Food Philosophy

What comes out is only as good as what goes in.
Huh? My style of cooking is very simple and relies on really good quality ingredients. Therefore, my dishes are only as good as the ingredients that go in them.
This can mean going to great lengths to make a very simple dish. There are times that I visit multiple stores before I settle on ingredients that are up to par. I prefer to buy all organic and local produce at either a farmer’s market or the organic grocery store. I am also one of those obnoxious label readers that spends hours examining boxes, bottles, packages and produce in the grocery store aisle. Now, I fully understand that the average person is not nearly as consumed with their cooking as I am, but when people ask or wonder why something tastes so great I can confidently say that really good ingredients are to credit. If you put poor quality ingredients into the dish you are certain to come out with a poor tasting dish. This is true in both cooking and baking.
I will use an example to clarify my argument. Let’s use my Baked Eggplant Stacks (recipe coming soon) as the example. I begin with a very simple tomato sauce, which relies on sweet plum tomatoes. At the store I choose a can of imported Italian plum tomatoes whose ingredients read: Imported Italian Plum Tomatoes. Look at the ingredients in your next store purchase and you might be surprised at what you will find. So often you are buying a lot more that you think. Another ingredient for my eggplant stacks is ricotta cheese. Again I choose the ricotta cheese that is the most pure and opt out of buying the ricotta cheese that has added stabilizers, like Xanthan Gum, which if you are wondering, “is a polysaccharide used as a food additive and rheology modifier. It is produced by fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the Xanthomonas camprestris bacterium. Synthesis originates from glucose as substrate for synthesis of the sugar nucleotides precursors UDP-glucose UDP-glucuronate, and GDP-mannose that are required for building the pentasaccharide repeat unit…”(1) Again, huh? If I don’t know what it is, then I am not going to eat it. I go with the organic ricotta cheese made from cow’s milk that was not treated with growth hormones. Not only do these ingredients taste better, but they are also better for you. I could go on and on about the extensive reasons why I buy what I buy and why I think you should buy pure, organic ingredients too, but I think you get my point. So, after I have carefully selected all of my ingredients for the Baked Eggplant Stacks, including organic eggs and organic eggplant, free of pesticides, I go home and start cooking.
I didn’t forget to mention that I bought really good quality olive oil and real Parmesan cheese at the store, because I already have those two ingredients in the "cupboard." Olive oil is an entire subject on its own, but for now, let me say that I strongly recommend buying a few types of olive oil, one for cooking and one for consuming raw (salad dressing, finishing touches over soups, pasta, etc.). In this recipe, I roast the eggplant with olive oil, so the medium quality extra virgin olive oil will suffice. Parmesan cheese, on the other hand, is a little more cut and dry. If it isn’t from Parma, Italy, then it isn’t Parmesan cheese. There are very strict guidelines for making Parmesan cheese and in Europe the name Parmesan legally and exclusively refers to the Parmigiano-Reggiano made from a specific area. There are generic “Parmesan” cheeses sold in the US under the name Parmesan, but they are merely imposters. I can go on and on, but let’s cut to the chase: buy the Parmesan cheese that has Parmigiano-Reggiano branded all along its rind. Why? Because only then can one know with absolute certainty that they are buying that nutty, buttery salty Parmesan cheese. It may seem that the real Parmesan cheese is more expensive, but a little goes a long way, and you will ultimately use less in your dish because the flavor of the cheese is so pungent that you will need less than if you bought the imposter kind.
I know; buying ingredients with me sounds like a headache, but it is pretty simple: buy the most pure and clean ingredients that are the best quality. If you don’t know what something is, then chances are it isn’t going to make your food taste better and it certainly isn’t better for you. Try to buy produce that is in season and organic. Again, food that traveled half way across the world that has been sprayed down with bug spray probably doesn’t taste too terribly fresh or wonderful to the pallet. If you can’t remember what produce is in season, shop at a local farmer’s market and you will be conveniently forced to buy seasonal produce. A little effort goes a long way, and if you are going to put the time and energy into preparing a meal, you might as well make it a good one and spend the extra effort getting high quality ingredients. This does not mean that I never take short cuts and buy prewashed mixed greens for a salad or pre-made pizza dough, but it does mean that I buy the organic mixed salad greens and go down to the pizzeria to buy fresh dough free of preservatives. Because the dishes that I make are simple and “clean,” they are not usually overly complicated and do not take hours on end to make. I justify buying quality ingredients that can cost a little more because, I ultimately use less ingredients and create less waste.
After a little research, and some trial and error, I no longer have to search high and low for my favorite ingredients. I know where to shop and what to buy. The same is true for baking, European style butter, fresh organic eggs and good quality chocolate make all the difference, but I will save that subject for a later point in time.
So… the moral of the story here is… use good quality ingredients when you cook, because what you put into your dish is consequently what you will get out of your dish.

1. "Xanthan gum." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 20 Aug 2009, 18:38 UTC. 20 Aug 2009 .