Week two and I forgot my sole New Years Eve resolution... Shakshuka Baby, it's not just for breakfast anymore. Give it a try while you either are celebrating or lamenting in a bottle of cheap tequila the recent political news.

True confession: I am a closet sous vider. I come from the last of the old guard that rejected sous vide in favor of more classical techniques. I was first exposed to sous viding when I did a stage for Joel Robuchon in Paris in 1996. He had a pork belly dish I vividly remember, the ultimate Petit salé aux lentilles, a melt in your mouth dish of cured pork belly served over creamy lentils. Petit salé is far too bourgeois for most diners of a three star Michelin restaurant and I am convinced the dish was not actually on the menu but there only for gastronomic regulars in the know. Each morning at Robuchon a plastic tub was filled with warm water and a strange device attached. The machine gently hummed while vacuum-packed bags of cured pork belly were lowered in. All throughout prep and service, the machine circulated water heated to a precise temperature around the packets. It felt like Christmas whenever someone ordered it. Time stopped. Everyone’s attention was fixated on the opening of that one single package and I always wondered who was on the other side of the swinging kitchen doors eating it. Since then, every “modern” kitchen I have worked in had at least one such circulator.

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~ George Eliot

For those of us who revel in the sensuality of life, Fall is a wonderfully bountiful time of year. The trees adorned in vibrant autumn hues of deep reds and golden yellows are a feast for the eyes. A refreshing crispness fills the air, stimulating our appetites for heartier, more comforting dishes. Much needed rains replenish aquifers and awaken the slumbering mushroom spores. Soon chanterelles, boletes and matsutake will poke their curious heads through the forest humus adding to our table. Coho salmon get nature’s signal and begin their runs up several rivers in the Olympic Peninsula to spawn. And perhaps the most elusive and forbidden of all harbingers of Fall, the red fleshed Mountain Rose apple, appears for a brief glorious moment.

I am deeply moved by Jean-Andre Charial’s (owner of Oustau de Baumaniere) philosophical book ‘Lunch in Provence’. More correctly, it strengthened my conviction that the foundation of great food lies not only in the provenance of ingredients and simplicity of preparation but in emotion and passion while enjoying it. Charial spoke of lovely, outdoor makeshift lunches where just-picked vegetables and fruits from his own farm, fish caught that morning and local pastured meats were served to a gathering of friends. Shared meals are so much more than simply food, they become life experiences that celebrate through laughter, friendship, and communion with the natural world. They provide meaning and context to our busy lives and enrich our souls. Charial advises “the meal need not be grand, but the experience surely can be.” As I read those words, I closed my eyes and could begin to smell the nearby lavender in bloom. I listened carefully to the cicadas singing softly in the distance as I lifted a spoonful of soupe de poissons to my lips. The briny aromas of the sea carried me to the Mediterranean and made me think, it is time to visit Provence again, even if only through a meal.

Chaste perfection is the hardest sought quality a good cook can ever hope to achieve. It’s not how much you can add, but rather how much can safely be removed that makes a dish noteworthy and memorable. A great vinaigrette, therefore, is the perfect litmus test of a cook’s ability. It requires a passionate understanding of how flavors work together as a whole rather than the scientific memorization of oil to vinegar ratios.

A REFRIGERATOR FULL OF RATATOUILLE
A Refrigerator full of Ratatouille
AN ODE TO CASSOULET
An Ode to Cassoulet
COHO SALMON CRUDO WITH MOUNTAIN ROSE APPLES
Coho Salmon Crudo with Mountain Rose Apples
MOUNTAIN ROSE APPLES
Mountain Rose Apples
ROGER VERGE AND HIS INCREDIBLE OLIVE TART MOUGINOISE
Roger Verge and his incredible Olive Tart Mouginoise
A REFRIGERATOR FULL OF RATATOUILLE
A Refrigerator full of Ratatouille
AN ODE TO CASSOULET
An Ode to Cassoulet
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AN ODE TO CASSOULET
November 2, 2016 By Francois Leave a Comment

Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba.

Any cassoulet worthy of the name is not a light dish, and is probably best served as a noontime dinner. – Julia Child

Writer Jolene Bouchon asks a question many cooks grapple with. Do you wash your mushrooms before using? So, do you?