movie is about the internal and external struggle of a Chef who is stuck cooking food that bores him, and that has been out of style for years. He eventually leaves the restaurant he has been working in in a very spectacular way and ends up owning a food truck. Being able to cook the food he wants, his passion for both life and cooking is rekindled.
Let’s be honest, you’ve probably seen this movie. If you haven’t, go watch it right now. If you have, watch it again. It is worth it.
Did I mention that Jon Favreau, who wrote, directed, and starred in this movie was so adamant that the culinary details be perfect that he had Chef Roy Choi on set guiding him through all the cooking scenes? There is no bullshit there. It is a well-made movie with a great story.
Honourable Mention – The Five Year Engagement
This movie isn’t really about food or cooking. It just so happens that one of the main characters is a chef. The cooking scenes are intentionally bad, but the movie itself is really good. It is a Judd Apatow comedy so you will definitely laugh.
Normally on Friday’s, I write everything I know about a certain topic, but today in honour of the long weekend I wanted to do something a little different. I am regularly asked about what cookbooks I use and which ones are my favourite. So, today I thought I would put together a shortlist of the cookbooks that I use most often. These aren’t necessarily my all-time favourite books, but they are the ones I return to most.
I should also say that I use cookbooks a little differently than most people. I mostly rely on them as references rather than actual recipe guides. Flipping through them helps me to spawn new ideas, and solve creative issues.
Alright, let’s take a look at…
My Top 5 Most Used Cookbooks
5 – Garde Manger by the Culinary Institute of America
In professional kitchens, the section that mostly serves cold food like salads and charcuterie is called garde manger. This means the keeper of the food or keeper of the pantry. Traditionally, the duty of using leftovers and mitigating waste would largely fall to this section of the kitchen. Today this is generally considered an entry-level position, serving salads and desserts. However, in more traditional and high-end restaurants this position and still considered a highly skilled one and very important.
This book, Garde Manger, celebrates both the highly-skilled and entry-level aspects of this position. It includes recipes and instructions for everything from intricate patés and terrines to the not so intricate club sandwich. It talks in great depth about salad theory and composition as well as numerous other topics all relating to cold food presentation.
The Culinary Institue of America, or the CIA for short, is one of the preeminent culinary schools in the US. And their texts books, which this is one, are often considered some of the best culinary textbooks in the world. Some notable Chefs that attended the CIA include Roi Choi, Richard Blais, Michael Smith, Cat Cora, and Anthony Bourdain.
For everyday home cooks, this probably isn’t a book that you want to rush and buy especially considering the almost $70 price tag. But, for anyone with a deep interest in food, this is a great reference and instruction book.
4 – Heritage by Sean Brock
Sean Brock is the executive chef at Husk in Charleston, South Carolina. He specializes in using heritage breed and heirloom plants and animals to celebrate the culinary traditions of the South. He is a James Beard Award-winning Chef and in 2011 Bon Appétit Magazine named his restaurant the “Best New Restaurant in America”. So, he knows what he’s doing.
This book not only has lots of amazing recipes but is one of the most beautiful cookbooks I own and have ever seen. Its value translates both to professional Chefs and home cooks alike. If you love to cook, love cookbooks, or know someone who does, this book should be on your shopping list.
3 – The Silver Spoon by Cleia D’Onofrio
The Silver Spoon or Il cucchiaio d’argento is an Italian cookbook that has gone through eight editions since its first printing in the 1950s. It contains over 2000 recipes collected from all over Italy. It is organized into one comprehensive cookbook by Italian design and architecture magazine; Domus. This is generally regarded as the most popular cookbook in Italy.
If you love Italian food, like real Italian food then this book is a must-have for your collection. I find myself turning to it again and again for inspiration and find something new every time I open it. A definite must-have.
2 – Mastering The Art Of French Cooking by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle
You are probably already familiar with this book. If you don’t have a copy, your mother probably does. This is the first of two volumes. Having said that, I don’t own the second volume, though I should, but this book stands tall on its own.
