Celebrating My Cook-at-Home Mentors

Earlier this month, the government updated their dietary guidelines.  The headlines?  Eat less food, eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer SoFAS.  What the heck are SoFAS?  And how do I achieve meeting the new recommendations? 

As defined by the guidelines, SoFAS are solid fat and added sugar.  We are left to draw our own conclusions as to what the authors of the document are referencing since they avoided actually naming the "bad for you" foods.  Here's one interpretation to get you thinking....

Courtesy Nutritioneducationstore.com

If you take to heart some of the criticism in the media regarding the new guidelines, a common theme is how the guidelines fail to include suggestions for achieving a better diet.  One of the obvious ideas that could have been suggested and one of the easiest to achieve is cooking more at home.  By it's very nature, cooking at home helps you control portion size, variety and nutrients where restaurants and prepared food manufacturers are slower to act on your behalf.

My husband and I, while living in Dallas, were neighbors with a restaurateur.  He gave us some freebies once inviting us to sample his establishment.  The portions were huge!  We asked him why so much food had been served (on enormous plates).  He said he hated serving that much food  -- often much of it went to waste -- but he had to because his competition did.  If folks came in and paid $12.00 for an entree they wanted a lot of food.  Even if they could not finish it. 

The idea of cooking at home is easy to embrace if you already like cooking at home.  For me, I not only like,  but love cooking at home.  But had I not had mentors along the way, my path could have been very different.  This thought got me thinking.  Who are my "cook at home" mentors?

Of course magazine recipes, cookbooks and the typical celebrity chefs have played a role.  More importantly, I have very personal mentors who have really inspired me. 

My mom - when using alcohol in cooking says, "Use only what you are willing to drink."  One of my first lessons in using the best ingredients possible.  Go Mom!  The "cooking" Sherry I use is a lovely Sherry from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.

Joy, my long ago, co-worker/friend/neighbor showed me the love in making a potluck dish and sharing with friends.  I really do believe you can tell the difference if the cook cares about what they're making.  I still make her chicken enchilada casserole.

A couple we hung with in Chicago, Jan and her husband Bruce (Bruce, a food historian and Jan, a documentary producer/professor) authored a book and produced a series about authentic Mexican food.  They invited my husband and I along with about 4 other couples to be recipe testers in their home kitchen.  The experience demonstrated how to have a great social experience with a group of friends preparing a big, ethnic meal... at home.  We also learned to appreciate the necessity of good communication.  I now jot notes on all my recipes.

Another mentor?  My husband, John.  When we moved to Chicago for my job, he was left with time on his hands before successfully finding work.  He decided to kick up his skills a notch and bought the famous New Orleans restaurant The Commander's Palace cookbook and a killer french cookbook.  What lovely meals were awaiting me upon my arrival from a long day at work.  I marveled at his willingness to dive in and try something new.  He showed me I could do it too.

Our friends Ric and Barb - they were one of our very first dinner guests when we were first married.  I served veal.  Ric ribbed me a bit about my choice of meat.  Did I realize it was a baby cow?  Other than that, the meal was a success.  But from that point forward I was more mindful of my food choices and what I may serve a guest.  To this day, we have never eaten together at a restaurant, our gatherings are over home cooked meals at their house and ours. 

A co-worker from my Dallas days, Nguyen and his wife Thi moved to Los Angeles about the same time we did.  His wife loved to cook, Nguyen being the techno geek that he is, sent to select bloggers and food followers about when and where to sample his wife's cooking.  The word spread and the next thing they knew they were operating an illegal restaurant out of their apartment.  The covert establishment became so successful, they had to go legit. By listening to friends feedback, they dived in and now operate the very successful Starry Kitchen in downtown LA.  They'll be celebrating one year this week.

And our dear friend Nick - he embraces all of the characteristics above.  His Italian mother passed on her culinary talents to her son and he now, the ever patient teacher, showed me how to make pasta in my own kitchen.  And what a sport for participating in a friendly grilled chicken competition with my husband.  Both prepared a fabulous chicken in their own way .... Nick's Coffee Grounds Coated, Beer Up the Butt Chicken and John's ever Succulent Foiled Roasted Chicken w/Secret Herbs.  Nick showed us how to be playful in the kitchen.

I raise my glass of Sherry to each and every one of you for playing a such a big role in my culinary development.

Who are your heroes?

Finding My Voice, One Restaurant at a Time

If reality television has taught me anything, Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares surely has.  If you are not familiar with the television series which originally aired in the UK and now domestically on Fox affiliates, Gordon visits failing restaurants diagnosing the "whys" of their small business failures.  He then rolls up his sleeves providing the restaurateur guidance including, but not limited to, replacing the head chef, revamping the menu, improving service, analyzing the restaurant layout and strengthening the brand.

