My Hero

Ron Jeremy of the Culinary World

I've never been to Canada. But one reason I want to, other than to see my brother-in-law, is to dine at Au Pied de Cochon. There's a lot of hype surrounding the restaurant, but peel away all the PR, and you'll see.. This is good, simple cuisine with fresh ingredients. Maybe the media overplayed the rough looks and manner of APDC's chef, Martin Picard. Maybe they overplayed the "extreme" ingredients in the food.. but I have to say, this is my kind of cuisine. Food dictated by ingredients. He's not getting any spot shrimp by chopper.. He's getting fresh oysters, sea urchin and clam from Canada's rich coastline.. I've always taught my students.. Real cuisine is dictated by natural ingredients. The skill of a cook should not be measured by the distance his or her ingredients have travelled to be in the kitchen. Nor should it be measured by the price of his equipment. Maybe I'm more of a cook than a chef, after all.. I'll go deeper into thatsome other time. But for now, I still hope to visit beautiful Canada with Dave and Le Marc.
 

Related rant.. All of you who jumped on the molecular bandwagon, do the world a favor and stay right there where you are. Yeah, I was there too. It was a short, short phase for me, mostly curiosity driven. It helped me understand a little more about composition and manipulation, but in the end I went back to real gimmick-free food.