"The Essence" of Education
Simply due to lack of time, I don’t watch much TV, but like to catch a few of the obvious when I can…you know the ones…Top Chef, Iron Chef, Next Food Network Star – and my favorite – Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”…all of which have made the slim cut to DVR in my home. Once I’ve hung up the apron, put the kids to bed, cleaned the house, paid the bills & returned emails, those last 9 minutes of the day ARE MY REPRIVE (yes, it takes me a month to watch one episode of “Bizarre Foods”…tell me you can relate!).
In these moments of solitude, I’ve become aware that as a result of having entire networks devoted to food at our fingertips, our culture now has ample opportunity to heighten its culinary skill level without spending a first-born at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) or working 12 years on the line.
For example, in the old days (the 80’s), I’d be excited to enlighten the virgin minds of caffeine addicts that frothing skim milk is far better than frothing whole milk for your morning café au lait, and that it’s due to monoglycerides & diglycerides in milkfat (two substances in whole milk that destabilize air bubbles, causing them to pop quickly).
Then moving forward to a declining, yet somewhat intact era of food innocence (the 90’s), although Martha begins showing every housewife west of Madrid how to knit party favors while your 6-layer cake cools on racks hand-made from wire hangers - there still remains some mystique to the secret world of the spatula.
But getting caught up to today, the new millennium has hurled ample education at us via podcasts, cable, satellite radio & dedicated publications in gastronomic proportion. Great, right? Well, yes and no. Having a fortitude of “foodstars” divulging every recipe option for truffle oil and fennel bulb, for free, understandably takes away a bit of that cookery magic, making all of us, in a sense, gastronomes. These days, one can’t go to a Michelin restaurant without hearing the mechanic next to them questioning chef’s choice of sear-time on the fois gras. “Bobbie-Jean, I reckon, I still prefer the way mama cooks them with our CATTLE, over this-here ris de veau.” Of course, this visiting southern gentleman is referring to his preference of cow vs. veal sweetbreads.
Some cooks don’t want to let just anyone “in” to the cult-world they’ve claimed since birth and have spent years artfully mastering. How is it fun if everyone knows your mojo (and can at times, be better)?! Maybe I’ve lost some of you, but the point I’ve tried to make here is that there may be a few minor annoyances to this 24/7 telecast of behind-the-scene kitchen code-breaking.
On the flip-side, however; there presents a legion of happy, refreshing faces, so excited to share “good eats” with us, WE should get excited about filling our grocery carts full of ingredients for Rachel’s “Super Tuscan Burgers” complete with EVOO (did you know that her newly-famous acronym for Extra Virgin Olive Oil is now officially in the Webster’s Dictionary?). Good for her. Cooks and chefs like Rachel, Giada, Bobby, Mario and Ina are working tirelessly to bring the American public (and beyond) ways to beautify and simplify our lives. How can that be wrong?
So, whose side am I on anyways? I teach cooking classes, case in point. My own knives bear the name of my pop-cuisine TV hero, Alton Brown! I rely on him to explain why baking my angel food cake with room-temp eggs produces a better rise (cold eggs don’t whip as well, resulting in dense batter). And Alton has single-handedly validated the use of real fat vs. fat-substitutes in our favorite recipes – the old” sour-cream-vs.-chicken-broth-to-whip-your-mashed-potatoes argument.” (Substitutes often lead to dissatisfaction, which leads to overeating. Fats satisfy, breaking down in the digestive track very slowly keeping us fuller longer, thus: eating less.) Good enough for me.
Of course Alton, who, like others with your best interest in mind (not mentioning names, but rumor tells of one local with a cool website you’d absolutely relish) also wisely practice moderation. Oui, the educators of today are genuinely out there striving to produce the healthiest, freshest options along with their fine skill of adding flavor, texture & presentation, resulting in a happier, healthier audience, an audience free to enjoy skim lattes because Paula showed them how. And if that very audience is growing to span the globe, maybe we could all stand to squeeze Flay and Lagasse into the 9-minute meditation.
