Food for Thought

The food you like is a reflection of your character.

You snack on fruit when you’re hungry and swoon at the sight of strawberries and clotted cream on a lazy summer afternoon; you love pickles and ice cream, together… and you’re not pregnant.

Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup on rainy days are the stuff of childhood memories; you eat French fries with mayonnaise and regardless of what the most expensive dessert on the menu is, all you want is the Devils Food cake. You’re a homebody at heart.

Champagne and caviar turn you on, and the mere mention of l’ammuse bouche has you dancing to the closet to change for the cocktail party. You love luxury.

You go to farmers markets not only for the food but also for the atmosphere and a trip to the spice counter at the city grocers is an adventure you await with batted breath. You would hop on a plane to Morocco just for a chance to taste the chicken tan gene. You’re an adventurer at heart.

Collecting cookbooks and trying new recipes isn’t a hobby, it’s a passion, and you’ve thought of every possible flavour of ice cream there could ever be. The subtle differences between one grade of maple syrup and another that only you and a few other people can notice makes you a gourmet connoisseur.

Peaches, lemons, plums and zucchinis are foods of the gods as far as you are concerned and chocolate and coffee were separated at birth. Brandy Alexander’s and Tom Collins on hot sultry nights are the stuff of fantasy that you can’t wait to become a dream come true, you’re a wanderer – a seeker for perfection

Personally I consider myself to be a little bit of everything. I collect cookbooks as voraciously as I consume the recipes contained in their pages, and for me, a walk in the afternoon while watching the sunset is incomplete without a nibble of a pear, a plum or a nectarine. My mind is constantly buzzing with ideas for marinades and infusions, and considerations about the flavour and texture of a dish rule my decisions about what to eat and what to cook

Seasons of the year, and the foods that are in season; their colours and textures inspire me to create combinations of colours and flavours and textures that have never been thought of in the culinary world before.

Before everything else I am, I am a cook, I think with my taste buds, what I taste always impacts upon what I do, in the kitchen, in life.

Take a moment to think about what turns you on about the world of food, the epicurean world of the gourmand, let your mind wander over the foods that have made holidays special and places or people memorable to you. If you can’t imagine a Christmas dinner without Aunt Mimi’s plum pudding, but she’s 82 years old and has vowed this will be her last Christmas in front of the stove, sit her down and get every last detail of its making from her, just so you can make it next year.

Why not? After all she did teach you to bake the perfect chocolate cake.

So what will you be doing tonight, trying a new recipe for herb encrusted pork loin with prosciutto stuffing over buttered vermicelli noodles, and roasted baby vegetables with a Tarte Tatin for dessert? Or ripping open a packet of ramen noodles? Think about it, what would you rather do? Answer the question and then run to the market, I’ll see you there….

Copyright - Alison West 2010