2013-05-23T00:42:02-04:00 Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=traci-des-jardins Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Traci Des Jardins Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1000612 2011-10-07T17:10:48-04:00 2011-12-07T05:12:01-05:00

Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/traci-des-jardins/ Cooking With One Hand. I had these fantasies about inspiring my child to be a good eater, to try every food so that he would grow up to have a great palate. My plans included partnering with a food writer friend who also had a very young child and shared many of my ideas and philosophies about feeding baby. By the time we got to writing the proposal, we were both in the throes of the terrible twos and the realization that you can barely influence your child about food -- that it is the one thing they can absolutely control, unless of course you want to force feed them. We ended up finishing the proposal phase and then decided that the whole thing was a dumb idea, that a cookbook for kids was just silly, what one should really want is for their kids to eat like adults so you don't have to prepare special meals for them.

Fast forward to life with an eleven-year-old. Let's call it inspiration by osmosis. My son loves food, he is discerning, some might say picky, I say particular. He's not big on meat, perhaps because I have been over zealous in making sure he knows where it comes from and that yes, an animal sacrificed their life for your drumstick. Sausage is better, ok, somehow not the same as meat to him. He loves sushi but isn't big on cooked fish. He loves spicy foods and always has, Asian, Mexican, absolutely. I am proud to say he prefers a taco to a burrito. He won't touch most cooked vegetables but loves them raw; he adores salad but try to get him to eat a cooked pea, this is not going to happen.

I had a great laugh recently when I heard him having a discussion with his cousin about McDonald's; the other child was extolling the virtues of all the different menu items and Eli's response was: "Do you even know where the meat comes from?" Apparently, I have managed to raise a food snob, but he mostly just really appreciates great tasting food and does care about whether or not it's organic and where it came from, I'm good with that.

And just when I think he isn't paying any attention to what I have to say, he shocks me again. Recently he popped a piece of fancy salami, Olli or Creminelli, I wasn't sure which one, into his mouth as he walked out of the room. Then he stopped, turned around and said: "wow, that was the best salami I've ever had." I stupidly hadn't paid attention to which one he was eating and kept wondering, but the mystery was solved when we were at Whole Foods and I told him that they had the good Creminelli in which he replied "yeah, it was good, but not as good as the Olli." Not only did he remember the salami that he liked, but also the name of it... that was more than I could do.

I'm often asked how I got Eli to eat what he eats -- choices, I say. When I watch others feeding their kids, most seem to do the opposite of what you should do when facing a picky eater; they narrow the choices and keep feeding the kids the same things over and over again, primarily simple white food like pasta with butter and cheese. I believe that what you should do is broaden the selection and give options, because really you never know what they might want to try and might like to eat. Would you think a one-year old would like spicy food, or salad if they won't eat broccoli? Kids are all different and like different things; also siblings in the same family have very different tastes. Eli surprised me recently with a love of pickled okra and nopales, I guess he likes slimy stuff, I'll have to remember to let him try Japanese mountain yam now.

With school back in session, lunches to be packed and dinners to get on the table in time for homework to be worked on, this time of year feeding kids can be a real challenge, but it can also be super fun. Now is a good time to experiment, offer up food options, you just might be surprised by the results.
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Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/traci-des-jardins/
Elka's restaurant proved to be wildly popular; the food was brilliant and had a very novel style, which critics from around the country loved. I am extremely proud of the food that we produced then, especially because it was the first time that I had been let loose to create rather than being one to produce, maintain and execute someone else's vision. Elka and I collaborated very well together. She brought to the table knowledge of Japanese food, ingredients and recipes, and I brought a deep understanding of French technique and cooking. Our combination of talents worked and we produced some stellar food. But, after a mercurial year I left and went to seek my own style, name and restaurant, as she always knew I would do.

At Bushi-Tei, Michael created a tasting menu for me that was magnificent! It was funny though when at one point while enjoying the meal, I had a déjà vu moment where I was reminded of food that I had created 19 years ago right across the street at Elka's place. The food of course was different, but there was something in the style familiar to me. I've always been a big fan of Michael's cooking and enjoyed watching him develop his own style while working at Jardinière, where he created our Monday night dinner menu program and reached to ingredients and techniques from around the world to do so. Michael is blindingly talented and I was sorry to see him go, but am very proud of him and his current accomplishments.

Getting your feet wet under someone else's tutelage is common in the restaurant world and so is leaving the comfort of someone else's place to start your own endeavor. It's a time when the talented young chefs go off to seek their own moment of glory, design, name and restaurant, while also finding their own style of cooking.

