A Masterpiece

Cooking is artistry. When I am in a professional situation, cooking and preparing fresh food, my job is to “wow” a little bit and to have people sit down and enjoy that artistic element. At my home, good, simple, seasonal food is the “wow” and the artistry tends to be more about taste, flavor – eating. 

At one point in my life, I cut hair. How many times have we taken a picture in and said, “I want this”? Well really, it is not as much about the hair as it is “I want to look like that”! 

This same thing scares people in the kitchen – does it look like the picture in the book? We forget that food should taste good and if it looks fabulous, too – great! Food really does not have to look like a picture. It does not have to be complicated if we pay attention to what is in season. Our farmers’ markets are a very good place to do this. If we use our instincts about eating seasonally and add a few techniques, we’ll have more fun and keep it simple – place the meal on a pretty plate or bowl and there you go! 

Little successes for most of us are it tastes great, looks good, was so simple! It really does start with fresh food. Freshness and flavor go together. Let us get away from thinking everything has to be a masterpiece, and must be complicated in order to be good. That is the key – not worrying about coloring outside the lines.