Welcome to the first fall 2022 edition of the CulinaryWoman Newsletter! I am just back from Michigan, where the temperatures were much cooler than they’ve been in Louisiana. It was so nice to meet newsletter readers, and to hear your wonderful feedback. This is the free edition of the newsletter. Paid subscribers get even more features, such as Red Beans and Advice on Monday, The Conversation on Tuesday and they are automatically eligible for giveaways. I will be announcing the winner of the latest one for Bread Head next Sunday.
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Chaos Cooking Sweeps The Food World
Depending on how frequently you switch up your dining choices, you might have noticed a growing trend.
Foods that you might never have combined in the past are swamping restaurant menus, starring on social media and drawing crowds that happily wait to get in the door. Everything looks Instagrammable — which is a big motivator for these owners and chefs.
Eater New York has a name for this: chaos cooking. It recently profiled Kjin, a Korean Cajun restaurant in NYC that has attracted enormous buzz. While we have Viet-Cajun seafood here in New Orleans, thanks to our sizable Vietnamese community, Korean cuisine is not as common and this is definitely a road less traveled.
And that’s the point, says Eater. Kjin is among a group of restaurants with “wild, rollicking menus that are a far cry from the much-criticized fusion food of past decades.”
Chaos cooking isn’t about marrying flavors in a harmonious way. The goal is to make a strong statement - and get attention. Eater cited Slutty Vegan, whose expertise is dramatic stacked meatless burgers. It began in Atlanta, became a social media darling, and drew throngs of customers who camped out overnight for its opening in Brooklyn.
It’s fun to see people getting excited about food, and a fresh attitude is always energizing. Needless to say, however, this is not new news.
The roots of chaos cooking
Spectacular-looking food has been around since chefs began dazzling diners. Royalty, aristocrats and rich people dazzled their friends with elaborate dishes, served on tables that gleamed with silver and gilt accessories. And this wasn’t just for the wealthy. If you read cookbooks from the 1950s, you’ll see all kinds of eye-popping Jello-based concoctions, along with those doll cakes whose skirts were frosted to resemble evening gowns.
This was not the Maynard way. I grew up in a family that stressed much simpler, seasonal food. We ate sweet corn from our friend’s farm, apples from our neighbor’s orchard and the tomatoes my papa grew himself. The main excitement surrounded top quality steaks when our butcher had a sale on sirloin, or the annual Thanksgiving turkey.
Post college, however, I branched out, and one of my culinary highlights was discovering sushi. I was introduced to it by Shin Tanaka, an executive with Honda Motor Company, who was based for a time in Detroit. He took me to Sushi-ko, which set up two restaurants in suburban Detroit to serve the growing number of Japanese residents associated with the automobile companies.
Shin had me taste different types of fish to see what I enjoyed most, moving me from tuna to yellowtail and grilled eel. I’m sure the Japanese sushi chefs found my reactions amusing, but they contributed a lot to my culinary education. When I lived in Japan in 2002, I was able expand deeply into different types dishes, thanks to Shin’s introduction.
One day, our Tokyo neighborhood gained a new restaurant, and we trooped over to check it out. To our surprise, the menu wasn’t the simple list of sushi and sashimi that we found in traditional Japanese places. It featured dramatic rolls stacked high with ingredients, the elaborate pieces dwarfing the bite-sized offerings at conventional sushi bars.
The owners called their concoctions “American sushi” - echoing the variations that were now being found across the United States.
In fact, ingredient stacking has been come a hallmark of restaurants in many parts of the world. Just before the pandemic, Britain was enthralled by “freak shakes,” in which candy, marshmallows, macarons and other morsels were plopped on top of milk shakes.
Burgers everywhere have grown far bigger than the simple meat on a bun we ate at home or at McDonald’s growing up. You almost have to take them apart to be able to eat them, which seems to cancel out a burger’s appeal as a hand-held sandwich.
Of course, deli sandwiches have always been thick and laden with fillings — the menu at Zingerman’s Deli abounds with interesting combinations. Long ago, we learned the trick of asking for extra bread and sharing the insides, even if that meant canceling out the eye appeal. (In his recent memoir, Stanley Tucci wrote that this practice was frowned up at the Carnegie Deli. But we got away with it at the Stage.)
A middle finger to the purists
Chaos cooking is taking things farther, however. Eater called it a “brash new food style” that has an element of middle-finger to it. This cuisine is a reaction to the rules that many chefs and home cooks have learned over the years. “Its practitioners just want everyone to lighten the hell up about food,” Eater says.
To its admirers, chaos cooking is a medium of expression as much as taste. Zach Brooks, who runs Smorgasburg LA, the Los Angeles version of the popular Brooklyn pop up yard, sees two factors. First, these chefs don’t feel bound by traditional rules. They did not grow up with European cuisine, the kind taught on television by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, and which many of us learned in formal cooking classes.
Their influences come from bolder personalities like David Chang and Roy Choi, who amped up Asian flavors in noodle dishes and tacos. Second, he says authenticity is simply boring to the latest generation of pop up owners and young cooks. They don’t want to win badges for getting it right; they want to set themselves apart. “This is what innovation looks like,” Brooks told Eater.
In praise of simplicity
Call me old-school, but I think it would be a mistake to throw out all the fundamentals of food. I totally understand the resistance to the militaristic rigidity of French kitchens, which held back so many women and people of color. I get that prepping onions and carrots and clarifying stock is not the liveliest way to spend your time.
