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I Learned To Cook By Following The Seasons Ep. 89 · Chef's PSA Podcast

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  Hello chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, Andre Natera. On today's episode, we're going
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  to talk about cooking with the seasons.
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  Stay tuned. Before we get into it, I'm going
• 0:20
  to tell you what I've been working on.
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  I've been working on a rap song. So the intro music that we have
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  on Chef's PSA, as I like to say, the porno music, I've been
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  thinking about replacing maybe the intro, maybe the outro.
• 0:31
  So I have a new rap song that I've been working on.
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  I'm going to play it at the end of this podcast, so make sure
• 0:38
  you listen till the end. So you could let me know what
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  you think of this song, if it's going to be the new outro music
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  or the new intro music or if it's back to the drawing board.
• 0:46
  I appreciate your comments by the way.
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  It's going to be hip hop, so if you tell me you don't want hip
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  hop, I'm just going to ignore that the song is titled We
• 0:54
  Digress because I say that often.
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  Anyway, if you want to support the show, you know what to do.
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  I'm working on a new limited edition T-shirt.
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  dry it and I put up a meme. I'll put it right here in the
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• 2:04
  Knowledge is Power Chefs, Seasonal Cooking.
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  I feel like seasonal cooking sometimes is one of the more
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  difficult things to navigate as a chef, especially if you grew
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  up in the United States like I did, where seasons weren't
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  necessarily a thing. If you grew up in the city and
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  you went to the grocery store and you get tomatoes all year
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  and watermelon all year and it and it was always in season
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  somewhere in the world. So we had it.
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  So if you grew up after the 1970s, you probably had access
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  to most ingredients, whether they were in season or not, and
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  we lost that connection with those ingredients because we
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  were having products shipped in from all over the world.
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  However, if you want to understand food better, plant a
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  garden. And I had a garden and I started
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  to really understand food differently.
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  I understood that not only does food transition over the season
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  early when it's unripe, as Renee Rezepi likes to say, perfectly
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  unripe to when it's overripe the fruit we're talking about.
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  Or that things that we call a summer fruit sometimes have a
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  very limited season. So what we call a summer fruit
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  might just be one month throughout the whole summer.
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  The tomatoes are perfect, maybe twice.
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  The watermelon is only available from August to September.
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  But yet we think of watermelon as a seasonal fruit and there's
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  micro seasons when we're talking about seasonality.
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  There's also preservation methods that we could look at
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  from fermentation to canning to pickling to curing and salting,
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  so that we have those ingredients throughout the
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  entire year. And some of these old World
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  practices that are ancestors were doing that have now become
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  fashionable in the chef world because now we're discovering
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  flavors. We didn't need a can or ferment
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  or all of that for so many years because you just went to the
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  grocery store and got it. But now we're rediscovering,
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  with help of Renee Rozepi at Noma, brought fermentation back
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  into the mainstream of cooking. And so as chefs, when we're
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  thinking about cooking seasonal food, sometimes we really don't
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  take the whole season into account.
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  We say we're going to cook seasonal, but we don't think
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  about the cooking method or the temperature or the colors that
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  go with it. We sometimes just think, oh,
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  we're going to cook seasonal. So let's just look at morels and
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  asparagus in the spring and stone fruit in the summer and
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  cruciferous vegetables in the winter, hard squash in the fall.
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  And that's the extent of the seasonal cooking and that.
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  And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's just the basic
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  point of entry. So today I want to talk about a
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  more complex way to think about seasonal cooking.
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  And we're going to break it down season by season, starting first
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  with the spring because we're headed into spring.
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  When you think about spring initially, you think about some
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  of the produce that starts coming into season.
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  Like I said, asparagus, morels, fresh greens start to sprout up.
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  Your softer herbs like chive and parsley, they start to come
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  back. Younger vegetables like baby
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  carrots, peas, new potatoes, some berries start making an
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  appearance. There's also those forge things.
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  Like I said, morels, wild garlic, some other edible wild
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  plants. And then you have the ramps,
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  right? Everyone's going to have ramps
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  on their menu during spring. Ramps are like a very, very
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  short season in spring. And then you have other micro
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  seasons in spring like cherry blossoms and things like that.
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  So that's the produce of spring. Then there's the meat aspect.
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  It's the end of last season's game.
