The Pleasures and Difficulties with Lists
ramps
stinging nettles
wild garlic
young garlic
black garlic
rainbow trout
chicken
duck breast
pork belly chops
parsnip ice cream
nigella puree
morels
fava beans
wood sorrel
rhubarb
fingerling potatoes
turnips
sake cured steelhead roe
fiddleheads
small shallots
goat cheese sheets
pullet eggs
We are in the middle of preparing a 12 course dinner and this is our list. We have yet to visit the fish store, so the list will grow. We have a number of ideas and directions where we may take these ingredients, although at the moment the list provides stimulus for thought. We may mentally arrange and combine ingredients, thinking about tastes and textures, editing and re-writing. These are the benefits of a list. They allow you to see the elements and allow our own experiences and the tastes of the ingredients dictate the direction of our assemblage.
The difficulty of the list is making cuts. What will not be used? What idea needs refinement? What did not come together the way it was imagined? How may we get to the essence of an idea? Where are we going with these ingredients?
Still, without these eliminations, these difficult and necessary edits, the list would grow uncontrollably and there would be utter chaos and confusion in our cooking.
stinging nettles
wild garlic
young garlic
black garlic
rainbow trout
chicken
duck breast
pork belly chops
parsnip ice cream
nigella puree
morels
fava beans
wood sorrel
rhubarb
fingerling potatoes
turnips
sake cured steelhead roe
fiddleheads
small shallots
goat cheese sheets
pullet eggs
We are in the middle of preparing a 12 course dinner and this is our list. We have yet to visit the fish store, so the list will grow. We have a number of ideas and directions where we may take these ingredients, although at the moment the list provides stimulus for thought. We may mentally arrange and combine ingredients, thinking about tastes and textures, editing and re-writing. These are the benefits of a list. They allow you to see the elements and allow our own experiences and the tastes of the ingredients dictate the direction of our assemblage.
The difficulty of the list is making cuts. What will not be used? What idea needs refinement? What did not come together the way it was imagined? How may we get to the essence of an idea? Where are we going with these ingredients?
Still, without these eliminations, these difficult and necessary edits, the list would grow uncontrollably and there would be utter chaos and confusion in our cooking.
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