I took my wife out to eat the other night because she said she’d been hearing about this new restaurant in town with a menu designed around ‘Saffron’. Being a retired chef who likes to use saffron in some of my experimental recipes, and the fact that it would give me a break from cooking that night. By-the-way, have I told you that my wife is a great cook but hasn’t cooked more than three or for times in the seventeen years we’ve been together? She says I can’t keep my nose out of her kitchen and she refuses to have me standing over her while she’s cooking. I’m kind of like that, however, even after 35 years in the industry, I love to cook and am happy to prepare the bulk of our meals.Back to our night out. The bottom line is we were both very pleased with the experience. Though from a chef’s point of view, creating an entire menu around one spice or one taste makes it hard to sell. I wouldn’t expect you’d find a large enough following to stay alive in such a competitive business. I do wish them the best though.Now I’m sure you’re asking, “What’s all this have to do with cooking tips & tricks?” I really am going to get to the point. That’s another problem I have. I tend to ramble. OK! Here’s the tip. When you eat out and think that you understand the dish you enjoyed, and would like to try cooking it at home, if you’re like most of us you stumble a bit with figuring out the complete array of spices the chef used. Or if you feel you do know for sure what they were, you’re a bit hard-pressed to figure the amount of each spice you’ll need to achieve the same taste. Here’s the tip. If you’ve cooked for very long at all I’m sure you can identify most of the spices in the dishes you like, but it never hurts to ask when that one spice seams to elude your senses. Ask the chef if he’ll share the information with you. Most will. When you have a secure knowledge of what spices are in the dish, simply add the spices to whatever you’re cooking in, pot, pan, etc. and imagine it is your own dinner plate and you’re adding each spice or herb as you would add salt and pepper to just that one plate. You’ll subconsciously know for example, the strength and ratio of each ingredient you are using. Try this…you might be surprised how well it works.Chef Robert
