My Hero(s)

  
I have recipes to share with you, but no time to do it right now!  I will get back to the food part of the food blog soon, I promise!
 

I just wanted to share (read: brag) that tonight I got to meet my food hero, Mark Bittman, IN PERSON.  We shook hands, and then I gushed foolishly, all the while blushing madly, about how much I like him and how influential his writing has been to my whole approach to food.  It was exciting.  Except that I forgot to bring one of his books to have him sign.  Alas.  

Listening to him lecture on food sustainability and the environmental and personal health benefits of plant based diets was particularly timely because today in class we were discussing sustainability and vegetables with Michael Leviton, a well respected chef in the Boston area whose restaurant, Lumiere, (which I have not had the chance to eat at--yet!) really emphasizes local and sustainably raised produce.  It's on the late side, so I won't wax poetic right now, but it was interesting to hear about local (Boston/New England) food sustainability from someone who spends so much time thinking about, researching, and supporting local sustainable farming and agriculture.

In other news, we've reached a point in the semester, rather quickly, when we've had enough different instructors telling us their own (often conflicting!) view points, to the point now where it's hard to know what to think!  Chef John warned us this would happen, and so it has... Yesterday one chef declared "grass fed beef is crap!" or something to that effect, whereas today we taste tested grass fed and good quality Whole Foods (but not specifically grass fed) beef, both pieces cooked identically and completely unseasoned, and across the board everyone preferred the grass fed...so go figure.  And then the discussion on whether or not to truss your roast chicken went on so long I nearly missed Mark!  What I'm quickly discovering is that while it's great to have a lot of different, talented, respected, opinionated instructors---I will probably never be 100% certain what the "right way" to do anything is, be it chop garlic or roast a chicken.  Oh well.  With any luck I will feel confident enough in my skills at some point that I can make the rules!

So that's the cooking school update for now.  Tomorrow, after class, NYC for Dorie Greenspan's CookieBar, a pop up shop that she's doing this week.  Sooo excited!  And then when I get back I will finally post about Dorie's World Peace cookies, which are ammmmmazing.  You will not be disappointed.  (I would have written about them sooner, except my family ate them all before I had time for pics--yeah, that's how good they are!)