Just like me collaborating with Elka and learning from the master French chefs who taught me my craft, I have many protégés in the Bay Area and beyond. It may not be as extensive as the Chez Panisse family tree which was largely in the news this past week because of their 40th anniversary, but I do have my own little cache of ex-chefs, sous-chefs, cooks and pastry chefs who have gone on to establish their own reputations, create their own food and success. These names include: Richard Reddington, Chris Cosentino, Robbie Lewis, Douglas Keane, Deepak Kaul, Elizabeth Falkner, Paul Arenstam, Paul Lemieux, among others that have gone east or elsewhere. I helped George Morrone and Michael Mina to open Aqua in 1991 and I will join Michael in the kitchen in a couple of months to celebrate the restaurant's 20th anniversary.

It's always amazing to me to think that after 29 years in the business how many successful and talented people I have worked with over the years and how many have helped me to shape my career and me their careers. That's what I love so much about the Bay Area food community, that we have been influenced or have influenced each other in so many ways and that we are all connected in our dedication to food and dining.
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Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/traci-des-jardins/
Though neither of these places is news to anyone who travels the world looking for good food, both have the most wonderful combination of delicious simple dishes that makes me wonder how Barcelona can still wow me in the way that it does. I live in San Francisco, one of the greatest food cities in the world, no one can argue that, but there is something in how the Barcelonians delight in their ingredients that makes me wonder how something so simple can be so good?

Let's just take for example sardines, anchovies and squid. These are a staple of the Barcelona food scene -- something I look forward to eating when I go there because they are ubiquitous, everywhere in every shape, size and preparation -- en escabeche, salted, pickled, in tins, fried with guts and without.

But here in the Bay Area, do we appreciate food the way that they do in Barcelona? I often serve these same items which are abundant, local and sustainable at Jardinière, but truth be told they are still a hard sell, particularly the sardines and anchovies. Maybe it is because so many people have strong icky memories of what was served in their youth, but it makes me as a chef want to convince people to leave behind their preconceived notions, trust our dishes and know that we are only going to serve you something great.

Which brings me back to the breakfast scene at the Boqueria Market. We were seated at the counter with solo female diners on either side of us, both probably in their late sixties and most likely local. The woman to my left started her meal with a sweet roll, coffee, braised veal cheeks, garbanzo beans with blood sausage, followed by a nice big bowl of tripe. The woman to my right also dug into a bowl of steaming tripe served with a healthy glass of Albariño. Both of them went with the recommendations of the extremely animated and charming proprietor Juanito, they trusted him and didn't seem to care that it was only 10:30 in the morning!

I so wanted to join them but was feeling a bit tender after too many mojitos and glasses of white wine from the night prior. I went with some fried Padrón peppers and a big bowl of the garbanzos and blood sausage, but held off on the wine. I just wasn't ready for an ambitious Barcelona breakfast like they were enjoying, so opted out of the tripe and Albariño that morning.

Throughout my stay in Barcelona, I ate so many great things. We feasted on tiny fried fish with a fried egg on top; shrimp a la plancha, octopus, many different sizes and preparations of squid, and sardines (both grilled and cured) with pan con tomate. We had a delicious shrimp and rice dish (it was just that -- shrimp and rice and nothing else) prepared paella-style. We also did a little of the Spanish modern thing at 41 Degrees, where we were served amazing little bites 0- the highlight of which was Jamon Iberico with Air Baguette. They also made beautiful cocktails that were tasty with elements I had never encountered, including a delicious Margarita with Salt foam that was like a whisper of the sea on top. (I thought this was fabulous even though I am not at all keen on foam.) As I ate my way through Barcelona I was happy to find both the classic dishes that make me want to come back again and the inspired new food concepts I rarely find in other places.

We may have a lot going on in the Bay Area food-wise, but I was so inspired by the food in Barcelona, particularly the ladies in the Boqueria Market that morning -- the way they enjoyed their food that day, regardless of the hour, drinking the wine without guilt, and trusting the proprietor for steering them the right way and ultimately giving them a most pleasurable dining experience. It made me think about appreciation and how in Barcelona I had ample amounts of this quality. I continue to ask myself how we can appreciate things here with as much gusto as they do there?]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.912877 2011-07-29T12:03:42-04:00 2011-09-28T05:12:01-04:00

Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/traci-des-jardins/
When I was growing up in the small Central Valley town of Firebaugh, California, my grandparents had a big cactus in their backyard that my grandmother used for making a wonderful nopales salad along with other cactus dishes. Grandma Angela Salazar moved from Torreon, Mexico, as a baby and grew up to be a great cook. As a child, I spent many days following her around the kitchen helping and learning from her. My restaurant Mijita is actually named in tribute to my grandmother. She used to call me Mijita, meaning "little one" in Spanish. Family meals were an important part of my childhood when everyone spent time cooking together in the kitchen or gathered around the table to celebrate a holiday. Today a lot of my inspiration in the kitchen is rooted in what I learned from my grandparents.




