Try as I might to avoid it, the fact of the
matter is that healthy eating is taking over. In the hospitality industry we
seek to please our clients and guests, and in order to stay up to date with the
current trends and food styles I am going to have to stop cooking with lard and
start cooking with olive oil.
I am making this sound as if I am opposed
to the healthy food choices, but the truth is that as classically trained
French cook, I am just used to resorting to butter to make food delicious.
For the longest time in the restaurant
industry, cooks and chefs have leaned on the classic ingredients,dishes and
techniques to produce elegant, rich and flavorful food. Butter, sugar, carb
heavy and meat heavy dishes with thick reduced red wine sauces were in the
spotlight. If you ate at a fancy restaurant you were likely to find words like
foie gras, butter basted, red wine jus and fried on the menu but as we roll
into the spring and summer season of 2013 I am seeing these trends being
replaced with terms such as salads, raw, vegetarian and gluten free.
Certainly when you visit a book store, the
overwhelming majority of the books highlighted in the food section are based
around healthy eating, diet trends, and what is local and seasonal. So if this
is what the people want to eat, this is what I need to cook!
Recently the urban element hosted two Chefs from Montreal for a sit down tasting menu and I was pleasantly surprised
by their menu. The dishes were mainly based around vegetable preparations, and
had a big focus on light and balanced courses. What surprised me the most was the
salad course. Not that they had a salad course but the fact that they served
two of them and one of them was after the main course. This is a bit contrary
to the classic tasting menu design and I was intrigued. When I asked the Chef
why he decided to have a salad as a course after a main he responded “When I
dine out I love to eat tasting menus, I just don’t want to feel over full and
sick when I leave” Good point!
I can recount many times that I have eaten
out and left feeling like I needed a nap and maybe some tums. As amazing as a
dinner at peid de cochon can be, eating an entire stuffed pig trotter and
chasing it with a heavy rich red wine was not the best decision I ever made. He
was right. Food should be enjoyed for being delicious but also allow you to
leave still feeling great. With
this in mind I am on a new mission. My mission is to provide balances menus and
meals which are not heavy and rich, but provide meals that are still flavor
packed and elegant.
With all of the interest in vegetarian
food, smaller portions, gluten free and low fat options, I need to get in gear
and trade out the butter basted steak for something lighter. Cooking without
these heavy staples does provide a new challenge, and I am game.
Sourcing lovely raw products, working with
farmers and choosing the healthier options for menus are on the agenda.
Here is where I am looking at you the
reader for support. In order to broaden my spectrum of recipes and menus, I
would love to hear from you. What healthy options do you love to cook at home?
Got a recipe? Got a meal idea featuring delicious superfoods like kale and
beans? Let me hear 'em!
