Forks for the Twenty-first Century

This should be in quotation marks because it isn't me that calls chopsticks "the fork of the twenty-first century" it's my Mom, Romig. 

She may have a point don't you think ? Most of Asia eats with chopsticks. Not India. Not Thailand. but pretty much everywhere else. Wherever Chinese culture has had an influence, they eat with chopsticks. I think there will be more and more of us that will find they like eating with these tools too ! 

Different materials in different cultures. Koreans like smaller, brass (now non oxidizing stainless steel ) chopsticks. Japanese like lacquer ones with fine pointed tips. Chinese chopsticks are longer and have blunt tips. They are probably plastic but could be metal too. That blunt tip is a sure sign that they are of Chinese origin. 

I love the precision of chopsticks. You can pick out individual ingredients. Communal eating eating out of one large platter, which is fun, seems a bit more hygienic. You don't need serving spoons or forks or even knives as everything is cut into more or less bite sized pieces. 

Learning to eat with chopsticks requires a bit of practice.

When I moved to Japan on my tenth birthday ( August ) Mr Miyagawa, the father of the family we were exchanged houses/cars/lives with, said that on New Years Day, we would be invited to a neighborhood celebration. All of the kids would play a game of picking up as many dried peas from a large center plate and transferring them to a smaller plate as they could in a minute's time using their chopsticks. In China, they practice with larger, squishy cotton pompoms. Japan ? Slippery itty bitty things !

He strongly encouraged me to practice this bean transfer daily so as to not to embarrass myself in front of the other kids. All I needed to hear. Quite a competitive little girl, with four months daily practice, I was a wiz at picking up dried beans come Jan 1st!   

I've got a small collection of chopsticks that I use daily. Still practice bean transfer from time to time just for fun. It's no longer a competitive sport in my world thank goodness !

Books We Love : Essential Cuisine: Michel Bras

Essential Cuisine Michel Bras  - Aubrac - Laguiole - France

This is a classic. I think this is the first book on a chef's cuisine that plates everything exclusively on a white background. And not on a round porcelain plate either.

Everything is seen from directly above or at slight 3/4 angle. Each dish is a colorful, exuberant painting crossing from left to right. There is no sense of either the table, nor a plate. Nor really an outside life. In one sense this is the cerebral cooking of an architect or sculptor.

Michel Bras is a visual man. One of those one in a million chefs who's experience in the visual arts (trained as an architect ) precedes his cooking career.    

I remember when this book first came out in the spring of 2002. I thought it was spectacular then and I still do. It was published by a small press in Arles, France :  Le Rouergue. They specialize in wonderfully graphic  contemporary illustrated children's books. I think this was their first offering in the culinary category.

There are two photographers credited ; Christian Palis and Jean-Pierre Trébosc. It seems as if they work as a team, Palis also shooting the reportage/landscapes of the Aubrac area.

Many chefs are guys. Many photographers are guys. Guys like Black. Stainless Steel. Both are dramatic! Rigorous. Masculine. So you would have thought a chef like Michel Bras might have have chosen the black route. But no. White it was ! Luminous. Clean. Modern. 

We are talking pre Adrià's massive El Bulli Book published in 2003. Totally different style. The two books were the two monster sized books from chefs of their decade.

Essential Cuisine : Michel Bras has spawned quite a few "children" . Anne Sophie Pic's The White Book ("Le Livre Blanc") photographed by Mikael Roulier is one. William LeDeuil's beautiful  Ze kitchen galerie : Produits et recettes créatives de William Ledeuil photographed by Eric Laingel is another. Both books go back to the one recipe, one white plate/bowl what have you but I still see a resemblance to the Bras/ images. 

Anyone that hasn't got this in their culinary library, I'd suggest hunting down a copy. Unfortunately now out of print, both the original French edition as well as the English version, are still available. A bit pricey but this is a very special book.  

If someone would want to update this work, the one aspect that I might work on would be how to include real life around these recipes. The Bras restaurant table and landscape outside of the Aubrac are visually extraordinary. I'd like to see the two playing off one another as they do in real life.

So here we have a book published over ten years ago with images that still look viable. Bras's Essential Cuisine still looks good to me. Still inspires me ! Not many books do after 10 years+ time.

Hat's off to you Michel!