When my grandmother prepared her nopales salad she would start by picking the cactus paddles from her yard. The best paddles were the small succulent ones and often she would have to climb a ladder to reach them. Then she would cut each one with a knife or yard
sheers for those that were even harder to reach. Then I would help her clean them, which was very difficult because the paddles have lots of stickers and we didn't wear gloves, so you can only imagine how much it hurt... especially as a small girl. After we picked out the stickers from the paddles, my grandmother would pick the stickers out of my hands. Today you can buy cactus paddles cut and ready to go, it's amazing how easy kids have it these days!

For my salad, I bought a bunch of paddles and proceeded to cube and tenderize them, sweating them with a few tablespoons of olive oil until their bright green color dulled to a muted shade, about 5 minutes. Then I chilled them down in the refrigerator for about a half hour before adding spring onions, lime juice, Serrano chile, more olive oil, cilantro and salt and pepper to taste. My recipe probably differs from what my grandmother used to throw together in her kitchen.

Cactus Paddle Salad
4 cups cactus paddles, cubed
2 bunches spring onions, finely diced (about 1/2 cup)
juice of one lime
1 chopped Serrano chile
¼ olive oil
¼ cup chopped cilantro (optional)
Avocado (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Eli was busy playing with his cousins and didn't help me cook this time around. When I finished making the cactus paddle salad, I served it with carnitas that I had slow cooked the day before, and with tortillas of course. I wasn't sure that Eli would like the nopales, nevertheless, I put a pile on his plate with the rest of his dinner. He didn't say anything; he just ate all of it, a sign to me that it had passed his approval. Grandmother Angela would have been proud!
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Traci Des Jardins http://www.huffingtonpost.com/traci-des-jardins/
People can never believe that I still love to cook as much as I do, but for me making a meal is a relaxing and social experience, an easy way to share my passion with the people I love. Cooking at home is a revelation for someone who spent 24 years working six nights a week under the hum of a commercial hood, sweating and stressed and giving everything I had in the pursuit of perfection. Now it can mostly be just about dinner.

Where do I seek inspiration on what to cook for dinner? It comes from all sorts of influences; my garden, the farmer's market, places I travel to, or my favorite local market. I am the type that can only shop for one dinner at a time. So I usually walk eight blocks to the Bi-Rite market on 18th street in San Francisco's Mission District. The place has become like an addiction for me; even though I have access to amazing ingredients at my restaurants, Bi-Rite always seems to find great new purveyors of fine poultry, meats, and wild and farmed fish that I must try. Other nice things about the market are their great selection of prepared foods that you don't need to cook, but can simply heat and serve; their produce is seasonally appropriate, culled from the best local farms and the selection of cheeses, coffee, wine, and chocolate are all off the hook.

I tend to cook the same things at home over and over again, probably just like everyone, I have my repertoire of dishes that are easy and always seem to be crowd pleasers. My go-to staples include Grilled Ribeye (Five Dot), Salsa Verde, Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (Full Belly Farm), Little Gem Caesar Salad along with Della Fattoria Bread. But the other night I walked into Bi-Rite, determined to expand my horizons. I bought a whole McFarland Springs Trout (that was so large I had to cut the head off in order to fit into my pan) and seared it to crisp the skin, then flipped the fish and stuck it in the oven to cook a bit more slowly, finally I finished it with brown butter, Meyer lemon, capers and parsley. I also made summer squash (I dislike zucchini intensely) with red onion, garlic and basil, roasted rose potatoes and Little Gem Salad with Aged Balsamic. The whole meal was very impromptu and perfect for a summer day -- I walked in at 7:15 and served dinner at 8:30.

For me, the most important thing is finding inspiration wherever I am and choosing the right recipe for the moment and the location. In the early years of my cooking career, the discipline was all about learning structured techniques and methods but now it is all about the ingredients and letting them speak to me. One of the best things about the summer is the abundance of locally grown ingredients that to me "taste" like the season. That's where I find the most inspiration -- from the ingredients themselves. After years of being the boss, I let the ingredients tell me what to do.



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