Instructions
There are a lot of rules about food, even if most of them end up getting broken.
Never mix beef and fruit. Lasagne does not come in a can. If it’s stored on a shelf, then it’s not really cheese.
And then there’s my personal favourite: when a restaurant serves Indian curries, Italian pasta, Vietnamese soups, Brazilian barbecue, French pastries and Greek sweets all on the one menu, you’re better off not eating there…….especially if it’s an airline!
But there are rules too that help us create food, although these are less didactic and more just a helpful guide. It’s kind of like a road map with the best routes suggested, but the back roads are still included just in case that’s what you’re after.
Rule 1: Excellence trumps creativity every time. A perfectly-ripe simple peach will always taste better than a poorly-made peach crumble.
Rule 2: When you do less, the ingredients can do more. To really taste a flavour, allow the food to be the hero, and don’t mask it with layers of technique.
Rule 3: Fresh is always better, end of story. Unless you’re making cave-aged cheeses where the stink is part of the charm. But even then the argument is only about what constitutes ‘fresh’.
Rule 4: The first mouthful has the most flavour and it tails off from there, hence larger portions will not taste better.
Rule 5: Great food is made up of contrasts in four key areas: colour, flavour, texture and shape. You need at least three to achieve successful cooking.
It’s this last rule that acts as the central guide for most professional chefs, as it is a simple and elegant way to analyse what we create. We pair reds, greens, whites and blacks. We match sweet, salty and sour tastes. We will combine large round items with thin long ones, and some wrinkled bits as well.
But of all the elements, it is texture that defines the dish. After that first mouthful has passed and your taste reception fades, the critical interaction a diner has with the dish is in how it feels in the mouth. Ideally, you need to sense soft, creamy, elastic and crisp.
Need proof of this principle? Think about crème brulee with summer fruit. Creamy custard, crisp caramel, slight elastic fruit. It could be the perfect dish.
It leaves only one more rule: always make an extra portion to share with those your love!
Vanilla yoghurt créme brulee with summer fruits