Elevating Your Everyday Cooking
BY: Sienna Scheer
Comfort food. This phrase brings up various images for everybody, that ooey gooey cheesy homemade macaroni and cheese your mom makes, or that warm apple pie that as soon as it comes out of the oven fills your house with the smell of cinnamon. Well those are exactly the kind of foods that are included in Upscale Downhome by Rachel Hollis. Her book is all about how to take basic foods and present them in a way that is higher end. (Hollis, 7)
I have always been interested in baking, but have never been big into cooking. Higher end presentation has never been my strong suit either. I decided to start out like every meal does, with an appetizer. I made pigs in a blanket. Instead of just wrapping hot dogs in crescent rolls, I wrapped the mini hot dogs into buttery, flaky puff pastry and topped it with a little bit of egg wash and freshly ground pepper before they went into the oven. Because like Rachel Hollis said "Go one extra step further. Add one unexpected ingredient or take the extra minute to put your dish on a pretty tray." (Hollis, 8). I also created a homemade honey mustard dipping sauce to go along with the dish. I decided to plate the dipping sauce in the center of the bright white platter and to surround the pigs in a blanket around them, to make it look as pretty as possible. This book has made me realize the taste of the food is not the only thing that matters but also how you present it.
Do you think that the way your food looks affects how good it tastes?
Hollis, Rachel. Upscale Downhome: Family Recipes, All Gussied Up. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, 2016.
I think people approach food that looks good differently than say eating chips out of a bag. When food is presented well, I think I tend to slow down and take my time with it more. I think it tastes the same, but that presentation of food might impact eating habits
ReplyDeleteI agree, when I receive or make a dish that looks more gourmet I tend to savor it also.
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