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I am making mushroom risotto. And here I am, with these beautiful dried porcini, and this great-looking mix of fresh crimini, oyster and shitake, and my carton of organic chicken broth [1], and this butter I bought at Bread & Circus that seems to be fresher than usual, and I'm thinking. Any fool can make great food with great ingredients. The sign of a great cook is when amazing food is made from less than optimal ingredients.
I am the fool. I'm a complete sucker for great raw food materials. Is it a vice? It's certainly requiring more money than I could be spending on food. But I'm also kept savoring food more, and so eating slower and less. My impulse at this thought is to move to a place with cheaper great food (Italy!), not to cut down on the quality.
Mmm, risotto.
[1] Call me snob. I can't stand most commercially available broth; whether vegetable or meat-based, usually smells too strongly of boiled onions, the only food I hate. And I'm usually too lazy to make real chicken broth, or don't have time for it, or don't want to deal with that much boiled chicken afterwards. The stuff they sell at Whole Foods is a good compromise.
I am the fool. I'm a complete sucker for great raw food materials. Is it a vice? It's certainly requiring more money than I could be spending on food. But I'm also kept savoring food more, and so eating slower and less. My impulse at this thought is to move to a place with cheaper great food (Italy!), not to cut down on the quality.
Mmm, risotto.
[1] Call me snob. I can't stand most commercially available broth; whether vegetable or meat-based, usually smells too strongly of boiled onions, the only food I hate. And I'm usually too lazy to make real chicken broth, or don't have time for it, or don't want to deal with that much boiled chicken afterwards. The stuff they sell at Whole Foods is a good compromise.
