If you’re considering having me cook for you, I think it’s reasonable to tell you something about my life with food, what foods I enjoy, how I try to prepare food and similar food-related issues. That’s one purpose of this blog.
Malcolm Gladwell in his “Outliers: The Story of Success” says it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to be really good at something. There’s more to it, of course, but the hours-in-the-kitchen seems about right when I think about my life with food and food preparation.
I’ve been cooking since assuming the family food production job shortly after marrying. I come from a family of good Southern cooks and my wife from a family of good Southern people, not cooks. I enjoyed the task and took over with gusto, beginning with a reasonably simple premise – use as little prepared food and mixes as possible and make virtually everything from basic ingredients. This was not a philosophical, ethical, or health-food decision, but just a way to duplicate the food I ate daily growing up.
So, for example, to make pimento cheese I roast red bell peppers, shred a good aged cheddar, make the mayonnaise, add some spices, a touch of cayenne. It’s delicious. The product that passes for pimento cheese in most grocery dairy counters has no cheese, no mayonnaise but substitutes whey and a protein concentrate, sugar, dried pimentos, gelatin, preservatives and other ingredients better suited for a New Jersey chemical factory than a sandwich. The homemade product is enjoyed, the other fills your stomach.
With a commitment to no-factory-food as a foundation, I experimented, beginning with a wok and a great beginners cookbook – “Madame Wong’s Long-Life Chinese Cooking.” I spent a few years practicing Chinese and have since done the same with vegetarian food, French bistro cooking, Cajun, Mediterranean, Italian and Southwestern, all while continuing to explore traditional and fancier Southern cooking.
What this means for catering is that I have a reasonably extensive repertoire, and can satisfy most people’s tastes, preferences and budgets.
I’ll have more to say about these cuisines and other food talk in coming entries.
Thanks for reading and welcome to the What’s for Supper Catering blog.