You likely already know Julia Child, if you don’t and your reading this you’ve missed a few steps. Stop reading, go to youtube and type her name in. To this day, this book along with her cooking shows are some of the most important culinary works of the 20th century. They helped to introduce a whole continent to culinary concepts and traditions that went on to help shape their culinary identities.
This is one few cookbooks I own which I actually use for recipes. I follow them to the letter and they work out perfectly every time. To the book’s credit, it is laid out in a way that a complete beginner could pick it up and cook something amazing.
This is one of my most prized possessions. Not just cookbooks, but possessions.
1 – The Professional Chef
This is another CIA textbook though unlike Garde Manger, this book covers cooking in a much broader sense. As the main textbook/cookbook for students attending the CIA you can bet it is chockfull of incredibly valuable information.
Where I don’t really recommend Garde Manger for home cooks this one I do. It is designed to take beginner culinary students and teach them the absolute fundamentals of cooking. It covers wide-ranging topics like knife skills to soup and sauce preparation, meat fabrication, baking, and pastry and so much more.
Just to be honest, it isn’t a cheap book coming in around $80. But, having said that, if I had to get rid of all of my cookbooks but one, this is the book I would keep. I mean Paul Bocuse called this “the bible for all chefs”. I understand that if your not a Chef you may not know who Paul Bocuse is. Just to put this into perspective the most prestigious culinary competition in the world is named after him, the Bocuse d’Or.
If you love cooking and want one definitive cookbook, this is the one.
Conclusion
I know that in the digital age that we live in cookbooks are not used as much. I mean you can just ask Google for a recipe and you have it under a second. But, the problem with Google is that you need to know what you’re looking for. With cookbooks, flipping through the pages reveals something new with every turn. You find things you didn’t even know you were looking for. Answers to questions you didn’t know you were asking.
The value of a real honest to god cookbook should not be understated. Having a volume of collected human culinary knowledge accessible with the turn of a page is a profound thing. Also, with a cookbook, you largely know what your getting. You probably trust the author, you trust the recipes. Pulling a recipe off the internet is often a gamble. You don’t know how it is going to turn out.
Anyway, that does it for today. I hope you enjoyed this post, and that you enjoy your long weekend.
It seems that over the last few weeks everywhere you turn people are talking about hamburgers that aren’t hamburgers. Meat made from plants, and not in the traditional sense of cow eats plants, turns into more cow. These plants, mostly soy and pea, are turned into meat in a lab. But why?
Today we are going to take a look at the rise of these meat substitutes. We will look at the two main companies behind this new wave of vegan meat alternatives. We’ll find out how their products are different from each other, and why we should care about them.
Today we are going beyond meat, and taking a look at the impossible foods of the future. Let’s get into it.
Beyond Meat –
If you live in Canada you have likely been hearing a lot about the Beyond Meat Burger. A&W has been selling Beyond Meat in Canada since July 2018 but it has only really hit the grocery stores here in the last few weeks. There has been a push to get the meat alternative into the grocery store fridges before grilling season kicked off last weekend.
Beyond Meat is a California based company that has been in business since 2009. Their mission is to fulfill the world’s protein needs with plants rather than animals. Why? They say to improve human health. Reduce the impact that feeding a grown global population has on our environment. Reduce the use of global resources like fresh water (currently 1/3 of all our fresh water goes to feeding live stock). Finally, to improving animal welfare.
Beyond Meat makes their meat alternative mostly with pea protein. This is mixed with canola oil, coconut oil, cellulose, potato starch, maltodextrin, yeast extract, salt, beet juice for colour, and a bunch of other stuff.
Their products do not contain peanuts or tree nut, however there has been some new research stating people with peanut allergies may have a reaction to pea protein. Beyond meat burgers are also gluten and soy free and GMO free.
Currently Beyond Meat is valued at $3.8 billion dollars and is sold in 50 countries.
Impossible Foods –
Impossible foods is also a California based company. They were founded in 2011. Like Beyond Meat, Impossible foods is on a mission to reduce the environmental impact of meat production and to feed a growing population.
The impossible burger doesn’t seem to have hit Canada just yet but is widely available in the US. Currently the only place to get an Impossible Burger outside the US is in Hong Kong. Eventually, they will be everywhere though.