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  It's the beginning of lamb and goat, and you want to think
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  about the cooking methods as you're going into spring, so
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  maybe you don't want to braise, but braising is still kind of OK
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  as you go into the spring, so some braising is good.
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  If you have some lamb or something like that, you want to
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  make sure you're utilizing the whole animal.
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  And for some of those tougher cuts of meat, you want to
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  braise, you want to roast, you want to use some of your harder
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  cooking methods. But also grilling is acceptable.
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  Raw fish dishes are still very appropriate at this time in
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  spring. You want to make sure your food
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  is fresh, vibrant, A lot of herbs, mint, parsley, chervil,
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  chives that brightness from ramps.
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  You could pickle your ramps so they could last the entire
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  season. Some of your fruits are a little
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  bit green, so you might want to serve those highly acidic fruits
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  early on to complement some of those flavors.
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  It's a good opportunity to drizzle food with a really good
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  quality olive oil and a high quality vinegar.
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  You want to serve the brightness when you're talking about
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  plating for spring, In my opinion, spring is some of the
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  best time to plate your food because you have this color
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  transition. I often think about pastel
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  colors with Easter and whatnot, but you have this lighter green
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  with a lot of the tendrils coming up.
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  The vegetables are a little bit smaller and daintier, which
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  makes for pretty plating. I also think about other things
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  when I think of spring. So when I get inspiration,
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  sometimes I like to go look at artwork or whatnot, or sometimes
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  I just wander around around nature and I see the way things
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  grow. And I see the way that how
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  things kind of form in nature naturally.
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  And I think how can I have a more natural aesthetic to my
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  plating in the spring. I like to have that color
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  contrast. If you can get some pinks on
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  there, if you can get some blossoms, if you get some
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  blooms, if you can have that green from peas and fava beans
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  in there, I think that's really nice.
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  Brightening things up with your vinegars.
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  And not only that, but spring is a good time to have contrasting
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  temperatures because it's the transition of going from very
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  cold to the warmer weather. So you could have those hot and
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  cold components on the plate at the same time, which work very
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  appropriately. So again, when I think of
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  spring, I think of the colors, I think of the color transition, I
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  think of the freshness, I think of the brightness, I think of
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  everything regenerating and coming back to life.
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  So it's a good opportunity to use those blooms and blossoms
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  and make beautiful spring food. In my opinion, spring food less
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  is more. Let the ingredients shine then
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  as we transition into summer. Now what's great about summer?
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  It's the peak of abundance. You have so much to choose from.
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  You have some of the leftover product that's remaining from
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  spring, but you have all this new stuff that you get to work
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  with in the summer. Now the low hanging fruit, no
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  pun intended, is your tomatoes, your stone fruit, Peaches,
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  plums, apricots, all of that starts coming into season.
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  And sometimes that stone fruit is really good, sometimes it's
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  not. Sometimes it's too acidic and
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  tart. So you have to think about
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  preparations. Are you going to pickle the
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  stone fruit? Can you grill it?
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  Can you compress it and infuse some liquid in it?
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  Some different flavors? Can you turn them into purees?
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  You have really nice green vegetables.
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  Your summer squashes are in season.
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  Early, mid and late summer you have all sorts of berries coming
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  in, which is a good opportunity to showcase them in their
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  different stages of ripeness. Late summer, you know, fully
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  ripe strawberries, early summer, pickled green strawberries.
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  You get a variety of fresh melons.
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  And you know, I know everyone always just goes to the simple
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  watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew.
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  But Charland melons are really beautiful Canary melons.
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  There's a lot out there that you could do with melons.
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  Whether you're compressing and infusing new new flavors in
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  there, you're letting them shine on their own.
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  You're season them differently. Melons are very versatile.
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  You could juice them, you could compress them, you could grill
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  them. The list goes on and on.
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  And again, we were talking about that juxtaposition with spring
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  of hot and cold. In the summer, you could serve
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  things that are cold, hot. So grilling watermelon
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  completely changes the flavor of it.
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  So thinking about things like that, things that you might
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  normally serve cold, you can now serve them in a way when you
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  grill them, where it transforms the flavor in it and it
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  completely gives you a different flavor profile of what you're
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  used to. You also have corn, right?
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  Beautiful fresh yellow summer corn.