But simplicity has its merits, too. While I was in Michigan, my brother took me to Bellflower, one of his favorite local restaurants. It’s set in the old Bell Telephone office in Ypsilanti, a few miles from Ann Arbor, and it is the epitome of locally sourced cuisine. While we were dining, a farmer arrived to deliver boxes of fresh produce through the front door.
At our waiter Ken’s urging, I ordered the restaurant’s signature dish, a cornmeal encrusted trout, sustainably farm raised about half an hour away. It was accompanied by heirloom tomatoes, for which I had been pining in Louisiana. I would happily eat that trout once a week and the tomatoes satisfied my longing.
My brother, meanwhile, enjoyed wild blue catfish that sat on a beautiful stew of sweet potatoes and eggplant. I nabbed more than one of those sweet potatoes. His dish wasn’t chaotic, it was different, and delicious.
Chaos cuisine has its place, for sure. Growing up, we never imagined that we’d someday eat arugula and figs on pizza, or even knew what tofu was. We can all benefit from the news ideas that people are bringing to food, especially if they keep places thriving. But I’m personally more comfortable with a handshake or a hug than a middle finger.
A Cookbook From A Beloved Television Judge
When I got back to New Orleans last week, I found a package waiting for me from Canada. It contained a copy of Baking With Bruno, the newest cookbook from Great Canadian Baking Show judge Bruno Feldeisen.
The subtitle is, “A French Baker’s North American Love Story.” Bruno was born in France, but came to the U.S. and Canada to expand his horizons. Audiences have fallen in love with him on Canada’s version of the Great British Bake Off. A smile and compliment from Bruno is the show’s equivalent of a Paul Hollywood handshake.
He has written a lovely cookbook. It has clear instructions for setting up a baking pantry. His recipes start with the basics for making pastry creme, crumble toppings and different types of doughs. Then, he combines these fundamentals into recipes.
There’s a lengthy list of fruit desserts, mousses, simple cakes and an especially attractive Japanese cheesecake. For people who don’t like sweets, he has a great looking recipe for Parmesan Rosemary Biscotti (wouldn’t that be fun on a cheese board?)
Bruno’s book would make a nice addition to a baking collection, and it also would appeal to young bakers who are learning their craft.
The new season of the Great Canadian Baking Show is about to kick off. You can ask Netflix to air it by submitting a request here and follow him and the show on Instagram to see clips.
A Fascinating Global Pie Trip
People who love pie know Beth Howard’s work. She’s the popular baker behind The World Needs More Pie on social media. She chronicled her time living in the American Gothic House — famous from the Grant Wood painting — in her book, Ms. American Pie.
Beth has a strong sense of social justice, and has led pie baking journeys to places such as Newtown, Connecticut and Minneapolis. She suffered the loss of her husband at a young age, which gave her enormous empathy for those in grief.
Before the pandemic, she decided to travel the world and bring comfort food to all parts of the globe, thinking that her pie might help achieve a modicum of peace. She documented her fascinating trip on Facebook, but many of her fans wanted to know more.
Now, her travels are the subject of her latest memoir, A World Piece: A Pie Baker’s Global Quest For Peace, Love, and Understanding. Beth writes about the pie lessons she gave in places such as Lebanon, Thailand, Greece, India, Germany and Hungary.
Although she set off to teach, Beth wound up learning an enormous amount, about ingredients, techniques, traditional dishes everywhere she went, and about herself. Her book appeals to people who like to bake, people who enjoy travelogues and those who could use some inspiration in moving forward.
The Queen Consort of Cake
The events marking Queen Elizabeth II’s death brought incredible scenes to places in Scotland and England over the past few weeks. It’s estimated that one-quarter of the British population met her during her 70 years on the throne. If you missed any of the coverage, I highly recommend the daily recaps that were featured at What Kate Wore.
Some of those people met the Queen at the epic garden parties that she threw at Buckingham Palace. The statistics are eye popping: 8,000 guests, who consumed 20,000 tea sandwiches at each go, 27,000 cups of tea, and thousands of fruit tarts and scones.
We don’t know if those parties will continue with the new queen consort, but we know that Camilla likes cake. I wrote about her Victoria Sponge recipe for The Takeout. You might be familiar with Victoria Sponge as a light layer cake that’s usually filled with strawberries, jam and cream.
But Camilla, who loves chocolate, puts Nutella between her layers, or sometimes lemon curd. It got me thinking that you needn’t stick to tradition in filling your Victoria Sponge. Why not try red bean curd, or any nut butter, or even sweetened tahini?
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
I had such a wonderful time in Michigan, speaking to groups about Satisfaction Guaranteed. My thanks to the ORT book club of Ann Arbor, the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor, and the Milford Public Library for hosting me. You can find my appearance before the Culinary Historians on the Ann Arbor Public Library website.
I have several appearances coming up in November in Indianapolis, Detroit and Toledo. Find all the details on my website. I’m looking forward to meeting you.
I can be reached at culinarywoman at gmail dot com. My main Instagram is @michelinemaynard and my New Orleans adventures are @micki_in_nola.
While I was back home, I noticed that many people in Ann Arbor were masked up. Please get your booster shot if you haven’t already. I’m grateful that the protection is available.
Have a good week! I’ll see our paid subscribers tomorrow with Red Beans and Advice. Please think about supporting our journalism. You can upgrade by clicking here.