Impossible foods makes there product mostly out of soy and potato proteins. They use coconut and sunflower oil to give the burger that meaty greasiness.
What really sets Impossible Foods apart from their competitors, including Beyond Meat is something they call Heme. Heme is this mythical item that is found in all living things. It is found in it’s greatest concentration in flesh and is what makes meat taste like meat. According to the company when we crave meat, we are actually craving Heme.
Impossible foods uses a genetically modified strain of yeast which they ferment, like brewing beer. But, rather than making beer they make Heme. If you are a little confused, let me clarify as best I can. It seems to me that they are essentially making a synthetic, plant based blood that they are using to flavour and colour their soy and potato proteins.
Impossible foods has defiantly taken a much more scientific approach than Beyond Meat, working at a molecular level to make something that supposedly really tastes like meat.
Meat Alternative Opinions –
Full disclosure, I have yet to try either of these products. One, the Impossible Burger I can’t get unless I travel to the US. The other, Beyond Meat, I actually looked for in the grocery store last night and couldn’t find. I am not opposed to trying either of these I just haven’t done it yet. When I do I will write about it.
Due to the fact that I haven’t tried either of these products I can’t speak to the flavour, texture, or overall meatiness of either of them. What I can say is that love the idea or hate it, meat alternatives are only going to become more and more prevalent. Likely, in a few years, no one will be able to tell the difference between meat and not meat.
There are some issues with these products. They are both very high in sodium and saturated fats. I think that is going to have to change before these really become a true meat alternative. When I say “true meat alternative” I mean meat eaters choose them over meat sometimes.
I think that it is important and an inevitability that we move partially away from animal protein sources. Beyond any other issue, it just isn’t sustainable with the current rate of global population growth. It just doesn’t make sense. So, if a company can produce a meat alternative that really is easier on the environment, and tastes great then I think it is fantastic.
I think that these alternatives, and the ones these companies and companies like them will be producing in the near future will in some ways allow us to have our cake and eat it too. We may still be able to get that delicious meat flavour and texture, but without the meat. I think it is an exciting and important prospect. What do you think?
As a person who has to eat gluten-free it can be hard going places to eat, even other people’s houses. It is sometimes difficult for people to understand cross contamination, what products do and do not contain gluten, and what actually happens if I eat gluten. So, today for myself and everyone else who can’t eat gluten I thought I would talk about this.
It’s not a choice
Working in restaurants for as long as I did I’ve came across a lot of people who’ve claimed they couldn’t eat gluten but would then order the chocolate cake or pasta. It was frustrating then, but now that I know I really can’t eat gluten it pisses me off even more.
It isn’t a choice for me. I haven’t decided to stop eating gluten to drop weight or because of some health fad. If I eat gluten I get really sick. I get really bad stomach cramps. Have to run to the washroom every few minutes. I have no energy. And overall I just feel terrible. I’m sure you can imagine how disruptive this can be to my life.
To make matters worse, recently I’ve noticed the longer I go without gluten (it’s been almost two years) the more sensitive I become to it. Now, even a few bread crumbs in the butter and I’m destroyed for a few days. This brings me to my next point…
Cross Contamination
Cross contamination is when one item is unintentionally contaminated by another. Crumbs in the butter is a good example of this but a fairly obvious one. A not so obvious example might be if someone was baking and the butter was sitting beside their mixer. The mixer got turned on and flour flew up in then air. That butter has flour on it whether it can be seen or not. And yes, if I were then to have a bit of that butter on some gluten-free bread I would get sick.
Cross contamination is something we try to be very careful of in restaurants. But, it is the reason why when someone says they have an allergy we always say that “we will try our best but that we can’t guarantee anything.” It is impossible to know exactly what one product has come into contact with. This makes it very difficult for me and people like me to eat out.
Beyond cross contamination it is sometimes hard to tell whether a product has gluten in it or not, especially if you are unfamiliar with eating gluten-free.
Products that are not gluten-free
Trying to figure out if something has gluten in it or not can be really hard sometimes. This is especially true if you don’t really know what gluten is. I think at this point we all know that bread has gluten in it because flour has gluten in it. Any kind of wheat has gluten in it but barley has gluten in it too. So, anything with barley, barley sugar, barley malt, malt, or malt vinegar, has gluten in it. At first glance you may think, well that can’t be many things, think again.