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  Perfect time to use it. And then you start thinking
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  about the cooking methods that go with the summer.
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  Summer's the perfect time to barbecue.
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  So when you're putting your menu together, you want to think
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  about grilled meats, things that are coming out of the smoker
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  seafood dishes. It's a good opportunity to get
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  that lobster on the menu, get the shrimp, grilled seafood with
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  some fresh tomatoes and things like that.
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  And of course I I didn't really mention tomatoes too much, but
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  again, all sorts of tomatoes, including heirloom varieties.
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  And that's what's really great about summer is you have all
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  these different heirloom varieties of ingredients, fruits
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  and vegetables that start to take shape.
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  So when we were talking about color contrast earlier, when I
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  think about spring and I think about these lighter greens and
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  pastel colors, summer to me is the opposite.
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  It's brighter colors. The greens are more vibrant, the
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  red is more vibrant. The colors are not muted at all.
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  It's bright. You could look at summer food
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  and say, I know what that's going to taste like.
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  Fresh cucumbers with some tomatoes, with some really good
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  olive oil and fresh basil, some high quality vinegar, some good
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  cheese, some grilled meat with a herbaceous chimichurri or a
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  salsa Verde on top. It's a lot you could do with
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  summer. The other consideration that you
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  have to think about when you're dealing with summer product is
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  how can you utilize this product later on as you head into fall
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  and winter months. So canning, pickling, preserving
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  a lot of summer's bounty can last throughout your fall and
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  winter menu if you plan it appropriately.
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  This is a good opportunity to take your berries because maybe
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  you're buying too much. Ferment them, use the liquid
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  ferment your tomatoes pickle can preserve.
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  Think about the entire year and the entire menu for the rest of
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  the year. So when you're planning your
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  colder month menus, it's not that you can't have summer items
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  on there, but they can't be served fresh or they shouldn't.
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  I mean, you can do whatever you want.
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  There's what's called seasonal ambiguity of, you know, it's
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  it's in season somewhere like we talked about earlier.
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  But if you're talking about serving hyper seasonal food,
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  when you're creating your summer menus and you have this bounty,
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  think about how you could take that to the next two seasons
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  worth of menus. And what are those techniques
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  that you need to use. Do you need a ferment?
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  Do you need a can? Do you need a pickle?
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  You need a preserve, You need a freeze.
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  Whatever the case may be, Then we move into fall.
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  And what's interesting about the fall is that you, depending on
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  where you live, sometimes those summer foods are still
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  available. You know, I live in Texas and
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  sometimes summer doesn't end until November.
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  But what's really interesting about fall is you get a whole
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  new crop of things that I find interesting because you could
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  get tomatoes pretty much year round, but you can't necessarily
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  get acorn squash or Curry squash or kabocha squash year round.
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  So sometimes fall really is just fall.
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  And during fall you have all the squashes, butternut, acorn,
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  pumpkin, all your root vegetables start to come in.
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  From beets to parsnips to salsafe, apples start coming in.
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  It's a perfect time to start thinking about how you're going
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  to incorporate different varieties of apples in your
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  food, which I love apples personally.
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  I probably probably really do eat an apple a day.
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  You have pears coming into season again.
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  You don't think about pears all year, but you know during the
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  fall. Pears are perfect for you know,
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  poaching for making desserts out of making pear butter, pairing
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  it with a you know as it accoutrement to a nice piece of
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  cheese. All your mushrooms that you
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  enjoy cooking start coming in from porcinis to chanterelles.
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  Fall food lends itself well to more deep flavors you think
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  about. During this time of the year,
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  you're going to start introducing your braises and
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  your roasts and your stews. You think about the weather,
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  It's starting to get cold outside.
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  So when people come into your restaurant, they want to warm up
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  this where you want to have your soups and warmer foods.
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  It's not necessarily the time that you can't have cold dishes,
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  but it's a good opportunity to go to fewer cold dishes.
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  Maybe you don't have as many on the menu.
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  Like common sense, don't serve a gazpacho in the fall.
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  You wouldn't do that. You'd serve gazpacho in the
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  summer or in the spring. So your warmer things, you want
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  to keep in mind that that's what you're going to do as you get
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  closer to the fall. Fall is comfort food because
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  when you also think about the meats, you think about Turkey,
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  venison, duck, again, the spices that go into fall.
