Soap Box: What does it all mean… the food hug

Soap Box: What does it all mean… the food hug

Ted Allen once said, “New Yorkers need comfort food more than anyone else on the planet! If a restaurant could sell fried chicken, mac and cheese, Xanax and marijuana, they'd stay in business forever."

He also mentioned another time this is the reason cupcakes are so popular in New York City, because New Yorkers just need a hug. The cupcake…comfort food…it’s a hug. I think this is even true beyond the borders of the center of the universe (New York City), I believe this is what most people want in the end.

Generally speaking there are three types of people in the world, those that can count, and those who can’t, in the culinary world, there are only two, the ‘eats to live’ and the ‘lives to eat”. Us live to eats often get caught up in the discovery of new things, the never ending culinary voyage, but you know something, when it comes right down to it, something simple is going to make you happy. Ask any of the top chefs in the world, food writers, food personalities, if they could eat one last thing before they died, it’s going to be fundamentally simple. That’s right “foodies”, look away, because they are going to say things like, “A baked potato with butter…a fried egg… not some exotic plate, where the sauce had to be reduced over three days, and involved some rare ingredient found in an ancient roman wall, preserved down through the centuries, now unattainable, with foams, and things exposed to nitrogen!

Speaking for myself, the sandwich is most often my food hug. That’s right, something delicious, hugged between two pieces of bread, not last meal hug, but it’s up there. How about Bourdain’s Pho comments on No Reservations, about in the end just wanting a bowl of something good. Pho is a great hug. Other comforts for me, the most simple pasta dishes possible, Aglio e Olio, Cacio e Pepe, when I need recharge I will make one of these, they are so simple, in fact I don’t think it could get simpler, but they are special.

Another case in point is roast chicken. All the refined dishes in the world and not much can really be more enjoyable than a high quality, well prepared and roasted chicken…that’s right, chicken. Anyone who denies it is lying, and we know what happens to liars. And I will be the first to tell you when I’m at a restaurant it’s probably the last thing I will order, however that fact is that if I get over myself and actually order it, I am going to enjoy it very much.

My friend and New York City chef Carlos, said something profound yet simple to me one night, you need two things to cook good food, a reason (someone), and that thing the beetles said is the only thing you need, love. This may be why so many of our favorite dishes were something our moms made for us. They could not have gone wrong (unless your mom didn’t love YOU, which is entirely possible). They had a reason and love, and we enjoyed it.

The reason I have gotten on this soap box is because I believe that all the other things in the food world are important, yes, the foams, reductions, nitrogen, blah blah blah, I love it, but I don’t think you can really appreciate those things unless you can acknowledge certain fundamental truths. Then it’s the frosting on the cake (or cupcake) so to speak. You can then approach those things less pretentiously and enjoy them for what they are.

Ok, now someone knock me off the soapbox please...