Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / What Makes Good Food? Ep 97

Transcript

What Makes Good Food? Ep 97 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello Chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, Andre Dantara. On today's episode, we're going
• 0:04
  to talk about what really is good food.
• 0:06
  Stay tuned. Before we get started, here's a
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  quick update. Exciting news on a couple of
• 0:24
  different fronts. So the first one is I'm
• 0:26
  approaching my 100th episode, so this is episode 97.
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  And as I got closer to episode 100, I had said many podcasts
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  ago that eventually this was going to transition into a guest
• 0:37
  centric model. Maybe it would be Chef smoking
• 0:39
  cigars or something like that. Well, the truth of the matter is
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  I've been working on things behind the scenes.
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  In the next few episodes, possibly episode 98 will be with
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  guests. So the model that I'm going to
• 0:52
  go with moving forward is going to be one episode guest, one
• 0:56
  episode solo. So the current Chef's PSA
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  podcast format that you see with just me and you, anywhere from
• 1:03
  15 to 30 minutes. That'll remain every other week.
• 1:06
  The guest centric podcast will be about an hour or longer and
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  I'll have different industry guests coming in.
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  Chef, friends of mine, celebrity chefs, A listers, B listers.
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  I've already got a great lineup of chefs.
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  I don't want to spoil who I have coming out, but I have the next
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  year of chefs already booked out.
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  So I'm really excited about the chefs that I'm going to have on.
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  And it's going to be good because you'll hear from a
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  different perspective, not just my perspective.
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  You'll hear from other chefs, female chefs, pastry chefs, male
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  chefs, celebrity chefs, Michelin * chefs.
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  So we'll still try to keep the conversation fun, light,
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  educational, and something that you could take away from it,
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  that you could implement some best practices into your daily
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  life or into your daily culinary practice.
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  So that's coming soon. The very first guest I'm going
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  to have is Casey Duty, a pastry chef out of Chicago.
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  Phenomenal pastry chef. You should go follow her.
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  She's got a very interesting story.
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  And one of the reasons why I really wanted to connect with
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  her and have her be the first guest is because you all don't
• 2:02
  see the amount of DMS I get. But I'll tell you, the DMS that
• 2:05
  I get the most requests on is when am I going to have a pastry
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  episode, when am I going to talk about it from a female chef's
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  perspective and when am I going to talk about best practices
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  regarding burnout and taking care of yourself?
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  Well, fact of the matter is those are three subjects that
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  I'm not really qualified to talk about.
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  One, obviously I'm not a pastry chef or a female chef.
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  And then when it comes to burnout, I have my own opinions
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  on it because I currently have. I probably work too much.
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  I work seven days a week, so not everyone's the same when it
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  comes to that. So I wanted to get someone on
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  that could speak to those 3 subjects and offer their
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  perspective, something that I can't do.
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  So the very first guess is going to be a pastry chef.
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  It's the pastry Chef's PSA episode, episode one, guest
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  centric. I'm working on the edits now,
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  but as soon as it's ready it'll be up very soon.
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  I also created a new cover art for Chef's PSA.
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  I did a poll on my Instagram. I had five options.
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  This is the one that won and this is the one that came in
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  second. So they may go interchangeably
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  on Spotify because I think I could do certain cover art for
• 3:04
  specific episodes. If I could do that, when it's a
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  solo podcast, it'll be the one with my face.
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  When it's a guest podcast, it'll be the other one.
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  Let's see if I could do that. I don't know if that's possible,
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  But anyway, that's that's what I'm thinking as possible.
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  The other thing update is I'm almost done with this bad cooks
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  everywhere book. Here's a preview of the new
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  cover for it. You'll see some snakes and
• 3:27
  you'll see a little chick. The reason for that, the
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  metaphor is it's like this innocent little chick surrounded
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  by all these venomous snakes or harmless steaks in some cases.
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  But anyway, sometimes that's a metaphor for the kitchen.
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  So that book is almost done. I'm working on it, very
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  aggressive. I've had to send it to a couple
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  of people to get feedback because it's it's a little bit
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  dark at times. So anyway, we'll see how that
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  goes. New book coming soon.