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  So I I often think of those fall spices that when you go into
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  someone's house and they like that fall scented candle, right,
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  that those spices also incorporate well into the food,
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  into your braises, into your stews, into your seasoning.
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  You know, duck is really popular around this time.
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  Duck lends itself well to a lot of different spices.
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  People put on a little bit of weight during the fall, that's
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  when the weight starts to creep in.
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  So now you can have more bread items.
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  You know Thanksgiving is the classic stuffing, right?
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  And with that slow cooking, you're going to develop deep,
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  complex flavours, Showcase different culinary techniques
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  that are a little bit longer to cook.
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  It's a good opportunity to have those braised short ribs on the
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  menu. Sauces could be a little bit
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  heavier. You could finish them more with
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  butter cream. When it comes to plating, you'll
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  also look at things like fall colors, right?
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  So you think about autumn, you think of those deep Reds, the
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  oranges, You could char things a little bit more, and I think
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  that's going to lead to that fall aesthetic on the plate.
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  I love garnishing with hibiscus leaves that kind of look like
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  little Maple leaves on the plate.
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  So again, those things work really well during the fall.
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  And then we cap it off with winter.
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  Winter starts producing a lot of different things.
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  You think about citrus, your hearty greens like kale and
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  Chard and collards, those are good for the winter.
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  Your root cellar, your onions, your potatoes that are stored
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  from the fall, you have again, you still have squashes
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  available like kabocha or Hubbard squash, and then you're
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  incorporating items on your menu that you preserved from the
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  earlier seasons, your Pickles, your jams, your preserves.
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  So it's not that you can't serve strawberries in the winter, but
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  they should be transformed from the way that they were served in
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  the warmer months. And then again, as you're in the
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  winter, it's still those slow braising techniques, the stews,
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  the roasts, preserved meats like sausage and charcuterie are also
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  ideal for the winter braising, stewing, sous video, right?
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  I mean, you really do sous video all year, but I personally like
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  using sous video for for the winter.
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  You know, if we're talking about sous video, vegetables or
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  whatever, you could pretty much throw them in for about an hour,
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  an hour and a half at 194 Fahrenheit and they usually come
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  out perfect. And winter can sometimes be very
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  challenging when you're writing menus because it's easy to think
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  back and say, well, we could just put tomatoes or we could
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  just put asparagus. But if you're trying to be a
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  hyper seasonal restaurant, a lot of those things are no longer
• 15:13
  available if you're only buying what's in season.
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  Like I said, it's in season somewhere, but I would encourage
• 15:16
  you to restrain yourself. If you're running that type of
• 15:19
  restaurant that is hyper seasonal focused, at least
• 15:22
  understand and try to avoid as much as possible using things
• 15:25
  that are not in season. And if you want to level up your
• 15:27
  game, don't just use what's in season, you know, use what's in
• 15:30
  season and what's local, right? Good time to make a rice dish in
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  the winter, your risottos, your grits, your dried legumes,
• 15:37
  beans, things like that. That's what you want to think
• 15:39
  about when you're headed into the winter.
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  The cooking is just a little bit different.
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  It's darker, it's deeper, it's richer, the colors are a little
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  bit more muted, but the flavors are a lot more powerful and
• 15:48
  robust. Sometimes when you're cooking
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  very heavy winter style, you need to add a little bit more
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  acid in there because a lot of the foods aren't naturally
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  acidic. You have that natural sweet and
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  sour that you get from the spring and the summer, but
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  that's not fully available in the winter.
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  So you got to think about incorporating your citrus and
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  things like that. But this is the best part about
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  being a chef is you have access to ingredients you're able to
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  create. There aren't really any set
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  rules. You don't have to cook seasonal.
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  You can do whatever you want. I think you will have a greater
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  appreciation for food if you do cook seasonal though.
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  Your skill level will go up. Your creativity will be
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  challenged. You'll become a better chef if
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  you grow a garden and cook in season.
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  And isn't that what it's all about?
• 16:27
  1% better every single day? Chefs, let's go.
• 16:30
  Anyway, if you want to support the show, you know what to do.
• 16:32
  Make sure you leave five stars. Go to chefspsa.com.
• 16:35
  We get all the books and all the merch.
• 16:37
  And stay tuned, because here we go, Porno music is different.
• 16:41
  This time, we digress.