Cooking and Philsophy.

The way someone cooks/prepares food, organizes their kitchen, selects ingredients, uses seasoning, creates a dish, and what they eat tells a lot about a person. In fact I have never truly felt that I have known someone until they have cooked for me in their kitchen, and I have cooked for them in mine.

Cooking food for others not only cures hunger, but allows an opportunity for people to learn a lot about you and them. How can you truly know someone if you haven't eaten their food before. The methods someone uses in their kitchen to create a dish can tell you a lot about them. Do they simply slop together a dish, microwave a frozen dinner, or does someone take the time to prepare something truly special.

The way a dish is created has a philosophy to it. A person puts part of themselves into the food, whether artsy, simple, or just eggs over easy with a hint of salt. It tells you the tastes and experiences a person has in so many different ways.

The way someone keeps their kitchen is often a sign of how they keep their house in order. A messy kitchen is a easy way to contaminate food and become distracted resulting in overcooking, under cooking, lack of seasoning, and countless other things.

What a person eats is also a way of seeing how someone lives. Do they enjoy vegan foods, Italian foods, Chinese foods, thoroughly cooked, or on the rare side, etc, etc.

My question to you is what is the philosophy behind the food you eat, and how does that same philosophy impact the way you cook, season, create, and serve food to others (Family and friends). What experiences changed the way you cook and prep food, are those experiences kitchen/eating experiences or personal ones. Do these experiences define you? What is your philosophy behind cooking, and what defined it. What does that say about you; have you taken the time to cook yourself something delicious today? This week?

There is an old saying. You are what you eat. I have one of my own.

The way you cook is who you are.

A little story about me.

I have worked in the restaurant business since I was twelve and a half years of age (As of now I am twenty three and an assistant sous chef) and have always found that philosophy and good food go together hand in hand. As a young boy I started out helping wash dishes for my uncle at his Italian/German themed restaurant on the weekends, and at the age of fourteen I began to busing tables. When I was sixteen I got into a dispute with my uncle and worked at Burger King for a little over three months and begged my uncle for my job back.

He put in his Kitchen as an assistant to the fry cook. During that time I bused tables and worked in the kitchen on weekends, and eventually ended up on my eighteenth birthday working for him full time as a line cook operating the grill, fryer, stock, saute, and baking stations. I went to bar tending school, and culinary school (Which I dropped out of after three semesters because I did not want to cook for the school and not get paid). I worked as both a line cook and bartender for him from age nineteen to twenty one, and moved away to work for a small restaurant that specializes in artisan bistro and caters to local farmers for ingredients. I work all stations in the kitchen, and wouldn't leave. Ever.

reply to post by brojose


Great thread brojose; I'm sure any cook who reads this would agree with you 100%. Sorry for my short reply; I'm just stepping in at work and chef doesnt like us on our phones :p

I watch TV shows about cooking a couple times a week to see what chemistry they are using. After watching them for a while and having tasted food in more fancy restaurants I am starting to notice things.

People pay a lot just to get salt, a mineral we need. They crave restaurant food and even expensive salty snacks to balance the electrolytes and to get the chlorides in the body. Simply putting a little salt on a cucumber or on a salad would accomplish this and people will eat a lot less.

The Glutamates are added to restaurant foods quite often or glutamates are made during the cooking process. People crave the umami taste, the taste of aged meat or foods. These neurochemicals, including the convertible glutamines, are also necessary. They do bring up BP somewhat and if overconsumed can cause lots of problems. A perfect combination of bound and free is needed to keep us feeling good long term. Restaurants seem to add more free glutamates so people feel great right away. This way they know where their good feeling came from. Six hours to process the bound glutamates means they may not realize where this feeling came from.

People do not understand the attractant properties of food and how cravings work. Cravings are our bodies way of saying we need something to remain as we desire. When you ignore these for a long term, a change in gene expression can occur and this can change the way we see things. We acclimate to the new way over a period of time and it becomes our new normal. Gene expression is tied to the creations of enzymes and the processing of proteins. Some of these changes are positive, some of them are negative.

If you are hungry, it is important to try to figure out what the hunger is caused by. Picking up some salted sunflower seeds when getting gas is relatively cheap. They supply salt, which is a craving on it's own, plus they have a little glutamates because they are dried. They have ample supplies of magnesium which is relaxing and also many other minerals that can solve a craving. Instead of the two buck cashews, the sunflower seeds will save you money. The minerals are bound but the acid in a hungry stomach can free the minerals.

