Just Do What Tastes Good

Quick aside,

Asian people. Tip better. I know in Asia it is not necessary nor customary to tip, but for the love of god, you are in America and these poor Americans who are serving you sushi are dirt poor and depend on tips. Especially on Mondays when Blu does half-off sushi/sashimi and the waiter spends 15 minutes explaining every cut of fish, its freshness and flavor, and then bringing giant plates of the stuff to you because you are taking advantage of our amazing deal. You are saving upwards of $60-70. You can spare an extra $5 to make it a 20% tip, especially when I flirt with and charm you. And if that's your girlfriend/mom, well my bad it didn't seem that way. But still, don't be insecure and jealous just respect my ballsiness and effort. Prease.

Ahem.

I splurged big time for my birthday and bought many, many cookbooks and food-related books. Not that I need to reiterate my own insecurity about my career, but they are just more concrete and definitive reminders that I have a lot to learn. Everyday, that massive volume of The Complete Thomas Keller, and the Alinea cookbook, and La Technique by Jacques Pepin look me in the face and say,

"You, sir... are a noob."

But I am beginning to redefine what the word "delicious" means to me. What is delicious? I'm reading The Fourth Star by Leslie Brenner, a NY Times reporter who spends a year in Daniel Boulud's flagship restaurant as he strives for the coveted 4-star review. She goes on to say that four-star quality food must be "gorgeous, original, amazing - even, one hoped, transcendent."

Now, chicken nuggets are about the farthest thing from transcendent. They are pond scum in the evolutionary chain of cuisine. But they are delicious. To me at least. Who doesn't like chicken nuggets, honestly? Dave Thomas' time-tested recipe serves up 5 crispy little wonders, conveniently packaged and delivered piping hot for $1.09 (Yeah not really a dollar anymore. Even Dave Thomas can't fight the recession). What a wonderful vehicle for a plethora of sauces! Honey mustard, sweet & sour, barbecue sauce, even ranch...

But what separates this lowly yet lovely Dave Thomas chicken nugget from Thomas Keller's "Roasted Guinea Fowl en Crepinette de Byaldi with Pan Jus?" The fancy French name and technique, ingredients, complexity, quality are obvious differences. But are they that different on the spectrum of enjoyment? (By the way that dish is ridiculous. Byaldi is sort of like a ratatouille, it in fact looks like the ratatouille that Remy made in the movie. This lovely vegetable mixture is encased with the guinea fowl in caul fat and baked. The bundle of joy slowly melts out the fat and combines with the juices of the vegetables to baste and cook the bird all at the same time. Genius. Seriously.)

Hear me out. When you go to The French Laundry you are expecting fireworks and the staff is more than happy to oblige. You would expect a dish such as the one mentioned above. You would deeply, deeply enjoy it. But when you're in the middle of nowhere-Tennessee, in a 1994 Dodge Caravan and the big face of a freckled red-headed stepchild shines at you like a lighthouse, do you not also get giddy with excitement for the wonders within? No? Just me? Okay, moving on.

My point is, when you go to a restaurant there are several things to consider. I've already talked about service and the importance of ambiance, front-of-the-house machinations. Now let's talk about food. Many places will get away with mediocre food if they have above average service and trendiness. And many places will get away with awful decor and location because they have fantastic food. Honestly I would prefer that food just taste good. I'm not a picky eater, I'll eat anything. In fact, I kind of hate picky eaters. I used to be one myself. As a child I was strictly a carnivore, consuming animal flesh in fried or grilled form only. Imagine my mother's relief when she discovered I wanted to be a cook (okay the relief that came after the shock/disappointment/threats of disowning/grief) and that I would love to try and taste anything.

It was winter 2007. I was beginning to take tentative steps towards a culinary career. A little research, a little planning, a little reading. It was still an idea, a great but young idea. My mother wanted to take us out to dinner, somewhere kind of fancy. I used to loathe the idea. Hours of transportation, sitting in stuffy white tablecloth joints, talking about my failing music career away from the internet. But all of a sudden I was now excited. We went to BLT Market, Chef Laurent Tourondel's restaurant on the Upper East Side that focuses on sustainable purveyors and superbly fresh seasonal ingredients. It was fantastic.

Potato gnocchi in a black truffle cream sauce, with roasted lobster.
Sauteed foie gras served on a frisee salad with garlic crouton.
Antipasto board with prosciutto, jamon de iberico, garlic baguette and fresh cheese
Roasted duck breast with an orange reduction
Fallen banana and caramel souffle with fresh fall berries

The memories are unfortunately imprecise, but that's what I remember. And I remember it being spectacular. This was the first time I had eaten haute cuisine but with the intent of knowing it, enjoying it and studying it. It was an experience that was rife with epiphany. It's like you go skin diving your whole life and you are suddenly given scuba gear. Everything is clear, you have the capacity to enjoy, you can see so much.

So maybe this post kind of got off track. I just kind of put out food porn for myself for a few pages. Well, what I meant to get at is; just cook what is delicious, cook with love, and eat with an open mind. When you go to a real restaurant, I'm not talking about a chain or an entrepreneurial endeavor, a restaurant that at it's very soul just wants to nourish, entertain and feed you, eat everything. The chef is not trying to poison you, he's trying to give you something good to eat because at the heart of all chefs, is a heart that likes to feed others. He's working hard out of passion, and if he slips then he slips, but he's trying and a good chef will not put out something he doesn't think tastes good. (I realize I use the pronoun "he" a lot, I did that out of convenience, not because I'm sexist. Women belong in a kitchen.)

I never loved fish. Especially fishy fish. Black sea bass, salmon, tuna sushi, I really like. Mahi mahi, monkfish, sable, I'm still ... getting used to. But fish is important because other people do love it, and you have to put it on your menu. The way we do it at Va P is a very simple, but what I believe to be delicious preparation. We do it this way because we think it's good, and we hope you do too. Where it actually falls on your spectrum of deliciousness we may not know, but all we can do is try our best and give you a quality product.

Black sea bass (sometimes cod) baked with a salt crust. It's stuffed with lemon and thyme, seasoned well, filleted table side. Served with grilled vegetables (red peppers, squash, zucchini, roasted red onion) and a salsa verdi. Simple yet delightful. Though more similar to a chicken nugget in complexity, we hope it's high up on the tastiness scale.

"When you acknowledge as you must, that there is no such thing as perfect food, only the idea of it, then the real purpose of striving towards perfection becomes clear; to make people happy. That's what food is all about." -Thomas Keller

EP #6

PS - I bolds his name because he is ze pr0.