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  Today's episode. So in conversations I've had
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  recently with some chef friends of mine, we started talking
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  about good food and what really is good food.
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  And so I was hanging out with some family and we were eating
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  this beautiful dish of shrimp soup with fish.
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  It was made in a Chipotle broth and some Spanish rice that had
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  epizote leaves in it. So there's a Mexican dish.
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  It was really delicious. And as I was eating it, I was
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  thinking, you know, it's a it's a very, it's very simple, humble
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  food. There's a certain level of
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  technique, but there's more of an understanding of flavor
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  development and how to cook. So it's not necessarily classic
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  French technique, but there is an understanding of how to make
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  sure things taste good. The history of dishes being
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  passed down to family members and as I was trying this, I was
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  like, this is more delicious than anything I've had recently.
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  And there was a homemade mole also the other day that I had.
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  It was excellent. It was honestly as good as any
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  of the best restaurants and this was this was home cooked and I
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  started to think about food that I crave and the food that I
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  crave. It's usually very simple things,
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  A French onion soup, a lobster bisque, a good mole, a really
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  good Thai style Curry, some excellent butter chicken, some
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  simple things that I've had at people's houses right Gone over
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  to people's house and they make it excellent tiramisu.
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  I have a friend shout out to Ninat Proporsky.
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  He makes, or his wife rather makes one of the best tiramisu's
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  better than I've had in any restaurant.
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  And so as chefs, sometimes we focus too much on what we're
• 5:27
  doing in the restaurant. And it has to be scalable
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  because you have to replicate food for volume for the amount
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  of guests that you're coming. It has to be fast, maybe it's
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  one or two pan pickups. You have to cook to the lowest
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  skill set in the kitchen. Meaning just because the chef
• 5:39
  could do it doesn't mean the rest of the cooks can do it.
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  It has to sell. So a lot of dishes that people
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  prepare at home wouldn't necessarily do well in a
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  restaurant setting. You have to present it
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  differently. At home you could eat family
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  style. It doesn't have to look as
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  beautiful, has to taste really good.
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  But in a restaurant you might need to add some garnishes,
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  sometimes those unnecessary garnishes as well, just to make
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  it look a little better. The food doesn't always cross
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  over as seamless as people think.
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  From home cook to restaurant cook.
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  Some people say the best cook is the grandmother or the mother.
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  You know, my mom is a OK cook. She's not the best cook, but I
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  crave her food because it's what I grew up on.
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  And I'm sure a lot of you listening will think back to
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  those childhood dishes that you had and you think that's
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  something I want to eat. I miss my grandmother's this,
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  that and the other. I miss when my mom used to make
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  this for me, or my dad used to make this for me or my
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  grandparents or my uncles, or when we all gathered around the
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  table and we had these wholesome, delicious meals.
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  And a lot of times it was with simple ingredients and
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  straightforward cooking. So then you look at the
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  restaurant industry and you look at some of the avant-garde
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  techniques that we do. And in order to get from A-Z
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  with a dish and all the different steps that go to it,
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  you got to make a farce and you got to make a breading And then
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  you got to stuff it and you got it's got to go under the skin
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  and then you got to roll it and then you got to sous video and
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  then you got to sear it and then you got to baste it and then you
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  got to let it rest and then you got to slice it and then you're
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  going to pour a sauce over it. That took 48 hours, not
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  including the reduction time and it has these intricate little
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  garnishes on it and then it goes out to the table and it required
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  at least 5 cooks to get to the end point at minimum.
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  And then someone tries that and they say, well it's not as good
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  as my mom's mole or my mom's pasta.
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  It's an interesting thought to have because more complex
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  doesn't always equal better and tastier.
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  Now with that being said, what is good food?
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  Because maybe you didn't have a food centric childhood growing
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  up, so good food to you was going out to eat and try in
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  different restaurants and your food memories are associated
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  with different restaurants that you had.
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  Maybe you went to a local Thai restaurant.
