Round 2: Cooking Like the Chefs

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Round 2: Cooking like the Chefs

Spiced Pear Sausage with Bacon, Turnips & Cabbage

An unexpected hurdle I’ve had to get over with my new home cooking endeavor: self-confidence. Yes, finding confidence in the confines of my own kitchen. Turns out, it can be a tricky thing. I’m my own worst critic.

Like I mentioned before, I’ve had the “unfortunate job hazard” of getting to work around the many talents of local chefs… people who have spent a majority of their lives honing their kitchen skills and continue to do so on a daily basis. While my taste buds have adapted to this lofty expectation, as soon as I get in the kitchen, I shrivel with the fear of not being able to meet my own expectations. It’s like, “Why even try when I know I’ll be dissatisfied?” So I revert back to making, say, hummus on pita, or a bowl of cereal, or—the ultimate dinner pairing of choice—cheese with wine.

So here’s where Garnish & Gather proves to really, really get my needs. Not only have they provided me with an amazing winter-perfect recipe with fresh ingredients tonight, it’s a recipe put together by a local chef whom I admire—Nick Melvin—using some of his own product that I’ve been meaning to try. (That would be his new, celebrated Doux South line, available in the G&G Local Market)

The Spiced Pear Sausage with Bacon (both from Pine Street Market), Melvin’s own Doux South Honey-Kissed Turnips together with winter Cabbage was hearty and perfect for this POLAR VORTEX-ed winter we’ve been experiencing, the bits of apple and cooked cabbage balancing the savory meats perfectly. Then of course, there was the little loaf of H&F bread to sop up all of the flavor and complete the plate. When Atlanta is experiencing sub-freezing temperatures like this, I have to say I can’t picture a more perfect meal. And it’s a dish that is most definitely man-approved: sausage and bacon and cabbage that’s been marinated in beer? Checkmate.

Cooking with fresh, local ingredients is one thing, but to be cooking straight from the notes of a chef that I know and respect is most definitely my perfect scenario for learning the cooking ropes: I get the creative and interesting, high-quality meal I would get in Melvin’s restaurant (or at least, hope to soon, what with all the rumors swirling of his new place opening some day soon) but I’m GETTING TO MAKE IT MYSELF. Learning as I go, gaining confidence as I go, feeling more and more understanding of what goes into the art of food as I go. And yes, making some embarrassing mistakes along the way. Hey, it comes with the territory. And not to mention, it brings a whole new level of appreciation for their skill.