Food Network Detox (part 2/3)
Getting Back to Family Meal
My housemate works at a restaurant here in Philly called Talula's Garden. He helps with daily prep, but his primary cooking responsibility is to make family meal for the back of house staff. He has used that post to learn as much as he possibly can about the building blocks of cooking: stocks, breads, sauces, etc. Yeast starters and rising dough have started hanging out in the corners of our fridge. More than once I've come home to the smell of fresh bread and feint traces of flour on the counter, and wished I'd arrived earlier to catch him in the midst of his art. And perhaps that he'd wiped the counter a little better...but that's neither here nor there. His dedication to complete mastery of the simple things is inspiring.
It's had me thinking on where Them Dinners went wrong. It was supposed to be about family meal. Specifically, family meal for those of us without families of our own yet, who don't want to put off the social (soul-cial?) benefits of regular homemade meals and broken bread. So how is a true family experience different from what Them Dinners became?
Family meals are expansive. My grandmother never had a seat cap at her table. If you had a reason for being there, you were family and you were welcomed.
Family meals are also participatory. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, and the same goes for dinner. Close relatives would arrive early to help my grandmother cook. Acquaintances would bring offerings for the table, and carry table conversation into the kitchen to help with dishes, working up an appetite for dessert. In my immediate family, my brother and I would rotate week to week between prep cook and clean-up for my dad's elaborate culinary exploits.
Family meals do not exist primarily to be surprising, daring, or center stage. Sure, they can be a safe place to take risks, but above all else they are reliable, stable, waiting for you.
Sustained, regular cooking requires an understanding of ingredients, not access to a bottomless catalog of recipes. Food shows and even cutting edge food blogs have amplified the recipe so much that skill seems reserved for those who have given their careers to the line or a culinary school. Screw that.
I am much bigger fan of goals than resolutions. In 2013 one big goal is to set Them Dinners right. That means a commitment to weekly dinners, an expansive guest list welcoming of friends new and old, a focus on learning the fundamentals of cooking, and trust that most of my family of friends don't want to be that uncle who brings nothing and falls asleep on the couch after dinner. Though, like family, he's welcome too.
previous... Hi, My Name Is Them Dinners and I Have a Problem
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