Double Dipping

I had to write an essay for my DMACC food and wine class about what I wanted to get out of it, and I thought, well, it's kind of like a blog post, so I'm going to recycle it.  :)  First class was awesome - we learned how to make stock and taste wine!!!  Full review/discussion may be forthcoming, but in the meantime, here's my essay.

I have always had a passion for food, but never really realized it until just a handful of years ago.  Looking back, it should have been obvious, given how much time I spent in the kitchen helping out.  Even now some of my favorite childhood memories are from the last-minute rush to put together every Thanksgiving dinner, everything finishing at the same moment, people hurrying about the cramped, warm kitchen to tend to each aromatic and delicious dish.  The energy of that moment is something I always loved to be a part of, but it took me until several years out of school before I realized I wanted it back.

I started cooking for myself once I got out of school, but I soon discovered that helping in a kitchen and having your own are two different things.  Almost continually, I’d find myself seeking confirmation that things were going right, since I was so used to my Mom’s experience and advice to simply tell me the next step.  Although I now feel that I know a little bit about cooking, I frequently ask my wife if she thinks the dish is ready, or how she thinks it looks.  This comes down to a question of technique, which is one of the main things I’m looking for from this class.

Technique to me means the knowledge that the particular skill you are using in the kitchen is being performed correctly.  If, let’s say,  I need to sear a pork chop, knowing the proper technique means that I know what steps to undertake, so that I know that it’s going to turn out right.  Or, as another example, when I made chicken stock this past weekend, I didn’t need to ask my wife at all if it was progressing properly, because I now knew exactly what to do. Regardless of which variety of stock or what application it was for, I knew the proportion of the ingredients and the steps, so I didn’t need someone telling me what to do.  Having the confidence that I know the right skills, the proper technique, to address these fundamental cooking skills, will go a long way to improving my abilities.

The next thing that I’d like to attain in my culinary journey is a better overall understanding of food.  I feel that this is a natural progression from knowing technique.  It’s a little bit like creating a work of art: you need to know the proper brushstrokes, but once you’ve mastered them, you need to understand how to put things together in a cohesive way.  Bringing the analogy back to the kitchen, let’s say I’ve learned exactly how to cook a piece of salmon; now I need to know what to do with it.  How to season, what to pair with it, sauces/sides, etc.  This goal is one of comprehending different flavor profiles and being able to put them together in a creative way.

It all kind of builds into my ultimate goal.  To be able to bring together great ingredients into a dish of my creation, and knowing it will come out right.  Naturally, this is something that takes years of experience to even get close to, but it’s something I strive for, and I think the class is a great way to begin that journey.  I’m pretty decent right now at following a recipe and making food.  I might not do every step exactly right, but I can get close.  But I want to go beyond that, to trusting that I know how to treat and prepare each ingredient, and truly appreciate how to put them together cohesively without following a recipe.

Like I said, it is a bit of a long-term goal, but if this course can give me a better feel for technique and understanding, then I’ll be happy.

As for the wine side of things, to be honest I signed up for the food aspect and considered the wine instruction more or less a bonus.  But after the first class period I was intrigued and started thinking about it more.  If one of my goals is to be able to put food flavor profiles together in a thoughtful way, why not wine?  Up to this point, I pretty much put red wine with red meat, white wine with fish, and figured if I liked the taste that was enough.  But we have five senses to appreciate food and drink, so it seems a shame to simply ignore most of them when drinking wine.

I didn’t expect it when I signed up, but if I learn the same things about wine as I mentioned I was hoping for with food, this will be a pretty great class.  Technique – knowing how to actually taste a wine to appreciate it, and understanding – actually giving thought to the flavors and how they play off of food flavors to work well together.

Based on the syllabus and the first class period, it seems that we will be talking about a lot of the things I was seeking when I signed up for the class.  Thank you for putting together such a great course, and I look forward to what more we can learn this semester!