A Boost of Culinary Confidence with Chef Dennis
Episode 8 Season 2: I took notes so you didn’t have to…. So grab your apron and let's get into it!
Chef Dennis Littley is on a mission to show people at home that creating delicious restaurant- quality meals is not as hard as it seems. He is encouraging everyone to break out of their recipe routine and tune into a place where they can make elegant meals in a the confines of their own kitchen. And as Dennis says, “Part of the adventure in cooking is the journey you take to get there.” which couldn’t be more true. If you enjoy having conversations with the owner of an incredible olive store then that’s where you should go get your olive oil and enjoy the experience of chatting with the person to learn more about the product. Maybe you enjoy thumbing through pretty cookbooks, surround yourself with them and grab that cup of tea and thumb away my friend. The point is to make the experience as enjoyable as possible, because what’s the other option? It’s a trudge, pain in the butt, totally unenjoyable? Well then I pick the enjoyable way for sure!
Dennis brought up a lot of great points while we were chatting and when it comes to having some culinary confidence in the kitchen he believes there are 5 easy steps to follow.
Make something you enjoy eating and are comfortable with.
Follow the recipe closely but be flexible too. For example if you don’t like broccoli and it’s one of the ingredients in the recipe but not the star of the show, well then swap it out for a veggie you do like. If it’s broccoli cheddar soup…well you may want to rethink this one.
Set up your ingredients ahead of time. Take some time to chop up everything in put them in little dishes. Get your sauces, stock, cream, butter, whatever it may be, portioned out and ready to be assembled. Culinary professionals call this Mise en place. In french is basically means “put in place”.
If the process is more enjoyable you may find you want to cook more often
Get Sautéing!
Dennis has a few tricks up his sleeves when it comes to finishing dishes. He loves using a Beurre Monte. As Food and Wine says, “We cook in it, rest meats in it, make sauces with it. It's an extraordinary vehicle for both heat and flavor. Here's what beurre monté is: a few drops of water and chunks of butter whisked over a moderate heat to melt the butter and keep it emulsified, in one piece and creamy. Solid butter is an emulsification of butter fat, water, and milk solids; beurre monté is a way to manipulate the emulsification into liquid form.”
I always have at least two kinds of olive oil in my kitchen. One I cook with and one I finish with (more delicate). Olive Oil varies region to region where it is produced usually based on what is cooked in that region. For example the olive oil in Southern Italy is much more delicate than that in Tuscany because the food in Tuscany is much bolder in flavor and heartier as well so you need an oil to stand up to that with flavor. I keep this mind when I buy my olive oil and also always look for an expiration date as well as a single origin.
One of Dennis’s favorite shortcuts is using a soup base when he doesn’t have time to make his own stock. He likes Minors a lot. And another option that you can get in most grocery stores would be Better than Bouillon.
Dennis mentioned a few recipes during our conversation…
Chicken Marsala and he recommends using a Sweet Marsala Wine
Now go forth and cook/eat some amazing food!!
Beth Fuller is a Boston based Food, Product and Lifestyle Photographer. One of the best ways to support the podcast and Beth is to write a review wherever you listen, like the podcast on your favorite platform and please keep Beth in mind for any photography projects as a gal has got to pay her bills!
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xoxo
Beth