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  So every time you have their jungle Curry, it takes you back
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  to a moment. Maybe you were kickboxing on the
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  beach in Phuket, Thailand and you had green papaya salad and
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  you had street food. So that takes you back to a
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  certain memory, right? So frame of reference is equally
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  as important. The interesting thing about food
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  is we celebrate everything with food.
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  You have a birthday, let's eat. Anniversary, let's eat.
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  Get together, let's eat. Party.
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  Let's eat Christmas. Let's eat Thanksgiving, Let's
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  eat. So, so many special moments are
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  created with food being the focal point of everything.
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  Then you have your down moments. You had a bad day.
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  Let's go eat. We need to cheer them up.
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  Buy them pizza, right? By the way, if you're listening,
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  pizza parties is not an action plan.
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  You can't throw a pizza party and think that you're going to
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  make everyone happy like that. That old meme, like everyone
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  wants to quit quick. Get them pizzas.
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  Well, no one's fooled with the pizza party.
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  So for those of you that are using pizza parties to fool
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  people, stop with the pizza parties.
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  Give them what they need. Take care of your employees.
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  You can still buy them pizza, but pizza is not the pacifier
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  that you think it is. Now, from a chef's perspective,
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  when we start talking about good food, a lot of times as chefs we
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  look at the technique that goes into a dish.
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  So when I go to a restaurant, people always ask me, are you
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  judging all the food? Whenever you go out to eat,
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  you're probably judging everything.
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  Like like, no, that's not true. And people sometimes say I'm
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  afraid to invite you over because you're going to be
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  judging my food how I cook. Not the case.
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  I don't judge anyone's food when I'm eating at their house.
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  As a matter of fact, I'm very appreciative when I go to
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  someone's house that's cooking for me because I know they're
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  not professional chefs and they're cooking from the heart,
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  which is different. Not that chefs don't cook for
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  the heart, because we all do. But when someone's not a
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  professional and they're cooking for someone that is a
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  professional, I think the best thing that you could do is enjoy
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  the food and receive the gift with thanks.
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  Now, when I go to someone's restaurant, if I'm there to eat,
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  I'm not judging their food. I'm hungry, I'm eating it's
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  nourishment. Different conversation.
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  But if I'm going there to dine, then I probably will be a little
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  bit more nitpicky. Now how am I judging the food
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  when I go eat somewhere? If it's good or not?
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  Well, I'm basing it off of what they're trying to do.
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  So if someone's trying to be a high end Thai restaurant and the
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  food doesn't feel Thai, then I'm going to judge them on it
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  because food is subjective. What's bad to one person is good
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  to another person. The only thing that you could
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  really judge the food on is, are they executing what they're
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  trying to do? They want to be a fine dining
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  restaurant. Are they behaving as a fine
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  dining restaurant? They want to be a burger spot.
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  Are they putting up good burgers?
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  Right, That's all that matters is, are they living up to the
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  potential of the restaurant that they are aspiring to become?
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  Because a lot of people don't. They want a certain type of
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  restaurant that they're trying to deliver, but they completely
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  missed the mark in delivering it.
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  And then you have to look at something that's very common in
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  our industry, and that is sometimes we get in our way and
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  we overcomplicate food and we make it worse.
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  At what point do you look at the dish and say it tastes good?
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  This is an amazing dish. Don't put anything else on
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  there. And that's a struggle sometimes
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  for chefs because that amazing dish sometimes might look plain.
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  It might not be beautiful, but it's amazing, But it just misses
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  the mark on presentation and it might not fit the type of
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  restaurant that you have. So you add a complex technique
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  here in a complex technique there, and then before you know
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  it, you've over complicated the dish.
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  That's no longer as good as it was initially, and it no longer
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  resembles the original dish. On the flip side, sometimes you
• 11:12
  need to add stuff to a dish, you need to combine flavors, you
• 11:15
  need to bring it together so that as people taste it, they
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  say, I've discovered something new, that's a new flavor.
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  There's depth, there's umami, there's acidity, and it all
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  works really well together. Texture, flavor.