Let’s imagine that a really common ingredient like Worcestershire sauce had gluten in it. Think of all the things you might put Worcestershire sauce in, or that might have it in them. Now, if Worcestershire sauce had gluten in it, all those things, would have gluten in them. Well,Worcestershire sauce has barley malt in it. So, it does have gluten in it.
There are even some items that I don’t understand having gluten in them that do. Like potato chips. A lot of potato chips, even though it’s not listed have gluten in them. It is hidden in the that little part of the ingredients that say “spices”. Why is there gluten in there? What form of gluten is being used? I have no idea. But it’s there. So, even though nothing with gluten is listed, unless the bag expressly says “GF” I generally have to stay away.
Other items that often contain gluten that you may not expect include sausages, hot dogs, deli meats, soy sauce, seasonings and spice mixes, salad dressings, oats (if not processed in a gluten-free factory), licorice and lots of other candies, chocolates, imitation crab meat, relish, and of course lots of other things.
Conclusion
So, you have a friend who can’t eat gluten, should you completely change your life? No, of course not. Just be aware of the difficulty they have going out to eat, or even coming to your place for dinner. If they are coming over for dinner, keep cross contamination in mind and maybe don’t make bread or a cake.
The fact is that living with any food allergy, or sensitivity can be annoying at best. It isn’t fun always wondering if what you’re eating is going to make you sick or not. It isn’t fun always feeling like the pain in the ass guest or customer. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that I hate having to ask whether something is gluten-free or not. I hate it.
If you have friends who can’t eat gluten, or have food allergies, keep that in mind. It may be slightly annoying to you, but it is way worse for us.
For a lot of people out there, likely a lot of people reading this, cooking isn’t fun. It’s something that has to be done, but isn’t enjoyed. But what if it was? What if you could step into your kitchen confident and relaxed and just cook? I mean cook because you enjoy it. Cook because you want to. Because it is fun. It’s not a crazy idea.
As humans it is rare that we enjoy doing things that we feel we have to do or things we feel we’re not good at. Unfortunately, cooking often falls into both those categories. But I’m here telling you that you can enjoy cooking. It doesn’t matter who you are or current skill level, you can enjoy it. So, what’s the secret? More importantly…
When Does Cooking Become Fun?
There are two kinds of people out there. People who enjoy the process and people who enjoy the results. What do I mean?
Learning to play the guitar.
When I was 16 I decided that I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I was handed an old beat-up guitar and a song book that showed how to form chords. I started practising. Eventually I learned a “C” chord and then a “G” and then a “D”. My fingers hurt, I would get frustrated that my hands wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do. Sometimes I would hate it and give up, but I always went back to it.
Even though there were parts of the learning process I hated, I enjoyed the fact that I was learning something. Every time I learned a new chord or got closer to playing a song it pushed me forward. It drove me to continue.
It’s been almost 20 years since I first started learning those basic chords. I will be the first to tell you that I am no great guitarist. However, I don’t need to be. I was never trying to be. I am able to draw a lot of joy out of what I can do and that’s all that ever mattered to me.
Because learning to play the guitar was something that I really wanted to do, I enjoyed the process of learning just as much as I enjoy being able to play. The fact of the matter is, I enjoyed learning because I was physically playing the guitar the whole time. It didn’t matter that it sounded terrible or that it was frustrating. I was playing.
Learning about food photography
A couple of years ago when I started growing my Instagram following I would just point my phone camera at my food take a picture and be done with it. I quickly realized that that just wasn’t enough. I had to learn about lighting, and staging photos, and composition, and photo editing. In all honesty, I hated every minute of it.
Truth be told I don’t really like taking pictures of food. I get no joy out of the process. Lighting photos, worrying about what’s in the background, blah. I don’t like thinking about composition and everything else. But I know that it is better for me to do all that stuff than to not do it.
