jaune_chat (jaune_chat) wrote,

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Cooking Good Food In Real Life

So, ok, here's a confession - I watch a few reality TV shows. Project Runway, Top Chef, and I started sporadically watching Face Off. I also watch a few more cooking shows that could be considered same: Chopped and Iron Chef America. I learn a lot from my cooking shows. Different kinds of ingredients, the names of some famous chefs and restaurants, and the extistance of all sorts of different cooking techniques. (Since the shows I watch are competition-driven, I don't get to learn said techniques, but they're fun to look up later.) Overall, I find them entertaining and they give me some great ideas.

But every now and then I find myself watching these shows and just want to smack the chefs over the head with a rubber fish.

Not because of personality or behavior (though that can grate: remember folks, if it gets caught on camera, it's there forever for your future employers to review) but because of their reactions to certain challenges. Namely, what I call the "Real Person's Cupboard" challenges.

Now I know that most professional chefs working in fine dining restaurants want the freshest ingredients they can lay their hands on. Fresh fish, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh herbs, locally-raised meat and dairy, the works. I totally understand and support that decision. It makes the food taste better, and no artist wants to work with inferior materials.

I, however, am not a professional chef. I am Jane Q. Public, and I tend to buy whatever's cheapest and most convenient at my local grocery store. This is what I eat on a day-to-day basis.

I recall a challenge on Top Chef (in Season 3) where the chefs were challenged to make a gourmet entree using... CANNED FOOD! When the sheet was whipped off the table and the canned food revealed, the resulting moans, groans, and disgusted snears would have made me think they were being told to cook with fresh horse manure.

That wasn't the last time I've seen that reaction either. Whenever the contestents on Chopped are given a processed ingredient to use, someone always bitches and moans about it. Iron Chef does this less often, but whenever they do, the chefs always find in inordinately challenging.

I'm sorry, what? What do you think most people eat from day to day? Given a much larger budget, infinite time, and superior cooking skill, I could cook with just fresh ingredients too, but that's not going to happen. What happened to these skilled chefs? Did they never eat canned tuna growing up? Never had canned green beans? You're in a bloody cooking competition! Let me know how I can take my can of chili and turn it into something fabulous! I should not have to look at my cupboard in shame.

I don't expect the whole competition to be about what to do with canned ham. Truly it's more fun to watch chefs cook with fabulous fresh ingredients. But canned food is not crap. It's what most of us eat. Don't disparage my tinned peas!
Tags: commentary, cooking, rant
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