On Home Cooking

It is one of the central paradoxes of my career thus far as a professional cook that I rarely find myself cooking what I want.

I cook what I am told to cook, hopefully exactly the way I was told to cook it. It doesn't matter if it's cuttlefish, scallops, sausage, carrots or eggs. First someone tells me what we're doing, then shows me how, and then I endeavor to recreate the same thing a hundred times. Generally speaking, suggestions and criticisms are allowed but rarely heeded. The point is to carry out someone else's culinary vision. It doesn't matter how I like to eat my potatoes, when at work, we're doing the way "El Jefe" told us to (hopefully). Even when I'm making family meal, I'm attempting to make something that the boss man will approve of. Naturally when I'm making something for the family I try to branch out, try to create something delicious and fresh within the severe limitations I'm confronting. Yet the many hurdles and the expectations of others abound.

Cooking at my home is one time when I can shake off the expectations and standards of others and just get down to eating something that gets me off. At home I can play around, try a few things, or almost nothing depending only on what I want to eat. If I want to have steamed carrots, that can happen... if I want Pot au Feu... if I want Cassoulet... Feijoada... Dobradinha... Bouillabaisse... If I just want roasted potatoes with mayo.... etc. I can make it happen. It's limited only by the amount of effort I'm prepared to put in. (Well, maybe I'm not sous-videing things around the house, but you can fake the funk with a gang of plastic wrap and some simmering water.) For a very pleasant Christmas eve dinner this year, I had the opportunity to cook for my family in my little apartment. It was a joy. A little pate, a little fish, a little shellfish, a roasted chicken, then blackberries and ice cream. At home, well prepared, well seasoned, simple food reigns supreme.

This particular evening I purchased a piece of pork loin for my dinner. I seared it and popped it in the oven to a nice medium. (This is actually the only obstacle to home cooking I've encountered: the smoke coming off searing meat.) I had also come across a celery root in my travels and I prepared this two ways, I cubed most of it and glazed it with a little honey and chicken stock that I had prepared last week. The scraps I julienned and mixed with a little green apple, parsley, lemon and olive oil for a quick 'slaw. While the pork rested I fried 1/2 an onion in a little of the pork drippings. The dish came together beautifully, roasted pork, onion, glazed celery root and a green apple slaw. It's a classic combination but classic for good reason. I enjoyed it with a bottle of inexpensive Languedoc red (Laurent Miquel Syrah Grenache 2007, $9) with some caramel chocolate and a fine cigar on the fire escape for dessert.

This was a great, simple meal: one that I ate the way I wanted, prepared the way I wanted and enjoyed just so.