Certain foods naturally control high blood pressure by regulating the glutamines/glutamates or tyramines. Having a little cucumber helps. The blood pressure raising caused by the tyramines in vinegar is moderated by the cucumber. Also celery and turmeric help with this. Condiments can be very important. Even a piece of chocolate can lower that blood pressure a little after dinner. Some of those snacks can have regulatory effects like the condiments. You see, our ancestors developed a system to fix the problems with food and we have disregarded that system, believing in people who just look narrow mindedly at the properties of food. People who deep down do not want the masses to get better or they will be out of a job.

Good thread OP. S&F. I look foreward to hearing what you can contribute to the site. I try to explain things, I do not really try to cut down people. I want to adjust people's perception by teaching them what I know. I cannot tell others what to eat, only inform them what is possibly going on with the foods in their bodies..

Mmmm, food.

I'm not sure how to organize this ... Well, first, our spice rack overflows with different herbs and spices, not seasoning mixes. We often keep four or five different kinds of chili powder on hand, for example. We also have the usual stuff. Our cabinet above the stove is where we keep our seasoning mixes, some store bought and some homemade like the baharat.

I have quite a few cookbooks, but we usually use our recipe binder where things wind up if we really like them. We put them in there in plastic sleeves, and they are usually marked up with our own tweaks. One thing you might notice is that most everything has mushrooms in it. Mushrooms are one of our household superfoods. Just about everything not intended to be dessert can benefit from mushrooms.

We also don't tend to favor food from one region or another. We have Mexican, Israeli/Middle Eastern, an Uzbeki (?), some Asian, Italian, and good old American comfort food stuck in there. So maybe if there is a pattern, it's in the flavor profile.

Most of the elaborate cooking we do is on the weekends when we both have the time to devote to it and help each other. We usually make a big enough amount that we can coast through the week on the leftovers. Then during the week, we will also eat a lot of short pan meals. Usually sautéed fish filets or pork cutlets or maybe chicken breast. We never really have a recipe for those, it's just something to sauté in with whatever herbs and spices float our boat for that evening.

Hmm, I forgot to mention that cabinet holding my cookbooks also has an entire shelf devoted to various oils, vinegars and red and white wine for cooking ...

rickymouse
I watch TV shows about cooking a couple times a week to see what chemistry they are using. After watching them for a while and having tasted food in more fancy restaurants I am starting to notice things.

The chemistry of the ingredients and creation of the dish are immensely important to putting together a good dish. Something that many chef's do on the food network and in many kitchens I've worked in which adds flavor is atmosphere in the kitchen as well. I enjoy the diversity that many chef's can bring to the table through their means of interaction not only with the food, but with others in the kitchen. A hidden trick to good food isn't order in the kitchen, but rather the atmosphere.

While food can be most for appetizing the taste, smell, and sight. Being in an atmosphere which indulges all senses, with gentle music, proper lighting, and great chemistry can be the difference between a good meal and a delightful one.

When it comes to the philosophy in my kitchen. Good food is always accompanied by an atmosphere which stimulates all senses.

Certain foods naturally control high blood pressure by regulating the glutamines/glutamates or tyramines. Having a little cucumber helps. The blood pressure raising caused by the tyramines in vinegar is moderated by the cucumber. Also celery and turmeric help with this. Condiments can be very important. Even a piece of chocolate can lower that blood pressure a little after dinner. Some of those snacks can have regulatory effects like the condiments. You see, our ancestors developed a system to fix the problems with food and we have disregarded that system, believing in people who just look narrow mindedly at the properties of food. People who deep down do not want the masses to get better or they will be out of a job.

The sad part about working in many kitchens is working with products are genetically modified. I have a firm belief that food should have little to no alteration, and it sickens me too see companies like Monsanto, Tyson, and so many others making profit off creating toxic foods. As you said with salts and glutamates, many of these are replaced with MSG as a flavoring agent. In my kitchen, I will cook from scratch using fresh whole foods that contains natural occurring glutamate.

At work we make a mushroom stock with beef, shallots, several other vegetables, with a small hint of red wine. We get the mushrooms from several farmers who grow in mass in doors. This same stock can easily made from kitchen scraps in any kitchen. When I think of conspiracy theories and food, I think that Mcdonalds and unhealthy short order food exists to make people not want to cook for themselves.

Think of all the money you'd save and how much healthier you could be if you cooked in your own kitchen. Fresh oats with brown sugar, toast, an orange, with coffee for breakfast can cost less then a mid-sized meal at a fast food joint, and be made in the same time you'd be waiting for it.

Good thread OP. S&F. I look foreward to hearing what you can contribute to the site. I try to explain things, I do not really try to cut down people. I want to adjust people's perception by teaching them what I know. I cannot tell others what to eat, only inform them what is possibly going on with the foods in their bodies..

Thanks! One of the biggest differences someone can make is to remember to support local farmers in your area. Supporting local farms promotes a healthier economy, healthier food, and will save you money in the long run.