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I've been meaning to write this post for about 3 months now, and I confess that it took Creekster's thread here, and Mark Grace's post here to remind me that I havent done it yet.
Two of my greatest cooking heros are Julia Childs and Alice Waters. They both specialize in French Cooking, but are the antithesis of each other. They both start with the best ingredients they can find, but transform the food differently when cooking. Julia likes rich french food which she calls classic french, and takes pleasure in subtle combinations of tastes and textures. She does what I like to call "transformational cooking": changing the food from its raw form into a state that takes best advantage of the inherent flavors of the food. If the best state is raw, she'll leave it raw. But more often, she enjoys complex shadings with many different spices.
Here is a passage from Julia's autobiography, where she describes a dish she made for a party:
(Yup, you read that last sentance right, encased in meat jello.)
(Most cultural mormon women pride themselves on their thriftiness, and take pride in being able to transform cheaper ingredients into richer tasting entrees, hence the ubiquity of enchilada casseroles and asian cabbage salads with top ramen noodles; dont be fooled. Julia's transformational cooking always starts with expensive ingredients and is never meant to economize. )
Alice Waters, on the other hand, celebrates food by retaining it in its most natural state (subject to edibility requirements) so that it tastes like what it is. Alice wants her salad greens to taste like salad greens, and her chicken to taste like chicken. Some call her a food activist because she pioneered a return to fresh, locally grown products in season. "Don't ever eat a tomato out of season," Alice would say, "because it wont taste very good."
This is not to say that Alice's french cooking is proletarian, because her special talent is finding and offering exotic variations of common foods. For example, her mesclun might include romanian lettuce, but it will also include dandelion greens, collards, stinging nettles, and rapini. Her salads won't include a heavy pervasive dressing, instead she uses a light oil and vinegar designed to accent the taste of the greens, not cover it.
I've tried not to give away my biases here, or let you know which one I prefer, because now I shall give you my opinion of which CUFfers are which type:
Extremely Julia:
Mostly Julia:
Extremely Alice:
Mostly Alice:
Two of my greatest cooking heros are Julia Childs and Alice Waters. They both specialize in French Cooking, but are the antithesis of each other. They both start with the best ingredients they can find, but transform the food differently when cooking. Julia likes rich french food which she calls classic french, and takes pleasure in subtle combinations of tastes and textures. She does what I like to call "transformational cooking": changing the food from its raw form into a state that takes best advantage of the inherent flavors of the food. If the best state is raw, she'll leave it raw. But more often, she enjoys complex shadings with many different spices.
Here is a passage from Julia's autobiography, where she describes a dish she made for a party:
The piece de resistance for the evening was a mammoth galantine de volaille, which took me three days to create. First you make a superb bouillon--from veal leg, feet, and bones--for poaching. Then you debone a nice plump four-pound chicken, and marinate the meat with finely ground pork and veal strips in Cognac and truffles. Then you re-form the chicken, stuffing it with a nice row of truffles wrapped in farce and a fresh strip of pork fat, which ends up in the center. You tie up this bundle and poach it in the delicious bouillon. Once it is cooked, you let it cool and then decorate it--I used green swirls of blanched leeks, red dots of pimiento, brown-black accents of sliced truffle, and yellow splashes of butter. The whole was then covered with beautiful clarified-bouillon jelly.
(Most cultural mormon women pride themselves on their thriftiness, and take pride in being able to transform cheaper ingredients into richer tasting entrees, hence the ubiquity of enchilada casseroles and asian cabbage salads with top ramen noodles; dont be fooled. Julia's transformational cooking always starts with expensive ingredients and is never meant to economize. )
Alice Waters, on the other hand, celebrates food by retaining it in its most natural state (subject to edibility requirements) so that it tastes like what it is. Alice wants her salad greens to taste like salad greens, and her chicken to taste like chicken. Some call her a food activist because she pioneered a return to fresh, locally grown products in season. "Don't ever eat a tomato out of season," Alice would say, "because it wont taste very good."
This is not to say that Alice's french cooking is proletarian, because her special talent is finding and offering exotic variations of common foods. For example, her mesclun might include romanian lettuce, but it will also include dandelion greens, collards, stinging nettles, and rapini. Her salads won't include a heavy pervasive dressing, instead she uses a light oil and vinegar designed to accent the taste of the greens, not cover it.
I've tried not to give away my biases here, or let you know which one I prefer, because now I shall give you my opinion of which CUFfers are which type:
Extremely Julia:
- Robin Finderson, mostly because of his vegetarian requirements, must find lots of substitutes for meat and dairy products. Very transformational.
Mostly Julia:
- Mark Grace
- Ohio Blue
- MP Funk
Extremely Alice:
- No question here: Statman is an Alice purist of the highest order.
Mostly Alice:
- YOhio
- Lebowski
- The neophyte foodie in Creekster
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