by Chef Ben Lierman
As a chef that teaches cooking classes in Indianapolis, I am often amused at how often the cart goes before the horse. Many times, the student that has the highest expectations, and seems to want to get the most out of the program falls short under the weight of impatience and underestimation. What some have failed to see here, is of the utmost importance, is that food is a process like mathematics in many ways. Each process builds on a skill mastered in the previous section.
Take, for instance, the humble bruschetta. A creation of the Tuscany region of Italy, the bruschetta is a slice of bread, toasted, rubbed with garlic, and moistened with olive oil. The dish has become exceedingly popular in restaurants often topped with some sort of elaborate vegetable and cheese relish.
When I mention this dish in class, folks get excited that we are going to discuss a dish that they often enjoy in their favorite restaurants. The talk often goes to what sort of beautiful marinated, broiled, infused or otherwise concocted fluff that is going to be atop of this culinary masterpiece. What did we forget?
Bread. Simple, basic, and the stuff of life. While everyone sat salivating over the potentials for high falutin’ toppers, no one asked where the bread was going to come from. I am sure that the assumption was that the bread would be purchased from a high-end grocer, proofed and baked to company specification. We need to learn to bake great bread. 4 simple ingredients intertwined in a miraculous framework of starches, proteins, fermentation, and respiration that changed the course of human history. Pretty powerful stuff if you ask me.
This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to what’s important in food: Back to basics.
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