Here’s the kicker to all this; I love the photos. Even though I don’t really enjoy the process of getting the photo, I love when I get it right. I love when the photo comes out perfect and the food looks amazing. The amount of joy I get out of that, actually makes all the other stuff worth it. It has actually made me start to enjoy that process.
The other part of all of this is that now I have learned enough about food photography that I can actually have a little fun with it. I’m am not expert, there’s loads more to learn. Really though, I know enough that I’m kind of over that hump. I can relax a little, think about things a little less, keep the outcome in mind since that is that part I really love.
So…when does cooking become fun?
The answer to that question comes down to the type of person you are. Are you the person who wants to cook and is going to enjoy the process of learning? Because if so, cooking becomes fun the moment you set your mind to learning more about it and actually doing it.
Are you the kind of person who likes eating good food but doesn’t like the process of making it? If you are this type of person, cooking becomes fun when you get to the point when you can make what you want, when you want, without thinking about the process and all the steps.
Really, it doesn’t matter what type of person you are. Cooking is the most fun when you know the fundamentals of it. Once you know the basic building blocks of a vinaigrette and can make an infinite number of vinaigrettes, it’s fun. When you know the basics of roasting meat and no longer how to worry about getting the oven temperature perfect or the exact amount of time it takes to cook, it’s fun. And, when you step into your kitchen without a recipe, have something in mind that you want to cook, and you just cook it exactly how you want, it is so much fun.
So, when does cooking become fun? That’s up to you. The more important point is that no matter who you are, it can become fun.
It is important to eat a healthy well balanced diet. We all know this. But sometimes we don’t want a nice balanced meal. Sometimes, we want decadence. Sometimes, we want to forget about our mortality and indulge our baser instincts. That dear reader, is what we are talking about here today.
So, please set aside the kale. Push the whole grains away. Disregard everything you know about what you should and should not be eating and let’s get dirty.
This is my…
Guide To Un-Healthy Eating
Un-healthy foods, the once in a while treats, are best when balanced by the perfect combination of sweet, salty, acid, fatty, and spicy. The more you can maximize those five elements the tastier your junk food will be.
Let’s take a look at those five elements individually to see how to get the most out of them.
Sweet
In junk food sweetness generally comes from sugar. This sugar can be in many forms such as honey, maple syrup, molasses, fruit juices, caramel, or straight up sugar. It has a number of purposes in this un-healthy food application.
The first purpose of sugar is obviously sweetness. Humans generally love sweet. It’s like crack to our brains. Having that sweet element goes a long way to waking your brain to the fact that what you are eating is delicious and that you should eat more of it.
Another job the sugar does is work to mellow out heat. If you have something very spicy, a sweet element in the dish, even just some fruit will go a very long way.
One more job that the sugar is doing, is the same that all the other components are doing, adding balance to the dish. Rarely do you want to eat something that is all one flavour or sensation. It bores the palate. It becomes mundane. The more balance of flavours the better.
Salty
Salt as an element in junk food, like sugar, has many purposes. There is the obvious purpose of making something salty, like potato chips. But there are other purposes as well.
In junk food, salt can be thought of as a flavour unto itself, but also a flavour enhancer. In all food, salt acts to enhance the flavours around it.
A simple way to see this for yourself is to take a piece of watermelon, or even a piece of apple and sprinkle it with a little bit of good quality salt. Eat it. It will taste sweeter and some how more like itself than it does without salt.
Acid
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you have probably seen me write about building flavour with all these ingredients before. But when it comes to junk food, everything is turned up to 11. There is little to no subtlety. Flavours are bold and in your face.
If you were to read the label of your favourite type of potato chip (other than plain) or Doritos, or even candy, you will notice citric acid as one of the top ingredients. This adds that acidic element to these items.
We can add acid to our un-healthy foods in a variety of ways. These include vinegar, citrus juices, tomatoes, pickles, wine, cultured dairy products like cheese and yogurt, or condiments like ketchup, mustard, or hot sauce. All of these, if used as stand alone ingredients, think ketchup or vinegar on fries, adds a massive pop of flavour.
When the acidic ingredient is fully incorporated into a dish like tomato sauce in chili, it enhances all of the flavours around it. It does this without necessarily giving you that big acidic pop.
