Taste Your Food

The first thing I do is put HONEY in all my food; this is the base of all my dishes. When I am cooking at Canyonlands by Night or anywhere for that matter, I cook as though I am cooking for the person I love (it’s very important to cook as though you’re cooking for your loved one). I put my WHOLE HEART into all my food. Once I feel I am ready to cook I start building flavors from the bottom up. Think of this a building a house; you don’t see the foundation, the rough framing or the plumbing, but instead you see the finished product. So when you taste my food, you taste what all the ingredients combined do to the STAR of the dish, such as chicken, beef seafood and so on. You taste the food, along with what the spices herbs or other aromatics create to enhance to natural flavors of the STAR component. Of course if you like garlic or a specific flavor you tend to add a lot of it, this is for your taste only. Most people won’t like the food I prepare for myself, I have very specific tastes. Therefore, when I am cooking for others, I marry the flavors of all the ingredients, to create blend of what I think they will like.

Everyone asks me how I get the dinner out so quickly. I use the following process to cook quickly:
1. First I select the dish I want to prepare.
2. When I have what I’d like to prepare in mind, I lay out all the kitchen tools I will use for easy access i.e. cutting board and knife together, stirring spoon next sauté pan or pot near the stove and so on.
3. Then I line up all the seasonings I will use in the order I’ll be using them.
4. Then I select the foods I will use and put them where I will be using them, i.e. onions, garlic, celery or carrots in a bowl near the cutting board. I keep the cold foods in the refrigerator, until ready for use.

If you use this process, it will make your cooking experience more enjoyable because everything will be at hand. It’s the way restaurants can prepare your dinner so quickly.
My next post will be on how to use a knife and cutting board and the start of building flavors, Sofritto and the marriage of these flavors Insopora.

I hope I’ve helped you learn a little about cooking and encourage you to test it out.
Bon appetite
Your chef Sammii