5 May 2011

Food is Life

Few things are more intoxicating than the idea of a well prepared meal when you are hungry, or dieting, which often amounts to the same thing. It should engage all the senses and provide the recipient with a euphoria that goes far beyond eating for existence.

Cooking and sharing a meal is one of my most personally satisfying experiences. I love the idea of food and its color and texture. Going to market in France is one of those singular pleasures that signifies life itself. Surveying the foods placed out on the stands invites you to feel and touch. The red of the tomatoes, the orange of carrots, the deep purple of aubergine, all juxtabposed against the greens of other items, excites the eye. The feel of the fruit, just so when squeezed, provides another sensual feedback experience that helps me to decide what to buy and cook.

Then there is the planning and the technical aspects of the preparation. It is a highly creative experience that is as much art as science. Sequencing the items so that they end up perfectly finished at the moment of service is a challenge that requires thought and management and attention. How you chop each item so that it produces the maximum flavor and texture is another skill acquired through many years of experience. It is not simply hacking away.

And there is the joy of tools, knives, pots, stoves, wooden and metal utensils. This is where cooking becomes truly a “guy thing” for me. The right tool for the right job is just as true in cooking as it is in woodworking or plumbing or building. Central to my success is a really great stove. I love the options that having several different types of ovens, traditional, convection or grill, give in managing the heating elements of cooking. It is the base for the chance to make a great meal. But doing the cooking, is really only the foundation for exciting the senses of those to whom you will be serving.

The first sense engaged in a fine dining occasion will be your vision. What does the plate look like as it is placed before you. Are the colors balanced? Is the plate well proportioned. Is there an element of thought given to the placement of each item? The sauce should not be puddle all over the plate, driving flavors from one item away from another. Is there an esthetic sense to how the items were chosen in relation to each other. A well plated meal should ostensibly be almost too pretty to eat.

As your visual sense has been satisfied, the next sense to be invoked is that of smell. Do the aromas blend together and compliment each other while remaining independent on their own. There is an intoxicating richness to a mélange of scents that bring the aspect of the preparation and ingredients into your mind and mouth. Moreover, it is the nose that warns if something is not quite right either and is the first alarm warning of potential dissatisfaction or worse, dissonance between the look of the food and the desire to move forward to the taste.

And now the mouth enters the feast of the senses. The flavors should strike the tongue and the sides of the mouth, giving a full experience of the subtle use of the ingredients. Are the flavors balanced or has there been a dominant note put in out of keeping with the rest. How does the food feel in the mouth? Is there texture and a sense that the item is prepared and served just at that moment of perfection, not over or under cooked. For instance, if the potatoes have lumps, are they integral to the plan of the item or just made without thought or attention. As you chew do you find unexpected explosions of hidden pleasures brought by herbs or the mix of items? And do the sensations of the different flavors stay in the mouth, filling it with a feeling of the whole the remains interesting even after the food has been swallowed.

A meal that has met these first criteria of the senses now must meet the reality of nutrition and satisfaction. Will it have filled you pleasantly while just leaving that thought of perhaps a bit more. Or will it produce some traumatic event that will only show up later due to having been poorly prepared or ingredients that were just a bit off their sell by date.

And now after the meal is over, a final touch is that little bit of digestif, an alcohol that promotes the relaxed sensation of a meal well made and well eaten. Sitting with a bit of Armangac gives me that final sense of peace, that takes the eating experience far from simple fueling up to becoming an integration of being with life.