Friday, September 19, 2008

Cooks Who Have Influenced Me




1. My Mom. My mom is the most amazing cook ever. She cooks everything fearlessly and with great style and panache. She travels with a lemon reamer in her RV, and in my opinion, that is the mark of someone who will produce fabulous meals wherever she goes. Or at least lemony ones.

There used to be a show on the travel channel called "Great Chefs of the World". The show would go to the most exclusive restaurants in the world and show their chefs cooking world-class cuisine. Meals that would easily cost you $100.00 a plate. Well, my mom is the only person I know who ever attempted to make one of the recipes from that show. Now we're not talking about accessible, tailored to the home cook food. We're talking cuisine. When Mom is visiting she and I cook together, but most of the time, she is driving the bus. She has great ideas, and even better, when she is here she pays for most of the food. So one day she says, "Hey, I made the most amazing salmon, with mango, melted brie, tomato coulis, napa cabbage, all sitting on top of Parmesan mashed potatoes. Now, my first thought was, "You're kidding. That sounds disgusting!" But I just looked warily at her and said, "Um, okay, sounds good." So off to Wegman's we went and procured the vast array of ingredients needed to make this dish. It took a long time. We came back and she started the elaborate preparations, while I kept my reservations to myself about how these tastes would intermingle with each other. Well, boy, was I wrong. But I should have known better. It was FANTASTIC! Even my kids liked it. It took hours to make, but it was worth it. My mom is the only one I know who could pull it off. Oh, except me. I have since made this dish. I would love to publish the recipe, but alas, I cannot. And even if I did, most people would be too intimidated to make it. BUT, you can buy the recipe for .25 from the Great Chefs of the World. Or you can beg me for a dinner invitation and bribe me with cheap champagne to cook it for you. You never know, I just might do it.

I have many more stories to tell about Mom's fabulous cooking. And I will. Stay tuned. Next up on Chefs who Have Influenced Me: the Galloping Gourmet. More from the kitchen later.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Mendon Foodie's Mom rules. She once made me an entire cookbook of recipes - just for me - which were totally FABULOUS. I use the book all the time. And I can attest to the fact that she is the only person I know who never hits the road in her RV without an adequate supply of balsamic glaze, capers and goat cheese.

Laura K said...

I don't own an RV but if I did you can bet it would be stocked with a box of Saltines and three cans of EZ cheese.

June, got a new angle for you.

The One-Word Cook

We toss out one word, like "tenderloin!" and you deliver an inspired recipe based on it.

Me first:

"UdonNoodles!!"

(say it real fast and it becomes one-word)