There are very few foods that I can think of, especially in the junk food arena that don’t benefit from a bit of acid. When used in small quantities, acidic ingredients perform in a similar manner to salt acting to enhance other flavours. In larger quantities, think hot sauce on wings, it alone packs a massive punch of flavour.
This actually leads perfectly into our next topic…
Fat
Fat can be a flavour, but more than that it is a texture and a sensation. The best way to illustrate this is pretty simple. Imagine eating a hot wing, like a very hot wing. What most commonly comes with hot wings? Either blue cheese dressing, or ranch. The reason for this is that the fattiness of the dressing coats the tongue and mellows the heat. That is fat as a sensation.
Another way this sensation can be demonstrated is to think of eating a rib eye steak or even a pork chop. Think of flavour and texture of the fattier bits. Just the mere thought of it has probably already got your mouth watering. Mine is.
The fact that your mouth is likely watering is the point. The fattiness in foods causes your mouth to water. This wakes up your taste buds and makes everything taste better.
A really, really good example of a balance of fatty and salty is potato chips. Three ingredients; potatoes, fat, and salt. The world most popular snack. What about buttered popcorn. Again three ingredients; popcorn, fat and salt. Even a really simple steak; steak, fat, and salt. Amazing, right?
Spicy
There aren’t many un-healthy foods, or even healthy foods for that matter than can’t benefit from a bit of spice.
Spice, isn’t just a flavour, it is a full body experience. Don’t believe me? Think about it. When you eat something spicy, your skin warms, your pupils dilate, you salivate like crazy. Your nose runs, your eyes water. You start to sweat, your whole body tingles. A lot of spicy food can even give you a sense of euphoria.
There is nothing else like chilies. Nothing. Having this spicy element in your junk or un-healthy food makes it taste better, and brings the whole body into it. What could be better than that?
My favourites/Putting it all together
Chicken Wings
One of my favourite junk foods is chicken wings. The way I like to make them is first make a sauce by cooking equal parts Franks Red Hot Sauce with honey until it is thick.
I deep fry my wings in 350°f oil for 8-10 minutes or until they are cooked through. I toss them in the sauce and then serve them with a mixture of sour cream, mayo, blue cheese, green onions, parsley and garlic. Essentially, a quick blue cheese ranch.
These have the perfect balance of sweet, salty, acid, fatty, and spice. It doesn’t get better than that.
Ribs
There are not many things better than ribs. I like to brine my ribs in a solution of water, salt, sugar, and flavourings like bay leaf, thyme, clove, cinnamon, and pepper corns. This builds the salty and the sweet right into the meat.
To make the brine I use 2 L of water, 1/4 cup of kosher salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, 6 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 thinly sliced onion,1 bay leaf, 2 cloves crushed garlic, and 12 pepper corns. Bring all of this to a boil and cook until the salt and sugar are fully dissolved. Let the brine cool completely and then strain it and pour the liquid over some ribs and let them sit in it, in the fridge over night.
Once the ribs have come out of the brine I rinse them off, pat them dry, season them with salt and pepper and slow roast them on 300°F for about four hours. Then I sauce them with a sweet, acidic sauce and broil them.
Perfection!
Conclusion
The idea with junk food is to pack as much flavour into as small a package as you can while keeping balance between those five elements.
Like I said, junk food or un-healthy food has the flavours turned up to 11. Eating this kind of stuff everyday will absolutely take time off your life. But, what’s the point in living if you don’t get to indulge once in a while?
I’ve been thinking a lot about taste lately. About how it’s not a hypothetical concept that can be easily explained. It is an experiential process. Meaning, I can talk until I’m blue in the face about how to taste things and what to look for, but until you actually taste, you can never know what I’m talking about.
Yes, I know, you have taste thousands if not millions of things. But what I’m talking about is tasting with purpose. Tasting for seasoning. Tasting to know what to add to make food better.
With all of this in mind I have come up with an experiment that you can easily and cheaply do at home, that will demonstrate the core principles of flavour and taste.
Here’s what you will need…
1 hot house or beef steak tomato (if you don’t like tomato the experiment can be done with cucumber)
1 tsp of Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar (white, wine, cider, or a variety)
1 glass of water
That’s it. That’s everything. Easy enough right?
