Beginning an Adventure

by briarcliff, June 13, 2009 | Permalink

Beginning an Adventure

By: John Chumbris

Food is many things to many people – pleasurable, nourishing, scarce, abundant, adventurous or purely functional. For me, food has been all of those things at one time or another, but most of all, what I value most from food is the experience. Not just the experience of eating and cooking, but also of where you are, whom you are with and a lifetimes of memories that are associated with them. Food is best enjoyed with people.

I was thinking about this recently when a large wine company began a nationwide search for a “wine country lifestyle correspondent.” It’s a pretty sweet six-month gig and a local Atlantan, Hardy Wallace, is in the lead. Looking at the process and videos of the applicants got me thinking about a simple, straightforward answer if asked why I like wine.  I came up with some basic reasons, which can be pretty much applied to most food in general.

1)     Simplicity – Wine is basically grapes and yeasts. Cheese is basically milk, salt and rennet or other enzymes. Fresh vegetables and good cuts of meat or fish are often best with just salt, pepper and maybe a few other herbs and spices to enhance the natural flavors. From these simple ingredients comes a broad and wonderfully complex world of flavors. If you start with good ingredients, it doesn’t take much to create good food.

2)     Taste –Seems fairly obvious but some people think more about practical and functional reasons than pleasure. This really applies more to food in general than to wine but I enjoy wine and I prefer enjoying meals rather than just eating and drinking. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just honest and good.

3)     Experience – Many of us think about food in the context of our lives, remembering particular wines or meals by where we enjoyed them and who we were with – a friend’s wedding, family holidays, a trip to Tuscany - more so than the specifics. Foods can evoke strong memories and I often find myself picturing various parts of my life through meals. Those experiences are not just of the person holding the glass though; they are also in the glass. The experience of the grapes – the soil the vines were planted in, the temperatures they endured, the amounts of rain and sun they saw, the process the went through to become wine, whether they aged in wood or steel and for how long. All of these experiences influence the results in the glass. Cheese is similar. I am still fascinated with amazing variety that can come from such humble beginnings.

Growing up in D.C. in the 70’s, I loved watching the Frugal Gourmet and it is what started my fascination with food as a kid. The host, Jeff Smith, often talked about the context of food in culture – the family gathering around the table preparing ingredients; food’s role in society and class; the importance various ingredients to the people growing or picking them. I hadn’t really started cooking much yet but it opened up a new world to me through food. As I started eating out on my own, I sought out at that point still exotic cuisines such as Hunan and Szechuan Chinese. Other cuisines soon followed. I traveled the world through a fork and knife (and chopsticks!). When I started cooking, I don’t think I ever cooked one of his recipes, but his merging of food and culture started a journey that has lead me here – to Whole Foods Market Briarcliff and to writing this blog.

This is the start of a weekly adventure into food. Sometimes I will write about specific foods, wines or the people behind them. Sometimes about ideas, techniques or issues. I hope to broaden your food world as the Frugal Gourmet and many, many others since have broadened mine. It’s a world I love to continue exploring. I’m not sure where this will lead from here but it will be fun finding out. See you next week!

One Response to “Beginning an Adventure”

1. Heather Says:
   June 13th, 2009 at 10:25 am

   Looking forward to reading more!

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