N. 291 - Federazione Italiana Cuochi

poverished both by cooking methods
and by prolonged conservation. Reduce
the quantity and look for true flavours
and adequate textures.
3. Aromatic herbs. Avoid adding excessive
amounts of fatty, sugary or salty
condiments to foods, if something is
tasteless you won’t improve it in this way.
On the contrary, get used to flavouring
foods with aromatic herbs, possibly fresh
and just picked. A pot on your balcony at
home will be more than sufficient for this
purpose. Aromatic herbs give scent and
flavour to foods and, unlike spices, have
few and well-defined contraindications.
4. Taste. Eat what is bitter, bitter, what
is acidic, acidic, what is fat, fat and what is
salty, salty. Do not add sugar to coffee or
tea. Do not dress salads. Gradually get used
to eating foods as they are. It is important
to train yourself gradually to do this. So,
if you eat something fatty you will then
compensate with other acidic and bitter
foods. The main problem in our diet is that
foods are highly processed and complex
and, most times, there is an excess of some
substances. For example, a vast number of
foods, from Mortadella to biscuits, contain
egg whites and mixed cereals.
5. Tools. Look for and try out cooking
materials, casseroles and trays that are the
most suited to your job. New materials exist
which make it possible to avoid the addition
of fats and to cook in a lighter way:
non-stick pans heat up in a second and
brown foods perfectly without condiments
and there are silicon trays for baking
in the oven (you do not have to grease
them to stop the food from sticking).
Cooking is made of opposites. To keep the
flavour of food, alternate fast browning
with a high flame (for example to dry out
surplus fat in vegetables, meat or fish) with
very long cooking (for example, sauces and
braised meats) cooking in our greatgrandmother’s
old earthenware pot. Keep
the dear old aluminium or copper pan and
use it only if its bottom is thick enough to
guarantee even cooking.
6. Get rid of any surplus. When you
have achieved your purpose, get rid of the
surplus. If the meat cooking in the pan releases
fat, throw it away before continuing
the cooking process with a drop of wine or
before eating the food. If you are preparing
a risotto, add a teaspoon of extra-virgin
olive oil and a teaspoon of water to the
chopped onion you are browning. Only at
the end of the cooking process, if allowed,
add a curl of fresh butter, with the
Parmesan cheese used to thicken (rigorously
with the heat switched off).
7. Colour. Enrich your dishes with
colour. Use fruit and vegetables. Supplement
not only your side dishes and
desserts, but also all your preparations,
from the starter to the sweet course,
with seasonal vegetables and fruit. Everything
can be prepared with vegetables. It
is important that they are well cleaned,
washed and cut into pieces of a homogeneous
size to foster the presentation of
the dish and the even and pleasing cooking
of the product.
8. Innovation. Some traditional recipes
are excellent and should be rediscovered.
Such as cherry soups and red wine (half
a glass of red wine per meal is recommended)
or polenta with vegetables. Other
dishes should certainly be abolished.
Not everything that belongs to the past
is wonderful. Often our grandparents’
recipes were the result of poverty and the
aim was to fill up the stomach of big families.
Today it’s not like that anymore.
Once the aim changed, the strategy had
to change too, i.e. recipes and the way of
cooking had to change.
9. Curiosity. We refuse so many kinds
of food because we believe they aren’t good.
In the past, we had some bad experiences
and we didn’t like certain things, or it was
the texture of the product we thought
could disgust us. If we want to recover our
relationship with food, first of all we
have to try to rationalise the reason why
we don’t like certain things and why we like
other things so much, by trying in small
doses, and trying again to taste foods we
once thought were not good.
10.Moderation. Eat little, often and well.
Every day, just the amount we need. Moderation
is the first rule for a healthy life.
The teacher’s aphorism
“Taste is the good sense of genius”
Francois-René de Chateaubriand,
Dissertation on English literature.
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