Many of the proprietors take his advice and thrive because of the Kitchen Nightmares' hosts visit.   Then again, there are others who do not and ultimately close their doors for good.  The failures, more times than not, reveal owners who couldn't get over their own egos or waited too long to ask for help while running out of money.

How many times had I griped to my dinner companions when some aspect of my restaurant experience was going awry?  But not necessarily to the people who could do anything about it. 

My own armchair analysis would reveal I had fallen into the common practice of a woman doing everything in her power to keep the peace. Look pleasant, no matter the price.  It's social conditioning that many women find challenging when they're failing to be authentic in their relationships with others.  Unfortunately, I discovered, the keep-the-peace strategy would occasionally short change my personal enjoyment at a restaurant.

The final straw came for me several years ago when one of my favorite trendy restaurants served an overly salty roasted chicken.  Hard to do, I know.  Not an in-expensive meal, I suffered through my meal commenting to my husband how disappointing my meal was.  After asking for my third glass of water from the waiter, my light bulb went on remembering Kitchen Nightmares.  I wasn't doing anyone a favor by keeping quiet.  Not me, not my poor husband, not the restaurant.  I decided to speak up.  For the first time in my life I sent my half eaten meal back to a kitchen.

The chef admitted she hadn't sampled her creation.  My conclusion, had I not spoken up, how would she know there was a problem?  How many repeat customers had they lost because of one poor experience that the proprietor now can't pinpoint because the customers hadn't provided feedback?

On the flip side, when the restaurant does an outstanding job, I concluded my positive feedback could help reinforce a repeat performance.  I won't keep it to myself any longer.

The same holds true at the grocery store.  If they aren't stocking something, I remind myself they want my business.  I'm no longer shy of telling them when they ask did I find everything I was looking for that I did not.  It doesn't mean I'm changing my personality.  I'm still polite.  But now I'm honest in my responses instead of hiding behind a veil of pleasantries.  I have yet to come across a recipient of my feedback who wasn't appreciative of my honesty.

What had I been afraid of?  Probably nothing other than being thought of poorly.  The beauty of getting older for me is being more concerned of what I think of myself versus what others think about me.  Thank you Chef Ramsay for helping find my own voice albeit not quite a colorfully as you do. 

Food for thought.... is there ever a time when you shouldn't say something?  What's your perspective?

The Bay Leaf Budget

I'm not a cheapskate.  Really!  I'm willing to pay a premium for clean, sustainable food especially if I can't harvest it myself.  But when we ran out of Turkish bay leaves, my husband John purchased a new bottle to restock our supply for ..... $7.99!  No, he did not purchase an organic variety which could command an extreme price.  In fact, he is an expert at scouting out the best cost per volume on spices at the grocery store. He is the one who showed me to look beyond the usual display on the spices rack the top brands prefer you purchase and to check out the ethnic and bulk sections in the same store to figure out the best buy.  If your market is anything like ours, these spice packaging choices could be in several different locations in the store.

Does $7.99 not sound expensive to you for what I counted was 25 leaves to the bottle?

Being an account's daughter I have this crazy knack for itemizing the cost of things.  That can be a good thing if I'm trying to justify the purchase of a cute pair of shoes, let's just say.  But it can also be a curse depending on your perspective.  By my calculation each of those purchased leaves has a value of 32 cents a piece.  Those leaves had better release the best essence ever, but my guess is their performance will only be average.

Several years ago, my next door neighbor who I was just getting to know invited me to pluck a few  bay leaves off her potted California Bay Laurel plant.  Before seeing her plant, I hadn't given much thought about the plant in which they came from.  Her leaves were just as useful as the bottled kind, however with this regional variety it has a stronger, eucalyptus flavor.

Remembering the experience with my neighbor, I headed to the nursery and inquired about buying my own Bay Laurel plant.  Surely, the cost of the plant would more than pay for itself for years to come.  The nurseryman walked me over to a gorgeous hedge of leaves...no exaggeration!  The bushy plant has the capability of growing to the size of a privacy fence if given the right environment.  Realizing the promise of one plant producing so many leaves only reinforced my desire to outwit my previous bottled supplier. 



"I'll buy one please."  I purchased a small starter bush for.....$7.99.  And yes, I have counted how many leaves it has on its lovely branches.  There are over 80!  I'm already ahead of the game.  Since we don't go through bay leaves all that quickly, my plan is to pot the plant as my neighbor has to limit its potential size.

I wasn't looking for this challenge.  But then again who does?  Sometimes it takes something to get under your skin to prompt a solution or change.  Overpaying for bay leaves was mine.