I was having a hard time figuring out what to name these ideas, and I may have gotten it wrong.  I wanted to say “the dichotomy” but that’s pretty vague.  So here goes–

I have recently started a new educational journey, which includes something I’ve always been interested in: nutrition.  How food affects the body is an incredible thing, and we’ve lost touch with that in our country in a few ways; it’s not just limiting fake crap and fast foods, but we also cut out entire food groups that our body, frankly, needs.  And, we’re kinda crazy in that regard; always trying to jump the gun, to cheat and get ahead… but ahead of what, and in the end is it healthy or worth it?

However that’s a tangent for another time.  In my nutrition class there was a specific chapter about things we should limit, for our health, in our diet: added sugars, saturated fats (things like butter, fats that are solid at room temp), and sodium (salt).

And I had to take a moment.  I mean from a nutritional standpoint this is obvious, but guess what they teach us in culinary school?

How to build flavors.

Every wonder why restaurant food tastes sooooo good, maybe better than the foods you make at home?  (not judging here mind you, so relax)  It’s because we’ve been trained to build flavors; to make your taste buds go crazy for certain textures and combinations.

And guess what we’re trained to use?  Salt, fats, and sugar.

We finish sauces with a swirl of butter to gain that silkiness and mouthfeel.  We “season,” meaning mostly salt, at every step of building a dish so it encompasses a depth of flavor (ok that this point I do need to mention the role salt plays- it doesn’t change the flavor of a dish, rather enhances your ability to fully taste it).  And, our bodies do need salt.

However, it occurred to me in these nutrition chapters that our cooks are being trained to add in the very things that nutritionists warn against.  And I’m not sure many people actually know that.  I mean, we all know that eating out isn’t as good for you as eating at home, but do you realize it’s pretty much every single time?

I used to work at a farm-to-table type restaurant.  Which I absolutely loved btw; it was a ridiculous amount of work but it was awesome earn-your-beer kind of work; my hands still ache at the memory of peeling buckets and buckets of fresh chanterelles for hours, days, on end during the season.

But most importantly for me, it was so inspiring to see you really could make everything from scratch in a restaurant (I mean everything- stocks, sauces, pasta dough); and that the “delivery” truck didn’t have to be a part of big restaurant business.  You know who I mean.

I worked mainly butchery there and a little on garde manger (cold station/salads), and we turned out some awesome stuff.  Homemade sausages, we broke down whole lambs once a week, ravioli fillings from beet greens (a recipe I still make today at home), which was all awesome- but I can tell you truly that even in that pinnacle of a restaurant our primary focus was not your health or waistline. 

And that’s something the general public really needs to absorb.  We didn’t do calorie counts and low-sodium options.  We did fresh, we did flavor, we cared about making the most local foods sing, and we added in anything we needed to (all fresh mind you) to achieve that flavor.  It was a cooking mecca.

Let me give you an example- do you season your salads?  Yes, season.  As in salt and pepper the lettuce before you toss in anything else.  We did, and I still do to this day at home because it’s an awesome secret to an amazing salad.  The trick is, because the salt and then acid in the dressing will destroy the lettuce, to season and mix it *right* before it’s served or the salad will “die” as my Chef loved to, very verbally, remind us of.

But that’s one example of where salt is now hiding in your restaurant food where you wouldn’t even think to look for it.  When they say cooking at home is better for you, that’s a real thing, because we do things like season salads at restaurants.  We are in love with fats and acids and the beautiful way they interact.  We love mouthfeels.

And, so do you.  It is food and skill married at it’s finest.

So I say enjoy the skill, love the mouthfeel, but know the cost.  Know that even when the calories are listed on the menu we’re not in your health corner; we’re in your enjoyment corner.  We want to you love food, not your waistline or your heart or your general health or anything else.  We want you to forget about your day and enjoy eating.

If the skill and love of skilled cooking left us it would be a bitter blow.  Literally, to humanity, it would be a bitter blow.  But people should understand their choices now- homemade meatloaf is not the same as a restaurant-made meatloaf (and in this century it never has been).

What I would love is people entering into this with eyes open; to know that our job is to delight taste buds and do amazing things with the freshest ingredients, not to ensure you don’t have a heart attack at 50.  We’re trained to add the very things you’re supposed to “avoid” to enhance flavor.  Our skill is to use every ingredient and seasoning available to create.

To flat out create.

Enjoy the creation, and enjoy your health.  You can do both, just go in with eyes open.

I didn’t know where I stood when I started writing this, but I’m sure it’s clear now that in the end I will always be a cook first.  For no other reason than because it’s awesome and it brings me joy.  That probably doesn’t bode well for a future in nutrition but I do believe there’s a middle ground, and that’s what I’m searching to find.  If you’re using the freshest ingredients you can find, and a wide variety of them (including fruits and veggies), does it matter that we also use kosher salt and butter?  Is it the addition of fake shit into our diet that’s fucked us up?  Can you just eat real food, including salt and saturated fat, and be fine?

I ask in earnest, but the problem is there is no answer, just schools of thought.  Maybe we’re just making food too complicated, too stressful.  Either way, I thought you should know there is a definite divide between nutrition recommendations and what professional cooks are taught, even at the places we want to believe are “healthy.”

Chefs are artists, not doctors.  They are responsible for creating; we are responsible for our health.  Doesn’t really matter what school of thought you subscribe to health-wise when you drill it down to that reality.