Here’s what you do.
Take the tomato and cut six even slices off of it. Season one slice with a nice pinch of salt and pepper. Season one with a nice pinch of sugar. Another one with vinegar. One with salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar. And the last two leave plain.
Still with me?
Now Taste
Start with one of the plain tomatoes. Take a bite. Chew it. Roll it around in your mouth. Think about how it tastes. Does it have a strong tomato flavour? Is it acidic? Is it sweet? Is it bland? Really think about the flavour coming out of the tomato. Even if you don’t have the words to match what your tasting, that’s fine. Take a sip of water and rinse your mouth.
Now take a bite of the tomato seasoned with salt and pepper. How is it different? Is there a bit of spice from the pepper? Is the tomato flavour more pronounced? Is it sweeter? More acidic? Take a sip of water to cleanse your palate and move on.
Now, take a bite out of the tomato seasoned with sugar. What does that taste like? Again, is it sweeter? More or less acidic? Is the tomato flavour more or less pronounced? Take another sip of water.
Take a bite of the tomato seasoned with vinegar. What’s that like? How is it different from the rest?
Finally, taste the tomato seasoned with everything. What’s that like? Is the flavour more intense? Does it taste better? What’s different? Take a bite of the plain tomato again and compare it with the fully seasoned one. Can you notice a difference now?
Take that second slice of plain tomato and using the ingredients you just used, season it to your taste. Make it taste as good as you possibly can using the salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar. Take a bite. If it’s not as good you think it can be season it a little more. Taste again. And adjust until it’s what you want.
What’s the point?
The point is, that this how food is seasoned. All of it. Salt, pepper, sugar, and acid are the main flavouring components that we add to food to enhance it’s flavour. Learning how this ingredient react with each other, and how they change the flavour of the main ingredients is the key that leads to more balanced and more flavourful food.
Conclusion
This experiment is not going to make you a master chef. But, with a better understanding of flavour and seasoning you can start down a path to making better food. You just have to keep tasting and adjusting. Eventually, it will become second nature.
I seriously hope, that you do this experiment. I think that you will be blown away at how different a slice of tomato can taste with just a bit of seasoning. And I promise, that if you do this, you will start to understand everything I’ve been saying about flavour and taste from the beginning.
Food is and always has been a point of connection for people. It used to be that we would sit around fires in the dark of the forest gnawing on bones of roasted meat. We would tell stories, developing bonds which would form the first communities, villages, and eventually empires.
When new groups of friendly people would bump into each other food would be offered as a sign of piece and friendship. The two groups of people would sit around a fire sharing food, and telling their stories. The food would be the medium which connected these two otherwise separate groups.
That’s a part of what food has been for all of history. A bridge that facilitates the transfer of ideas, knowledge and friendship from one side to the other. But at some point, in very recent history we lost that.
Rarely do we sit and have a meal with our own families, let alone with friends, neighbours, or God forbid strangers. Because of this we are missing a piece of humanity. We are missing a part of that connection.
All of this is why I think you and me, all of us, should invite more people over for dinner. Not just family, or people we know really well, but people we hardly know. People we want to get to know better.
I believe that by inviting more people into our homes, to share meals and stories, we will do exactly what our ancestors did. We will forge connections, build friendships, and expand our communities.
I don’t know why, or when we stopped doing this. Or when we started to isolate ourselves from people rather than insulating ourselves with them. But I think it’s time that we put an end to it. The connections that we share with one another are the very thing that make us human. Those connections are our humanity.
I know that this may come off as a bit preachy, but I think it’s important. And so I issue a challenge to you. Try it. Invite some people over for dinner. Maybe friends that you haven’t seen in a while, or people you want to become more friendly with. Do it, and then do it again with a different group of people. And then do it again, and again.
It doesn’t have to be every night, or even every week. But try once a month. Even once every two months. I’m willing to bet that even if you do it once, you will find a connection that will surprise you. You will hear stories that may give you a new perspective. And you will take part in a time honoured human tradition that connects us all. That is why I think we should all invite more people over for dinner.
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