Chefs: Cook for family dinners

By The Associated Press, September 22, 2004

Last updated: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 12:10 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Why is it that when we're stressed, overworked and pressed for time, the first thing we eliminate from our daily routine is the home-cooked meal?

Three of America's most revered French chefs insist it's the last thing we should put on the back burner. They remind us that food is more than fuel: It is an essential touch-point of family life and a daily gift of love.

The chefs

Chefs Andre Soltner, Jacques Pepin and Alain Sailhac are deans of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, a rigorous and highly respected school for professional chefs.

The three, whose culinary careers collectively span more than a century, sat down in the kitchen at the Ketchum Food Center in San Francisco to share their thoughts on cooking and the family meal.

Soltner was chef-owner of the renowned New York restaurant, Lutece. Pepin, one of America's best-known cooking teachers, is the author of 19 cookbooks and has starred in many television cooking shows. Sailhac was executive chef of some of New York's finest restaurants, including the legendary Le Cirque.

Restaurant isn't intimate

However, the restaurant is not where families find intimate connection, the chefs say. It's at the dinner table at home and in the ritual of the evening meal.

"For a child, it's the place of comfort, the place of security, the place of happiness," Pepin says. "The noise and smells of the kitchen stay with you the rest of your life."

"Cooking is an act of generosity," Sailhac adds. "Preparing the best food for your children. Sitting down together. It's important to share a meal."

Agreed, but who can afford the time?

"Good cooking is simple," says Soltner. "Don't try to overdo it. If you start with good ingredients, you cannot miss. If you start with bad ingredients, you're in trouble."

Even professionals cook simply at home, Soltner insists. It can be as basic as preparing an omelet or making a salad, or cooking a few vegetables to serve with a piece of meat, fish or chicken.

While Americans may be busier than ever, home cooking has become increasingly easy, Pepin has noticed. "When I was a child, you had to kill the chicken, clean and pluck it, light the stove with paper, wood and coal.

"Today we have nonstick skillets, boneless and skinless breasts of chicken, prewashed spinach, presliced mushrooms — you can cook something good in the time it takes to make a hot dog."

Despite media reports to the contrary, Pepin, for one, denies American home cooking is dead.

"I don't believe people are not cooking," he says. "Fifty year ago, if you wanted to make a salad, you had just iceberg and romaine. There were no leeks, no fresh mushrooms or tomatoes. Supermarkets weren't as beautiful as they are now.

"If no one is cooking, where does all that stuff end up at the end of the week? They would need a dump truck to remove it."

Good, fast home cooking requires investing the time to learn a few basic cooking techniques, understanding the essential quality of ingredients, and having quick meal solutions in your repertoire, the chefs explain.

And if you don't know the first thing about cooking?

Try a cooking class, Sailhac says. "Take a short course and you will learn some good ideas. You'll learn to cook vegetables properly. Know about the right ingredients to have in your kitchen, the right pots and pans. You don't have to spend a lot of money."

Another useful way to gain skills is to watch cooking shows, Pepin adds. "When people see something cooked on TV, they can see how easy it is. They say, 'Wow, I can do that!' Once you master five or six dishes, your confidence shoots up."

There's another side to food, as sustenance, these experts say.

"Food is a synthesis of our life and ourselves. We are only what we eat. We pay a high price if we don't eat properly. Eat well, just don't eat too much," Sailhac advises.

"We don't need to eat all the time. We are bombarded by messages on the street, in the movies, where products are saying to us, 'Eat me, I'm so good.' It builds up a lot of need."

Variety also is important to keep the palate and the cook stimulated, according to Soltner. "Don't cook the same thing all the time," he says. "Vary your menus. You would even get tired of caviar or foie gras, if you had it every day."

Soltner says that restaurants that don't change their menus frequently get stale. The patrons, the staff and even the chef can become bored. The same holds true for the home cook and the family.

However, Soltner insists introducing variety to family meals doesn't require a complicated repertoire of dishes. Simply vary the greens you use in a salad, or try a new filling for an omelet.

Here are some very simple cooking suggestions from these three very accomplished chefs, to demonstrate how home cooking can fit into even the most harried schedules.

Roast chicken:

Rub a whole chicken with salt and roast it in a 400 F oven for an hour. Even if you don't touch it or look at it, you'll have something you can eat that is simple and tasty (Pepin).

Tuna:

Season .75-inch-thick tuna steaks with salt, pepper and olive oil. Put each steak directly on a heatproof dinner plate. Bake in a 200 F oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine chopped tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped fresh herbs. Serve the tuna on the dinner plates right from the oven, drizzling the tomato mixture over the tuna (Pepin).

Omelet:

Beat eggs with salt and pepper. Put tomatoes into boiling water briefly so the peel can be removed easily. Cut tomatoes in half, squeeze out seeds and cut tomato into little squares. Put some butter in the pan, saute a little chopped onion. Add the tomatoes and saute again. Add the beaten eggs, along with chopped fresh herbs such as chives or parsley (Soltner).

Chicken breasts:

Pound boneless chicken breasts slightly, to flatten. Season with salt and pepper. Heat butter in a nonstick pan. Add the breasts and cover tightly with a lid. Cook over medium-low heat. When chicken begins to brown, about 10 minutes, turn chicken and cook another 10 minutes or until it is cooked through. Vary the basic flavor with herbs and mustard (Sailhac).

Carrots:

If you are too busy, just scrub them well — you don't even have to peel them. Cut them up and put them in a pan, add a little butter and a little water. Cover and cook slowly until tender (Sailhac).

(Sandy Hu, based in San Francisco, is associate director of Ketchum's Global Food and Nutrition Practice, and director of the Ketchum Food Center.)