Sources of Inspiration
Passions don't magically appear. They are learned over time. My love of food and cooking started early. I've actively nurtured these loves for many years, at some times more actively than others.
My earliest memory of cooking is from age 3 or 4. On weekends my dad would cook breakfast for Mom and me. I remember him letting me beat eggs with a fork to make scrambled eggs. He would pull a kitchen chair up next to the stove so I could "help" him flip pancakes.
My earliest memory of the holidays is making peanut butter fudge and decorating sugar cookies with my mother, sometime around age 4 or 5. Around the same time I remember a Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle in Georgia. I don't remember anything except a big turkey leg and my uncle showing my how to blow up surgical gloves like balloons.
At age 10, I would watch Martha Stewart on Saturday mornings. She came on at 10:00 and my horseback riding lessons were at 11. I would watch Martha while Mom & Dad were ready to take me to the stable - I'm not sure why, but I found her show more interesting than whatever cartoons were on at the same time.
Through middle and high school I would read my mom's issues of Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens, looking for recipe ideas. In high school, I was responsible for dinner 2-3 nights a week. I learned basic cooking skills, came up with some good dishes and some horrible disasters. For the longest time, I thought boneless, skinless chicken breasts needed to be cooked for an hour...Mom, Dad - I apologize.
My first year of college, I lived in a dorm with no kitchen, so I was limited to my meal plan and a few meals out each month from an allowance from my parents. The fall of my Freshman year, a gelateria/cafe opened very close to the college cafe. The owners of Modica instilled in me an appreciation of coffee, fresh, non-processed ingredients, making things "from scratch" and all things Italian. Over time, I transitioned from a hazelnut latte, to a latte with sugar, to a latte no sugar, to a macchiato or cafe con leche (Spanish for half espresso, half milk), no sugar. They were also my employers my last year in Charleston. At the gelateria, I learned how to hang with the boys, take a ball-busting and dish one out. Although the coffee was superb, I went there in the mornings as much for the conversation with the owners, staff and other patrons as I did for the caffeine. Alas, after 5 years, Modica closed last summer.
Sophomore-Senior years of college I lived in a house with a full kitchen and a TV that got the Food Network. My favorite shows were Everyday Italian Cooking with Giada de Laurentis and Good Eats with Alton Brown. By watching about 2 hours of the Food Network each day, I absorbed technique and flavor knowledge. There are still things I do in the kitchen that are results of seeing someone on the Food Network do the same thing - place chicken seasoning under the skin when roasting, the way I cut my onions, the way I mince my garlic.
Charleston was and is an incredible city for food. I spent probably 2/3 of my allowance and earnings from odd jobs on food and beverages. I started drinking wine before I was of legal age at art gallery openings and nicer restaurants where they would never expect an underage college kid to be ordering the Cabernet-Sauvinon. Even restaurants that didn't fall into the "fine dining" category were excellent - focused on fresh ingredients and innovative recipes. Fast and French, Five Loaves Cafe, the vendors at the Saturday farmer's market (crepe people, omelet guy, EVO pizza, if you live in Charleston, you know who they are) D'Allesandro's Pizza, Modica Cafe, Santi's Mexican, the taco trucks of North Charleston - these places taught me to appreciate simple food done fresh, done well. There were many Saturday and Sunday brunches at Hominy Grill - the place where a biscuit could be elevated to James Beard award-winning fare.
I'm still learning as a cook. I'm still looking for inspiration. I use the Internet everyday to read something about food. My favorite site is chow.com, a website devoted to all things food. Staff and site members post recipies and tips for different dishes or ingredients. If I need a recipe for somthing, I often check Chow before I look anywhere else. The forum boards are a great source of knowledge and entertainment, with discussions on restaurant ettiquete, what to do with an overabundance of a certain ingredient, how to deal with rude guests, what wine goes with vegetable korma, and where to go for lunch when visiting City X.
My newest sources of inspiration are Hungry Nation webTV and Anthony Bourdain. I've recently watched all 7 seasons of No Reservations available on Netflix. No Reservations is more about finding good food and appreciating the food of other cultures than it is about cooking. Watching the show inspired me to read Kitchen Confidential, the book that made Tony famous. In the book, Tony offers some cooking tips, but its really more about provding insight into the restaurant world than it is about teaching people how to cook.
Hungry Nation TV is a webTV station that has 10-15 minute shows about food. My two favorite "shows" are VendrTV, a show that focuses on finding the best street food around the country, and Working Class Foodies, a show about a brother and sister who try to eat locally, sustainably and well on a limited budget.
I've also taken an interest in improving my knowledge of cooking fundamentals and baking basics. For my birthday, my aunt got me a copy of Ratio: The simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking by Michael Ruhlman. This is a great book that breaks down fundamental recipies into a ratio. After giving basic instructions based on the ratio, the author also gives tips on how to tweak the recipie. I've been focusing on the pastry ratios, but the book also provides ratios for stocks, sausages, sauces and brines. Last week I picked up Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday. It starts off with describing basic bread baking techniques - stirring the dough, kneading, shaping loaves, making sourdough starters. Then it provides recipes for hearth breads (frech and sourdough flour-water-yeast breads), enriched breads (breads with egg and/or other fats), and rich breads (mostly sweet breads).
I like to stay current on what's going on in the food scene in Charleston. The Charleston City Paper is a free weekly alternative paper that's published every Wednesday. They employ some excellent food writers, and dedicate almost as much time and effort to the local food scene as they do to the music/entertainment and political realms. They cover everything from restaurant openings/closings to festivals, what's going on at the farmer's market and who has a new chef. This is the third year in a row that a Charleston chef has won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast (eat your heart out, Atlanta).
