Finding Your Food Passion

So here we are at Valentine's Day, and you're all wrapped up in love and cards and all that happy stuff. It's the perfect time to start planning for NEXT year's Valentine's celebration!

Ouch! Stop throwing things. Simmer down. Pull up a chair for a moment and let's get in touch with our feelings. No, I don't want to be your valentine, I want to help you make your valentine a very happy person indeed.

Think about your valentine. You are, no doubt, strongly attracted to him or her, right? Everything you do with them seems extra-amusing, extra-special, extra-whatever. Now apply that sort of thinking to the food that you eat. Think of your favorite dish or favorite food. Don't occasions when you have that stuff around become more fun, more special?

Here's a tip for you: that sort of enthusiasm and passion will come through when you COOK your favorite foods, not just eat them.

Since I know me better than I know any of you, I'll use myself as an example. As a hardcore foodie, I have an appreciation for an incredible range of foodstuffs and cooking methods. I'll try just about anything once, as long as it's not giving off obviously toxic gases. However, after all I've cooked and tasted, my favorite food to cook is still beef.

Be it the humble meatloaf or rarified heights of prime rib, give me beef to cook and I'm good to go. My favorite way to cook beef, naturally, is over charcoal. Nothing gladdens my heart like the sight of flames leaping off a handful of mesquite chips thrown onto hot coals, giving a ribeye or sirloin just that proper crust. Even as I type this, I can almost smell the charcoal and hear the meat sizzle.

Thus, when I've got a group coming over for some sort of festive occasion, I lay in a stack of cow sectors and about 40 pounds of briquets and party success is all-but-assured.

How does such Bacchanalian revelry translate into a romantic dinner, you ask? With a little creativity and willingness to experiment, of course. Having seen a beef tenderloin stuffed with blue cheese, I gave a thick ribeye the same treatment, stuffing it with Roquefort mixed with chopped garlic and sewed it up with butcher's twine. Just before pulling it off the grill, I slapped a little Tabasco jelly on the hot side and let it form a wonderful glaze.

Now the meat was done, but the presentation still needed work. At that point in my culinary career, my steak serving technique consisted of slapping the meat on a plate and handing it to hungry diners. With my wife as valentine inspiration, however, I sliced the steak from the bone and delivered her plate with a set of neatly arrayed slices alongside some fresh asparagus and rice pilaf. The simple act of slicing and arranging the steak made the dish. That was my first strong lesson in how important a good-looking presentation can be to a good meal.

You can translate this experience into your own culinary life easily. Do you like to bake? Have you ever made homemade bread? My baker friends tell me that once you've sliced into your first perfect loaf of brioche or (if you're REALLY skilled) challa bread, you'll be hooked. And best of all, if you try baking bread and discover you don't like it or simply don't have any aptitude, you'll not have spent any great amount of money on ingredients and equipment.

Pay attention to what you order at restaurants and what you seem to enjoy the most. Is it usually a seafood dish? Chicken? Vegetarian? Your tastebuds are an excellent guide to finding your food passion. Now, you may have to make some concessions if your passion is, say, fresh shellfish and you live in Iowa, but it's unlikely you'll develop such a predilection without having the foodstuff in ready proximity to start.

Start slowly! Don't buy $90 worth of prime rib and throw it into the oven before you've tried out a rump or shoulder roast first, to get your feet wet. Even if you flat ruin your first attempt, your feelings toward your success or lack thereof will give you a strong hint as to where your interest lies. If you overboil the shrimp and it doesn't bug you to the point that you want to go buy more RIGHT NOW and TRY AGAIN until you get it right, shrimp may not be for you. If you burn the cake and immediately start mixing batter and pondering whether or not to change the rack position in the oven, you've got the makings of a baker!

In short, and I'll keep it short this week because I know we've all got MUCH better things to do today than read a silly column, explore your food passions, figure out what cuisine speaks to your soul, and your enthusiasm will translate into the dishes you produce. When you cook what you love for the one you love, you can't go far wrong.

Got a question? Comment? Recipe to share? Drop me a line anytime!