|
|
from the pages of
June 2009
A Chef's Defining Moment
by Michael Ballon
Many chefs can pinpoint the moment in their lives when they knew they would have a career in food. For the great French chef and cookbook author Jacques Pepin, that came early. His family ran a hotel and restaurant, and while quite young, he was sent off to begin training under the old apprentice system. At the time, the lowest position in the kitchen was not dishwasher or potato peeler. It was rather the person who stoked the ovens with coal for an hour or two early in the morning, so the ovens would be hot enough to cook. Thus did a career begin which led to cooking for the French President.
As she recounts in her memoir, Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl had to compensate for her mother's mental illness, and check the family meal to make sure it was edible. Reichl learned she had to examine the content of the refrigerator to make sure her mother wasn't cooking with spoiled ingredients. Her mother's illness meant that her cooking might sicken her family. Years later Reichl found herself in the heart of the California food revolution, cooking at some of the hottest restaurants.
Julia Child had never been exposed to great French cooking until going abroad, but when she joined her husband in Paris after the War, she fell in love with the cuisine. The food was like nothing she had grown up eating or cooking. At the time women were relatively uncommon students at the French Cordon Bleu cooking school, but after taking a few classes, she was determined to pursue her love for food further, and to spread the gospel of French cuisine.
Looking back, I can identify my own moment during the summer after my sophomore year in college. I grew up with a mother who was a great cook, and in a family that prized old fashioned, home made food, but I never thought it would be a career for me. I was going to be a lawyer. That summer I went to Bar Harbor, Maine and got a job in a fast food fried seafood restaurant just outside Acadia National Park. But it wasn't the restaurant job that piqued my interest. No, it was the abundance of wild blueberries which grew all over the National Park, and which were yours, free for the picking. My mother made a great blueberry pie, and for years my father's birthday was unthinkable without a blueberry pie-but I had never made one. That summer, I took up pie making in earnest, and even threw a blueberry pie party for friends - bring your own ice cream. In a letter home I wrote at the end of the summer, and which my mother saved, I announced: "This is to inform you that you are no longer the premier blueberry pie maker in the country. You must now share that title with me." I'm not sure I knew it then, but in retrospect, it was one of the defining moments in a career. There may have been an even earlier indication of my interests. According to my mother, the first book I ever checked out from the public library was titled, The Blueberry Pie Elf, about an elf who falls into a blueberry pie, who discovers that the only escape is to eat himself out.
The Berkshires are not quite as abundant with blueberries as Maine, but throughout the region there are lots of places where you can pick wild berries. Yes, you can go to the store and buy them, but there is nothing as satisfying as picking your own.
In an age when many of us can scarcely unglue ourselves from computer screens, and we have become virtual extensions of electronic appliances, foraging through dense brush to pick wild berries is a great way to reconnect with our essential animal nature. Don't forget to bring along a pack on your next hike-many a time I have forgotten one, only to return from a hike with my shirt pockets bulging with berries.
Making pie dough is one of the most intimidating kitchen tasks for many people, and since then I have discovered an easier way to make a satisfying blueberry dessert. Handling pie dough is tricky, and rolling it out makes a bit of a mess, but making the following cobbler recipe is simple and within the grasp of even a beginner.
Blueberry Cobbler
Serves 6-8
3 pints blueberries
3/4 cup water
3 Tablespoon cornstarchs
Dash cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
Grated zest 1 lemon
1/1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
3 Tablespoon melted butter
1. Combine 2 pints of blueberries, with the sugar, cold water, cornstarch, & spices, and bring to a boil while stirring. The cornstarch will thicken the mix.
2. Puree the cooked berries briefly on "pulse" in a food processor.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the cooked berries with the remaining pint of raw berries, and mix well.
4. Pour the berry mix into individual ramekins, or into a shallow baking dish.
5. To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl, and mix in the egg. Stir well.
6. Loosely sprinkle the topping over the top of the berries, and then drizzle the melted butter on top.
7. Bake 15 minutes at 350, and serve warm, with vanilla ice cream
Go to the HomeStyle Essay Index
|
|
Join us on Facebook