A Lifetime In The Kitchen
I'm not here or doing this to set the world on fire, I'm doing this to offer what I feel is a simple option. Like a lot of us either in the food and hospitality industry or just someone that truly enjoys eating, I see and eat a lot of food that seems to be overkill on trying to be something different. Sometimes it seems like the food industry gets into these creativity on steroids periods as new chefs and trends hit the scene. After trying a few of these new scenes, that is when I seem to start to stay home more to entertain or go to our old favorite standards of cultural tradition in dining. Always good and no surprises.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't fancy myself to say I'm something bold and new, I'm a person who values and holds on to tradition.
I was raised in a traditional Italian food environment. My father was in the restaurant business. He helped set up locations, oversaw the hiring, worked on menu and kitchen set up and made sure they got up and running, hung around a while and moved on to the next project. He would take me to work with him a lot and I somewhat grew up in the commercial kitchens and set up areas of small bistros thru large hotels. He was born before the great depression and like all of that era and all of his generation, had that air about him. My Mom was also a woman who was born before the great depression. They met in the Army Air Corp during WWII. She was raised on a farm that had no electricity and no indoor plumbing. They grew and hunted what they ate. She was resourceful. Working from scratch was not something to try for the experience, it was away of life and she imparted that into me from the start. We did not have a lot of money, but we always ate well and Mom worked from scratch for virtually all meals. She was taught my fathers family's style of cooking by my father, his big sister and aunts. Needless to say, he was demanding in what we ate at home. After all, he was in the biz.
It did not take me long, even as a very young boy, to realize how much I enjoyed eating. Also, it did not take me long to realize how good eating at our home was as opposed to many of my friends homes. Friends were always commenting "what's that smell, it's good" or "what?, my mom don't do that!". It was the atomic era, a time of convenience and modernization. Things to eat came ready or partially prepared out of cans and plastic at many of my friends houses. Just heat and eat. Not at my house, unless it was leftovers or prepared ahead of time. Cans were in the basement, but they were there for emergency, not everyday. Anyone remember duck and cover?
My love of eating drew me to the kitchen as a small child. My Mom saw this and always invited me to jump in and participate in making meals. She patiently allowed me to work along with her. It was not long before she was telling me in advance that she would be making this or that of what she knew were my favorite meals later in the week and did I want to learn how to make the whole meal to which I would agree and stay home to learn. My Mom and Dad both said it was important for a man to know how to cook and that it was wrong for a man to depend on a woman to eat well. By 10 years old, I was making my favorite, ravioli from scratch and she was sitting and instructing. She had this point with a wooden spoon thing that she did. As the years went by and my interest increased, one by one, she handed over to me what she had learned since childhood and what she learned from my Dad's family. My father too had great input. Shopping, what to look out for at the vegetable stand, what to look and ask for at the butcher, making and putting up stocks, dairy handling, working with herbs, creating sauces red and white, butchering and prepping meat, game, poultry and pork, cleaning and prepping fish, all came into play over time. My Mom was the backbone of the instruction, my Dad was the critical supporter and the historical reference for where it was all coming from. I learned the term Alta Cuccina from him, what it meant and how it tied to my Moms efforts and what she had been showing me all those years. He showed me so much of what we did and ate at home went all the way back to the Romans, Greeks and earlier. I was, forever hooked.
As I type this, I am some 45 years into working with food and what I was shown by my family. My Mom and Dad have passed on many years ago, but their lessons taught to me I now show my son as I was shown and share with him the history of our lineage. What I do now with my son, my cooking for others and now with this web site is keep our traditions alive and going strong. I hope as you try these recipes you will see their simplicity and their inherent cultural elegance. My father saying "just don't go overboard kid, simple is elegant" has rung in my head with every meal that I have ever planned and it has never let me down. I hope you too will keep this in mind as you try some of the dishes shown here and it influences you as it has me.
So here's to Mon and Dad. Alla Famiglia..
Please feel free to contact me anytime at jck@johncharleskitchen.com with any questions or feedback you may have. I look forward to hearing from you and I will get back to you if you do.
Have a great day,
JohnCharles
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