This time, I used real Fritos

My mother recently came home from church with the annual local cookbook with a collection of recipes from women in the neighborhood. I look forward to this not because of my love of food, but because it’s always interesting to see how others think in terms of food and cooking. I have come to understand, recently, that I am not into what you would call, ‘home-style cooking’. I know how to cook, obviously. I’ve been doing it professionally for nearly 20 years. My problem is that I am so used to restaurant cooking. This is so much different than cooking at home. While the basic techniques are the same, the equipment (how I wish I had a gas stove at home!!), the atmosphere and the frame of mind are completely different.

There are fussy kids with short attention spans to worry about. There are schedules booked to the limit, husbands who miss Mama’s cooking, and more and more wives , and people in general, who can’t cook beyond the microwave. I see it in my profession as well. I’ve worked with cooks, (by no means do I ever call them chefs) who have graduated from culinary school that not only refuse to cook, claiming “I don’t know how”, but when they do, they can’t even do simple tasks like boiling potatoes.

I do have to deal with fussy eaters that come through my restaurant. Everyone has their own opinion. I worked at one place where it seemed every regular customer was a friend of the owner and all I heard was, “Oh, my Aunt So and So makes it this way. It’s to die for! You should do it this way” I don’t care how good your Aunt’s cooking is, that is insulting to a chef. That’s like telling Leonardo Da Vinci, “My cousin Michelangelo paints such beautiful cherubs. You should paint like he does.” Look, If you miss your Aunt’s cooking so much, go eat at her house.

But seriously. Back to this local cookbook. It is very interesting to see the local tastes and styles. There were some interesting things in there. A couple of which I might try. That’s a big emphasis on ‘might’. It’s not that none of the recipes where any good. Obviously they are or there would have been no reason to turn them in to be published. It’s just that everything was so…family. Pedestrian is the word I tend to use.

Recently I went looking for a recipe to submit to a contest dealing in ‘lost recipes’ - recipes that one might consider ‘heirlooms’ and have been handed down several generations. I found one of my Grandmother Laverne’s that I actually remembered fondly from our Sunday dinners. It’s your basic broccoli and cheese casserole. I balked at one ingredient - Cheese Whiz. My initial reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I, who have worked with the likes of Wolfgang Puck would never even consider buying Cheese Whiz! And yet there it was. She put Velveeta in her famous meatloaf as well. How would I live that down?

Am I a food snob? I know my distaste for certain things is almost infamous among my family and closest friends (Ketchup - The Devil’s Blood!). I’ve even had a of couple friends say they’d invite me over for dinner but I intimidate them. My answer is emphatically, ‘Why?’. There’s nothing wrong with a simple Mac ‘n Cheese followed by some jell-o. But there’s something to be said for wanting to experience the finer things in life, even if it’s just to say you have.

The next time you make Mac ‘n Cheese, instead of making it from a box, learn to make a nice cheese sauce, and don’t just use American or cheddar cheese. How about a five-cheese mix, like Cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, gouda and fontina. It could get expensive, yes, but the idea is not to eat like this all the time, just once in awhile. And Mac 'n Cheese like that would be a special treat. I’ve said it before on this blog and I will continue to say it again…expand your palette! There is no such thing as weird unless you go to some parts of Indo-china and eat roasted scorpions on a stick. I mean, I do have my limits.

I recently got a co-worker known for his fussy palette to try frog legs. His philosophy is Twinkies are good for you because they taste good. Fish is bad for you because it tastes yucky. I tried to make a bet with him that I could make something with fish in it and he’ll like it. If I won, he would have to tell the world he liked fish. If I lost, I’d never bug him about it again. He declined without hesitation. Either his fear of fish was too strong or perhaps deep down he knew I’d win. I always win. I haven’t lost yet. Case in point: the frog legs. How did I do it? Despite my own, albeit slight, trepidations, I ate some too. It’s kind of like showing your baby that strained peas is not so bad by showing a willingness to eat them too.

So, I ask again, am I a food snob? So I hate ketchup. Big deal. While I can’t stand the taste or smell of it, I don’t think it’s a sin to put it on your hamburger or a hot dog. But if I’m paying $30 for a filet mignon or $5-$6 a pound for a nice rib-eye steak for the 4th of July, I’m not going to drown it in ketchup. How about a nice Sauce Diane? Au Poirve? Or just a simple au jus with horseradish. Putting ketchup on a nice steak makes me think of Joy Turner from “My Name is Earl” and her ‘famous Frito Pie…only this time, I used real Fritos.” Bon Apetit.