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Recipes

Simply... The Best

Along with the Dow-Jones average over the last ten years, interest in the finer aspects of food has climbed at a rapid and similar pace. The ability to prepare a complicated and particularly expensive meal in $150 pans served on a fine $100 bone china plate and combine it with equally expensive vintage wines in $50 crystal glasses became one more symbol of affluence. That act made it very clear that you sure knew how to pick ‘dem stocks. Food thus became one more icon of status almost as important as the name of the club where you parked your BMW when playing golf after driving out of your gated community.

$50 cookbooks laden with large color photos were de riguer. They featured complicated recipes requiring exotic, expensive and often impossible to find ingredients such as truffles, saffron, fava beans and 15 year old balsamic vinegar. These supposed culinary do-it-yourself tomes flew out the doors of Barnes and Noble stores and Internet retailer Amazon warehouses. They were written by three star Michelin (five star AAA and Mobil) celebrity chefs from Europe and The United States with names like Ducasse,  Bocuse, Senderens, Marchesi, Bugialli, Splichal, Keller, Puck and Trotter among others. Most of these books proved unfathomable. They wound up decorating coffee tables. Once again, no one realized that “It’s the simple ingredients, stupid.”

However, Italian restaurants and sushi bars (simply raw fish) became popular for a myriad of reasons. Marcella Hazan, the down to earth culinary genius of Venice, started the ball rolling with the “Classic Italian Cookbook”. Marcella’s very simple (there’s that word) statement was “Buy the best basic and freshest ingredients and do the least possible to them”. Mario Batali kicked it up or down a notch with his book called “Simple Italian Food”. Watching him on television prepare a full meal in about 15 minutes is a religious experience. 

Finally, Jean-George Vongerichten, considered by many to be the #1 chef in this country expanded the concept to all styles of food preparation with his simply titled “Jean George”. All of his recipes require a few basic, easily obtained ingredients that are quickly prepared. One of his most dramatic recipes is for a pasta dish that requires only a bunch of beets and some ground cheese. . You use the greens, chopped up, a reduced sauce from poaching the beets while adding the sliced beets as a vegetable side dish. If one asks “ What then is so great about some one like Jean George Vongerichten and why do I need him?” there is a simple answer. He along with Mario and Marcella has the unique ability to select a combination of food products that make a powerful but uncomplicated impact upon your palate.  Simply put, they don’t muddy up the food.

Although it is not initially obvious, sushi is perhaps the best example of the simplest yet most sophisticated and complex art related to food. The only expensive utensil is a sharp knife.  But this does bear the warning, “Don’t try this at home”. At its highest level almost nothing is done to the raw fish before being served. Adeptness with that sharp knife may be required but it is not the essential skill.  It is the lessons learned from up to ten years of training in Japan that enables the sushimaster to select the freshest, highest quality fish landed early every morning on a daily basis.
 

The number one sushi bar in the United States and one of the busiest is located in Studio City with four employees. It is based on a simple concept. The sushimaster is at the fish market Mon-Fri at 3 AM. making his expert choices for that day.  The fish chosen is served only that day. None of his fish is cooked. Fish left at the end of the evening is then sold off to less demanding sushi bars or restaurants where the fish is cooked. The conclusions to be drawn from all of this are obvious.

You don’t need to take years of classes to serve great meals to guests. High quality pots and pans help but are not crucial. (High quality sharpened knives are.) Multiple ingredients rarely produce satisfying results. They often “muddy up” natural flavor. Generally avoid cookbooks from fancy chefs and upscale restaurants. (Jean George and Mario are notable exceptions. Marcella cooks at home). Do not be a slave to a recipe. If the recipe is complicated, forget it. Do not be afraid to substitute locally grown and obtained ingredients. Do not fail to reread any recipe at least twice well before preparing the meal to avoid leaving out an ingredient or failing to perform a necessary act.
 

Here’s what you do need to do. For a special event, shop at your local farmers market. Lightly cooked or grilled fresh vegetables are heaven. Check ahead at your meat or fish market to see what looks good or may be coming in. In many cases prepare a meal based on what is the best and freshest available. That is what a great chef does when working up his specials for the day. Look for the freshest, most colorful vegetables and fruits. If something in the recipe is not available, try to substitute with something similar that is fresh. Locally produced and regional products will always be fresher. Gourmet soups are becoming more popular. They are easy to do, hard to screw up, don’t require any just before serving attention and often are better as leftovers the next day. 

Fish is becoming more popular all the time. Aside from the wonderful and different flavors, reasons of health are now known. Buy fish only from purveyors that sell a lot of fish. Get friendly with your fishmonger and find out what days the fresh fish is delivered. Buy it only the day closest to the day you plan to use it.  Examine the fish carefully. If it is a whole fish, the eyes should be clear. In all cases the flesh should be firm. Examine a number of packages and smell them. If they smell fishy, pass. Remember the retailer may put the old fish on top to get rid of it. The freshest fish may be on the bottom. Be wary of manager’s specials on fish. They may be trying to get rid of it. 

Finally, show no fear.