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Gourmet is not just about simply picking it up as a kind of lifestyle that you could impose over your daily life out of sheer force. It takes practice, constant application, and immense effort in order to make it work for you and your preferred lifestyle. Gourmet Food preparation and dining unfold in the same manner. Of course, you are free to decide in which areas of your eating style you only want to apply gourmet food preparations. However, for the most part, you might like to be honest with yourself and see that gourmet eating is really something that you want to live out for the rest of your life. If you are not already into gourmet eating, food preparation, gourmet ware setting, and the likes, then this should be a great piece of material for you to pick a few starters from.
What are your preconceived notions about Gourmet living and lifestyle?
Each one of us has the preconceived notion about one thing or the other. Often, these notions can be eradicated over time as we discover insightful information about the topic we are investigating. As for gourmet, what are your ideas for it? If you immediately think it is about expensive food preparations and food that you would normally find in posh restaurants or glossy lifestyle magazines, maybe it is time to reevaluate this idea. Living the gourmet way is basically enjoying the pleasures and the appeal we get from the food and food preparation we have enjoyed working on. It is like allowing an old cliché to transform right in front of our eyes so that we have a fresh perspective in the way we would feed and nourish ourselves with food. Again, this is not the exact type of advice you might want to hear as this is only painting a picture of what it is to do things a certain way using a gourmet approach to cooking and presentation of food.
Are you a foodie? Do you love food and food art?
Many self-confessed foodies would be quick to admit that they are after the sensation of eating and digging in through the food presentation. What different food textures can be found in a single dish, for example? What can a revitalized milk shake offer differently from the regular milkshake that you have grown accustomed to? How do you get to finally taste, view, and experience such kind of milkshake in a different light?
Experience the gourmet lifestyle in the comforts of your own home.
If you are the type that gets excited over a new menu at your favorite gourmet restaurant and then you want to try it out immediately at home, you can use this idea immediately. Just by careful observation you will get a few hints. Take your time and experience the Gourmet experience. Savor every flavor, taste and food textures. Review and revise as often as necessary until you get the perfect gourmet food recipe you have always wanted. Over time, this will become part of your experience and eventually you will become an expert at Gourmet.
Gourmet Food preparation and dining unfold in the same manner. Of course, you are free to decide in which areas of your eating style you only want to apply gourmet food preparations. However, for the most part, you might like to be honest with yourself and see that gourmet eating is really something that you want to live out for the rest of your life.
Whenever I give talks or seminars on raw foods, I like to ask the audience the following question: "what do you think of when I say the term raw vegan food?" More than a few people get a slightly anguished look on their faces and answer something like: "carrots," "celery," "salads" or "rabbit food." To them raw vegan food or living food seems like it must be boring. After all, how much can you really do with raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds?
I wondered exactly the same thing back when I started getting into the living food lifestyle in Miami Beach about 10 years ago. Whenever my friends talked to me about it, I just couldn't relate. Even though I was already a vegan at the time and ate quite a bit of fresh fruit and vegetables, a 100% living food diet seemed to me like it must be incredibly limited - and boring.
I held that view until one day when I went to a gathering sponsored by our local yoga center. It was a vegetarian potluck and all the dishes were cooked, except for 2 that my friends Ryan and Marisa brought. One was a living food lasagna and the other a live food apple pie. The presentation of both was beautiful - the lasagna sprinkled with freshly chopped parsley and the pie topped by a white spiral of cashew cream.
The appetizing look of the food was only surpassed its remarkably fresh and vibrant taste. The lasagna had layers of fresh thick marinara, pine nut "cheese" and pumpkin seed pesto spread in between strips of zucchini "pasta" and was topped with fresh spinach. It tasted better and was more refined than any cooked lasagna I'd ever tried. The apple pie provided a similar taste explosion, with grated pink lady apples, chopped fresh walnuts and raisins atop an almond fig "crust."
After such a remarkable culinary experience, I was impressed and intrigued enough to want to try more gourmet living foods dishes. Luckily for me there was a small company called "Food Without Fire," that made and delivered gourmet living food meals 5 days a week. These included things like raw food "tacos," "burgers and fries," "chili," "pad thai," "chocolate mousse," "carrot cake," "cheese cake," tiramisu and all sorts of specialty salads.
The meals were fantastic and made my transition to the living food lifestyle a breeze. After just 6 weeks eating Food Without Fire's meals, I felt more energized and healthier than I ever had. So it was easy to continue my journey deeper into living foods.