So that's the roundup. I still read Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens, more because I miss my mom than for the recipies.
My earliest memory of cooking is from age 3 or 4. On weekends my dad would cook breakfast for Mom and me. I remember him letting me beat eggs with a fork to make scrambled eggs. He would pull a kitchen chair up next to the stove so I could "help" him flip pancakes.
My earliest memory of the holidays is making peanut butter fudge and decorating sugar cookies with my mother, sometime around age 4 or 5. Around the same time I remember a Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle in Georgia. I don't remember anything except a big turkey leg and my uncle showing my how to blow up surgical gloves like balloons.
At age 10, I would watch Martha Stewart on Saturday mornings. She came on at 10:00 and my horseback riding lessons were at 11. I would watch Martha while Mom & Dad were ready to take me to the stable - I'm not sure why, but I found her show more interesting than whatever cartoons were on at the same time.
Through middle and high school I would read my mom's issues of Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens, looking for recipe ideas. In high school, I was responsible for dinner 2-3 nights a week. I learned basic cooking skills, came up with some good dishes and some horrible disasters. For the longest time, I thought boneless, skinless chicken breasts needed to be cooked for an hour...Mom, Dad - I apologize.
My first year of college, I lived in a dorm with no kitchen, so I was limited to my meal plan and a few meals out each month from an allowance from my parents. The fall of my Freshman year, a gelateria/cafe opened very close to the college cafe. The owners of Modica instilled in me an appreciation of coffee, fresh, non-processed ingredients, making things "from scratch" and all things Italian. Over time, I transitioned from a hazelnut latte, to a latte with sugar, to a latte no sugar, to a macchiato or cafe con leche (Spanish for half espresso, half milk), no sugar. They were also my employers my last year in Charleston. At the gelateria, I learned how to hang with the boys, take a ball-busting and dish one out. Although the coffee was superb, I went there in the mornings as much for the conversation with the owners, staff and other patrons as I did for the caffeine. Alas, after 5 years, Modica closed last summer.
Sophomore-Senior years of college I lived in a house with a full kitchen and a TV that got the Food Network. My favorite shows were Everyday Italian Cooking with Giada de Laurentis and Good Eats with Alton Brown. By watching about 2 hours of the Food Network each day, I absorbed technique and flavor knowledge. There are still things I do in the kitchen that are results of seeing someone on the Food Network do the same thing - place chicken seasoning under the skin when roasting, the way I cut my onions, the way I mince my garlic.
Charleston was and is an incredible city for food. I spent probably 2/3 of my allowance and earnings from odd jobs on food and beverages. I started drinking wine before I was of legal age at art gallery openings and nicer restaurants where they would never expect an underage college kid to be ordering the Cabernet-Sauvinon. Even restaurants that didn't fall into the "fine dining" category were excellent - focused on fresh ingredients and innovative recipes. Fast and French, Five Loaves Cafe, the vendors at the Saturday farmer's market (crepe people, omelet guy, EVO pizza, if you live in Charleston, you know who they are) D'Allesandro's Pizza, Modica Cafe, Santi's Mexican, the taco trucks of North Charleston - these places taught me to appreciate simple food done fresh, done well. There were many Saturday and Sunday brunches at Hominy Grill - the place where a biscuit could be elevated to James Beard award-winning fare.
I'm still learning as a cook. I'm still looking for inspiration. I use the Internet everyday to read something about food. My favorite site is chow.com, a website devoted to all things food. Staff and site members post recipies and tips for different dishes or ingredients. If I need a recipe for somthing, I often check Chow before I look anywhere else. The forum boards are a great source of knowledge and entertainment, with discussions on restaurant ettiquete, what to do with an overabundance of a certain ingredient, how to deal with rude guests, what wine goes with vegetable korma, and where to go for lunch when visiting City X.
My newest sources of inspiration are Hungry Nation webTV and Anthony Bourdain. I've recently watched all 7 seasons of No Reservations available on Netflix. No Reservations is more about finding good food and appreciating the food of other cultures than it is about cooking. Watching the show inspired me to read Kitchen Confidential, the book that made Tony famous. In the book, Tony offers some cooking tips, but its really more about provding insight into the restaurant world than it is about teaching people how to cook.
Hungry Nation TV is a webTV station that has 10-15 minute shows about food. My two favorite "shows" are VendrTV, a show that focuses on finding the best street food around the country, and Working Class Foodies, a show about a brother and sister who try to eat locally, sustainably and well on a limited budget.
I've also taken an interest in improving my knowledge of cooking fundamentals and baking basics. For my birthday, my aunt got me a copy of Ratio: The simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking by Michael Ruhlman. This is a great book that breaks down fundamental recipies into a ratio. After giving basic instructions based on the ratio, the author also gives tips on how to tweak the recipie. I've been focusing on the pastry ratios, but the book also provides ratios for stocks, sausages, sauces and brines. Last week I picked up Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday. It starts off with describing basic bread baking techniques - stirring the dough, kneading, shaping loaves, making sourdough starters. Then it provides recipes for hearth breads (frech and sourdough flour-water-yeast breads), enriched breads (breads with egg and/or other fats), and rich breads (mostly sweet breads).
I like to stay current on what's going on in the food scene in Charleston. The Charleston City Paper is a free weekly alternative paper that's published every Wednesday. They employ some excellent food writers, and dedicate almost as much time and effort to the local food scene as they do to the music/entertainment and political realms. They cover everything from restaurant openings/closings to festivals, what's going on at the farmer's market and who has a new chef. This is the third year in a row that a Charleston chef has won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast (eat your heart out, Atlanta).
So that's the roundup. I still read Southern Living and Better Homes and Gardens, more because I miss my mom than for the recipies.
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