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Day 3 - Aspen redux
ASPEN - I forgot to add yesterday when talking about Michael Chiarello’s presentation on sustainability that he also talked a great deal about cooking, which makes sense since most people know him from his cookbooks, appearances on the Food Network and his St. Helena, Cal., restaurant, Tra Vigne (which, if what little Italian I know holds up, means “between the vines” or “between the vineyards”).
One of his points, among many, was there’s a big difference between taste and flavor, a thought he was getting to ready to expand before he was sidetracked by something else. It was a curious and thought-provoking statement, reflective of his well-known quote (it’s on his NapaStyle Web site here) that “It’s not about the taste but the experience.”
Could we say the same thing about wines, particularly wines with a story (tradition, family, memories) behind them? I think of all the indigenous varietals I tasted at VinItaly, many of which never make it to the U.S. but which have rich histories accompanying them, as well as some of the small-production winemakers trying to make something special, hanging on to the past while making wines for today?
It’s a marvelous topic for future posts but for now, back to Aspen. It’s always a struggle to decide which of the events to attend during the Food & Wine Classic. I sat in on Jacque and Claudine Pepin’s “Fast Food Our Way” and came away (again) impressed with their message that good food and fast food can be the same thing, as long as a bit of care, ingenuity and love go into the making.
“My food is usually easy and fast to prepare, but it is not processed food,” Pepin said. He emphasizes using fresh ingredients, organic when possible. There was the usual bantering and good-natured rivalry between le pere et lal fille plus more of Jacque’s impeccable knife skiils. Claudine once referred to her father as “the human food processor” and if you’ve seen him wield a knife you know what she means.
Then it was off to watch Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger demonstrate some of his Asian fusion (my description in lieu of anything else) techniques.
During his presentation, he chatted as if we were sitting across his kitchen work table, which we were, although there were a couple hundred of us hanging on to his words. Among the gems were: — Potstickers were actually a mistake that came about when a Chinese chef forgot and left some dumplings cooking too long; — Judaism predates the Chinese culture by 300 years, which left Ming to wonder, “Where did all the Jews eat for 300 years?” — and his recommendation to use box wines for cooking since it doesn’t oxydize like bottled wines.
I didn’t try any boxed wines during the weekend but gave the bottled varietals a good go. I’ll tell you about some of them next time.
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