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Christine Cushing
The last time I caught up with Christine Cushing, she had just
launched her line of foods, Pure, which included her own personally
sourced Cretan olive oil (see
Gremolata 102). Her new book,
Pure Food: How to shop, cook and have fun in your kitchen everyday NB: Toronto readers can meet Christine and check out her book personally on Saturday, November 24 from 2 to 3PM at The Cookbook Store at 850 Yonge Street at Yorkville Avenue.
INTERVIEW Gremolata: My favourite part of this book is the page near the beginning where you show what a shallot is. There are pictures of things like that and fennel. Christine Cushing: Thank you. G: I just think there are a lot of people who aren't sure what fennel looks like. Or what's the difference between a shallot and a scallion. CC: I agree. It's interesting. With this book I went five steps backward to go two steps forward. I thought to myself, "OK, what really grabs me by the heart?" And the first thing was the ingredients. After I stripped away all the stuff about "my next book". You know: What's the hook? Because now it's all about the hook. G: Right. CC: So, I've been spending a lot of time in Greece, where it's all about the ingredients. And I thought people [in Canada] don't cook that way anymore. But it's so simple: the better the ingredient, the better something's going to taste. You don't have to be Joel Robuchon to come up with a great dish, if you start with great fennel, great shallots, great endives, whatever it is that you're going to use. We've been so caught up in this trap of convenience, where everyone complains they have no time - Oh I have no time! - that people have no clue what the heck they're actually eating. G: So that's the focus on shopping and ingredients? CC: Yeah. I wanted to start with the ingredients because if you don't know what you're eating, you'll probably walk by all those great things at the market. You might say, that looks cool, but I have no idea what it is or what to do with it." So these are ingredients that I personally use all the time, but I know not everybody does. G: You have to learn to shop before cooking! CC: Well, I just want people to be better shoppers. To ask questions. Now, we have a lot better ingredients in the stores than we used to and people are demanding more. We're slowly getting to a better place. G: Do you have a top tip when it comes to shopping? CC: Seasonality in fruits and vegetables. In the book I talk about how ingredients don't have to be hand-picked by Tuscan monks and cost a million dollars, but when you eat produce in season you're capturing the best flavour you can. If you're making a real Greek salad with tomatoes in the middle of January, what are you getting? Nothing. You're really getting nothing. It's all water and no flavour, so you go for some rich creamy dressing. On the level beyond that, I look at what's been happening with fishing and raising meat and poultry. It's almost as if it's all telling the consumer "don't trust anything". And I know we all lead busy lives and don't have a lot of time, but you have to ask questions. Find out where your food comes from. Compare. Go talk to a butcher! The more we do that, the more we force the level up. G: I find that most butchers really like it when you ask questions. CC: Of course. They love it. You’re showing an interest. It's almost going back to the older days. I think there's a real resurgence of small shops. We've become so commercialised, so mechanised and have to deal with technology everywhere that people in North America - maybe even more than in Europe - are going back to that. G: You sound like you're on a bit of a mission. CC: Well there's things like, I don't know, this idea that we have to eat salmon all day, every day. And you think, well how much salmon can there be? We have to get away from that supermarket mentality. G: But that's partly because salmon is so easy cook, I think. CC: It's a forgiving fish, yes. Still... G: Actually talking about cooking brings me back to the book. You've organised it around (again) ingredients. That's how I cook. I think oh, I've got a chicken, so I'll match it with this or that vegetable and starch. Was that the idea? CC: Yep, exactly. G: I'll talk to my wife about dinner and we'll settle on the protein first, or maybe it's pasta... CC: Right. You're going to have chicken, so what are you going to have after that? G: But you know, even I find that difficult. What am I going to have for dinner? I mean I write about food all day, but I still can't make up my mind. CC: I know. At my house, I'll be working on a book or a proposal or whatever and my partner will ask, "What are we having for dinner?" [Shrugs as if to say "I don't know"]. Everybody has that question. It's not any different for me. I have to figure out where I'm going to go buy it. What my protein will be - I usually start with my protein too. Then I go with the sides. I figure out the stores in my neighbourhood and try and plan the food around that, so at least I don't have to go too far! G: Your secret’s out! CC: [Laughs.] Yes, but I think that just a little more training on what to look for, for a lot of people, can make the whole experience a lot more palatable. I mean, I understand why people hate shopping they have no time, they're frustrated, and they want to buy the right stuff. Especially if they end up with very mediocre food. It doesn't need to be that way. All the dishes in the book are under an hour. There are no slow braises or long roasts. But, the recipes are a little more inspiring than just ho hum stuff. The best feedback I got was from some dear old friends. They're Serbian and they called me on a Saturday and left a message: “Christine, there's something in your book that's not in the Serbian-English dictionary. Help!" But, I didn't get the message until the next day. So, I call them up and say I'm sorry, but they say not to worry. They went on the internet, looked it up (it was tamarind) and figured it was sour so they used lime instead. And they loved it - the Pork chops with Maple Apple Jus. G: That's the ultimate. I mean that's the quantum leap, when you're confident enough to substitute! CC: Exactly. I was really pleased. They're both engineers, so it was fun to hear them tell the story. They figured out they needed an acid and went for the lime! And I just thought, wow, that's great: the book worked! G: Is that why you do what you do? CC: You know it's funny. I grew up in a family where there wasn't much going on. I mean we didn't have a lot of money. But one thing that was always really important was food. My mom told me at one point when I was very, very young that they only fed me bananas for a while because that's what they thought had the best nutrition for the little money they had. But, really, for all the sacrifices they made they always made room to enjoy good food and looked for the best quality ingredients that they could afford. So if they could do it... G: So you don't need to be a millionaire to eat well? CC: Absolutely not. I buy my fish in a predominantly Italian part of town. There's a great little grocer there. Because their clientele are little old Italian ladies who demand the best, they always have great produce at a really great price. I mean they don't need to be told to buy local and all that. I bought the biggest head of Swiss chard there a while ago that I'd ever seen for like, $1.49. It was grown nearby and I think I made ten different dishes from it. So when you can do that, why would you buy a frozen piece of chicken and whatever else they put in those meals? I just think we got to do something about this. Take people by the hand or something. We just have to tell them. ___________________ Read Gremolata's 2006 interview with Christine Cushing here. Visit Christine Cushing's website at www.christinecushing.com
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, was born out of her
continuing mission to get North Americans to eat better and enjoy
it. I caught up with her recently at Annex's Ezra's Pound (where
staff and customers all smiled fawned a little over Canada's most
recognisable TV chef) and talked shop over a cafe au lait.