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  Visually, that's another way that you could look at food and
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  say, what is good food. Now I'll tell you from a chef's
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  perspective, if I'm running a restaurant and someone's
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  bringing me food, so someone on my team, a sous chef or a cook,
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  I'm going to walk you through how I critique the food and some
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  of the things that I look for when we're in the beginning
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  stages of iteration on a dish. I don't necessarily judge the
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  presentation too hard because you could add things and you
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  could change the way things are plated to make it look good.
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  The first thing I want to do is I want to look at it and say, is
• 12:00
  this something that I would want to eat period?
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  And then as I start looking at it, I start thinking about
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  visual balance, textural contrast, Is there crunchy?
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  Is there smooth? Then I start thinking about
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  flavor, contrast as I'm tasting it.
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  Is it too sweet? Is it too salty?
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  Does it balance well? Does it need a little bit of
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  this or a little bit of that? I think about the flavor
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  combinations that are on the plate.
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  Do they make sense? Are the ingredients familiar?
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  Is this something that's easily scalable for the rest of the
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  team? Can everyone on the team make
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  this easily? Would there be any potential
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  struggle to get this out of the kitchen?
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  As I start tasting the food, I start thinking is this good and
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  I start to think like a guest a little bit because just because
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  I don't like certain things doesn't mean that the guest
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  doesn't. So I try to remove myself from
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  the equation and say, is this good for the concept that we're
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  doing? Is this on brand, meaning
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  Japanese restaurant? We're not serving Italian food,
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  right? So you understand, are we on
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  brand with the restaurant? Then when I start critiquing the
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  food with the person that I'm working with, I tell them to
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  think about the different flavors as music.
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  When you have the volume to the music all the way up, it's too
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  loud and you can't appreciate it.
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  But when it's all the way down, you can't hear it.
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  So you're trying to find the sweet spot where the song is
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  just right and that's comes in a lot of different forms.
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  It comes in the form of salt, acid, heat, umami, sweetness and
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  balancing all those flavors like an equalizer on a stereo.
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  I don't, I don't know if people have equalizers anymore, you
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  just have iPhones. But when I'm critiquing the food
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  with the chef, I'll say, you know, you didn't need to lift up
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  the salt by about two. Bring down the acid by about
• 13:34
  3:00 or bring up the acid just a little bit, add a little bit
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  more umami in the form of whatever the case may be that
• 13:41
  makes sense for the dish. Maybe it's fish sauce or Han
• 13:44
  dashi. Maybe it's dried mushroom
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  powder, Worcestershire sauce. There's a lot of different ways
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  that you can incorporate more umami into what you're doing.
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  Does it need a little funk? What is it missing from texture?
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  And we started adjusting all these little things like the
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  dial on a radio to get it just right.
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  Now, once we've nailed, is the flavor in the dish just right?
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  Then we started looking at the technique on the plate.
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  Could it be seared just a little bit more?
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  Could there be more color? Could the knife work?
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  Be a little bit sharper when we're eating it?
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  How much do we have to use our knife and fork, Right.
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  That's something a lot of people don't think about.
• 14:17
  A lot of times you create dishes, but you don't ever eat
• 14:19
  them as a guest would eat them. You look at it and say, wow,
• 14:22
  that's really cool and beautiful, and then you don't
• 14:24
  ever try it. And then when you do try it, you
• 14:27
  realize that it is difficult to eat with a knife and fork.
• 14:30
  So it's important that when you're creating dishes that you
• 14:32
  eat them, that you sit down and you eat them as the guest would.
• 14:35
  So like I said, you're critiquing the technique on the
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  plate. Could the puree be smoother?
• 14:38
  Could you pass it through a Tammy?
• 14:40
  Did you need to leave it in the vitaprec a little bit longer to
• 14:42
  make sure that the puree was smooth?
• 14:44
  Was it weeping a little bit? Did you need to add a little bit
• 14:46
  of xanthan gum to it to prevent the liquid from leaching out on
• 14:50
  the puree? Right?
• 14:51
  Is your sauce too thick? Delicious, but too thick?