Over the next couple of years, I discovered living food restaurants spread across the United States, from simple take away windows in Florida to high-end gourmet establishments in Northern California. There were also living food retreats, seminars and culinary schools to attend and enjoy. Those kinds of experiences made it easy for me to enjoy the benefits of eating a diet based on raw vegan foods.
I feel very lucky to have come across this information and to have had the opportunity to easily put it into practice. It has changed my relationship to food, to health and to the environment more deeply than I'll probably ever know.
If you too are interested in experiencing the natural high of living on live foods, you're living in the best time ever to do it. Never before have we had such easy access to this kind of life changing information.
Mark Ament is an expert on colon cleansing and raw foods nutrition. He is the author of "A Complete Introduction to Raw Vegetarian Cuisine" and several other books on natural health. Discover how to make your own fresh raw food recipes using Mark's ebook available at http://www.safecoloncleanse.com/store/
Dan, how can we bring the locavore movement to medium-priced restaurants?
Dan Barber: It’s a hard one. It is about making choices, and changing your menu often, maybe daily. Buy the whole lamb, use all the parts and there will be a savings overall. But that means you cannot serve loin of lamb every night.
Over the past century, most industrialized nations have transformed from having a majority of the population working the land to a minority. One of the bigger challenges to being able to feed most of the population with sustainably-grown food seems to be that we’ll need a larger farming workforce. How can we address this issue?
Stone Barns: You are absolutely right, we will need many more people to be involved in the food system, either as producers or active food citizens. At Stone Barns, we are working to train the next generation of farmers in sustainable practices. There are a tremendous # of entrepreneurial people interested farming as a career, some who are generations removed from working the land. Chefs Make Change donations go to support this work. It’s also about all of us being active food citizens—from what we buy, to asking for this kind of food in our restaurants, markets and schools.
Is there any reason why an “heirloom” tomato should cost $7/lb when a standard tomato in the same market (also locally grown) costs $2/lb?
SB: Some of it may be perceived value, but heirloom crops can be challenging to grow. With tomatoes, we might lose as much as 30 percent of the crop to breakage, bruising, etc. We’re working with seed breeders on hybrid varieties that will have both great flavor and nutrition, and a bit more resilience.
DB: And if cooks, at home and in the restaurant, would be willing to purchase the bruised and less then beautiful tomatoes to make sauces or tomato water, the farmers could charge far less.
How ascetic should we northerners be in the winter? For example, citrus is such an important element in the kitchen and I have to admit that some of the organic blueberries coming from Chile are quite tasty.
DB: I’m not a purist—we use plenty of citrus in winter. (And I don’t feel guilty about buying it.) But I draw the line at blueberries in January. I’d rather wait for when the local berries arrive in June. Then I eat them by the pint.
San Marzano tomatoes are so expensive, and I would like to use some of the local tomatoes anyway. What are comparable paste tomatoes that can be grown in the US?
DB: Try to find Jersey Fresh—delicious. It is a crushed product, but cold be substituted in some recipes.
What are some of your favorite ways to eat locally in the winter?
DB: I hear a lot of complaints about farming (and eating) in the Northeast at this time of year, but the climate is perfect for root vegetables. In the cold weather, the vegetables convert their starches to sugars in order to survive, so we get the sweetest possible carrots and turnips. As far as techniques go, we just got a new grill, and we’ve been having some fun with that.
SB: If you have a backyard you can put up a very simple covered, low tunnel structure to grow spinach, mache & kale. Check out this video of winter on our farm and harvesting in these tunnels.
I was wondering where you find inspiration when having fresh vegetables is kind of limited?
DB: This year, we made a big push for preserving, and it’s been a great way to make it through the winter doldrums. But the things I’m most excited about take advantage of the cold—like the crop of overwintered parsnips Jack Algiere planted last March that he’ll harvest next month, or the ice spinach growing outside in winter tunnels.
What I should look for when selecting an heirloom tomato at a farmer’s market in the summer?
DB: Well, Jack just said, “tell her not to squeeze it, the price will only go up more.” The only way to know is to taste them. Heirlooms have such a variety of flavors—from the sweet to tart.
What are some of your favorite restaurants across the country?
DB: As far as restaurants go, maybe Oleana in Cambridge or Husk in Charleston? Those have been some of my favorites this year.
Favorite dessert?
DB: Apricots, straight from the fridge.
Chef Dan Barber. Photo © Andrew Hetherington.