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  Or is it too thin? When you take it to the table,
• 14:56
  it runs on the rim, right? So that's the opportunity to
• 14:59
  adjust the technique so it already tastes good.
• 15:01
  Now we're going to adjust the technique.
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  Now once you've adjusted the technique and the flavor, the
• 15:05
  last thing to adjust is the presentation, because ultimately
• 15:10
  if it doesn't taste good, then it shouldn't be on the menu.
• 15:13
  When you adjust the presentation, things to look at
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  are going to be how you play. Is it appropriate for the type
• 15:19
  of restaurant? Is the way that you plate going
• 15:21
  to make it to the dining room table or is it?
• 15:23
  Are you putting in a lot of effort for something that will
• 15:25
  fall over the second it walks out of the kitchen so it needs
• 15:27
  to make sense for the operation, The style of plating?
• 15:31
  Is it easy enough for the team to execute when they are at
• 15:33
  their busiest, or is it too complicated?
• 15:36
  Is it better to slice the meat before it goes to the table?
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  Because maybe the grain goes a certain way and you don't want
• 15:42
  them to complain that the steak is tough, so you want to be the
• 15:44
  one slicing it. Believe me, slicing meat the
• 15:46
  right way affects the eating experience.
• 15:48
  So these are things that you have to consider.
• 15:50
  What if they slice it the wrong way and they complain that it's
• 15:52
  not good or it's too tough, right?
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  Something you have to think about.
• 15:56
  Will it get cold if you slice it right?
• 15:59
  What are the functional garnishes that go on the plate?
• 16:01
  So if you're serving lemons with something like fish, are you
• 16:04
  serving a lemon cheek, or are you serving 1/2 a lemon with a
• 16:07
  lemon wrap on it to prevent the seeds from leaking out?
• 16:10
  By the way, chef's PSA, if you're serving lemons, you
• 16:13
  shouldn't get seeds right? So if you're serving lemon
• 16:15
  cheeks, poke the seeds out, take them out with a tweezer or a
• 16:20
  cake tester, or use a lemon wrap.
• 16:22
  There's nothing worse than squeezing lemon over addition
• 16:25
  and getting lemon seeds all over it.
• 16:26
  But we know this already. Come on, let's get it together.
• 16:29
  Anyway, we digress. So make sure that you've gone
• 16:32
  through that process. You've tasted it, It tastes
• 16:35
  good, the technique is good, the presentation looks good.
• 16:38
  Now it's ready to go on the menu.
• 16:40
  So now when you ask yourself what is good food?
• 16:42
  Good food is going to be different to every single body.
• 16:44
  Some people are going to say good food is what they grew up
• 16:46
  on. Some people are going to
• 16:48
  associate good food with certain memories that they have.
• 16:51
  Other people are going to associate good food with who
• 16:54
  they ate it with. Sometimes good food is going to
• 16:56
  be based on the technique and the way you created the dish.
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  So good food is different to every single body that eats the
• 17:02
  food. Now a smart chef will try and
• 17:04
  incorporate all of that into their venue.
• 17:07
  So you have things that are going to resonate with people's
• 17:09
  childhood. You have things that are going
• 17:11
  to resonate with people at home, with people that have traveled
• 17:15
  and also resonate with people from the technique and the
• 17:18
  creativity of your food. Make sure that it matches the
• 17:21
  restaurant. Time and place matters anyway.
• 17:24
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• 17:26
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• 17:29
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• 17:31
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  Button. Chef's PSA is now on Sub Stack
• 17:35
  where you get exclusive podcast there for the price of some gas
• 17:39
  station snacks. For $10 a month you can get some
• 17:42
  exclusive content on Sub Stack from Chefs PSA including lots of
• 17:46
  books, free courses. I just put one up the other day
• 17:50
  that is talking about the specific tools that I use, so go
• 17:53
  subscribe to that as well. Go to chefspsa.com, you get all
• 17:56
  the books, all the merch including this hat right here
• 17:58
  and plenty of other things. We'll see you next week with the
• 18:02
  guest most likely hit the porno music.