If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at Jill Hunter Pellettieri's article, Kitchen Confidential: Professional chefs reveal their shortcuts (http://www.slate.com/id/2132987/). (Many thanks to the eGulleter who brought it up yesterday on the discussion boards). What follows is the first in a series of postings responding to and ruminating on ideas that came up while I was reading Pellettieri's article. Let me just clarify my position before I start: neither I nor any member of my family works for the food industry, for a restaurant, or for a public relations company representing the food industry or restaurants. That said, back to the topic.
In her article, Pellettieri points out that some professional chefs use canned and dried foods, as well as frozen and store-made doughs in their home kitchens, but not in their restaurant kitchens. This suggests that industrial foods (an ugly but useful term for mass- produced food products) have little place in the high-end restaurant: they are a lower-quality, but more accessible alternative to fresh foods that chefs rely on when preparing meals at home. This strikes me as both a dubious claim as well as an unnecessarily manichean approach to food.
For gustatory as well as health reasons (and not less, perhaps, for political and social reasons), our diets should consist mostly of fresh, local meats and fish, fruits and vegetables, breads and pastas. And when we dine out, particularly in fine restaurants, it's reasonable to expect the ingredients to reflect this fresh, local quality. Still, when used astutely in combination with fresh ingredients, industrial foods can be versatile, delicious and wholesome.
Here's a list of some of my favorite industrial foods: dried pasta (mostly de Cecco); canned tomatoes (always San Marzano); dried porcini; cans and jars of tuna and anchovies (almost always Italian and almost always sott' olio); jars of capers packed in salt; jars of mustard; bottles of olive oil and jars of Taggiasca olives; jars of Nutella; tea and coffee; beer, wine and Campari; dairy products including Parmigiano Reggiano, brie, butter, kefir; processed meats including Prosciutto di Parma, various kinds of salami, mortadella.
Generally, none of these foods would constitute an entire meal or even the center of a meal at my home. They tend to function primarily as flavor enhancers. But there are a few exceptions. Spaghetti alla puttanesca, for example, is made almost entirely from industrial ingredients -- dried spaghetti, pelati, capers, anchovies, olives, dried pepper flakes, olive oil, Parmigiano; the single non-industrial ingredient in this dish is the local garlic. When I make spaghetti alla puttanesca, I usually also serve a small plate of affettati and a small salad on the side. Three-quarters of this meal, the spaghetti and the affettati, are industrial foods, but they're high-quality, delicious, and although I'm not a dietician, probably quite wholesome (at least, nobody I know has keeled over yet on such a diet).
While most people wouldn't order spaghetti alla puttanesca and affettati when dining out, I suspect that a number of industrial foods do find their way into high-end restaurants. Where, for instance, does the Prosciutto di Parma in the prosciutto e melone listed on the menus of most Italian restaurants come from? Some chefs do make their own prosciutti, but the results are often less rather than more appetizing. And what about that mozzarella layered between the tomato and basil, or the olive oil drizzled on salad, or the cornichons accompanying tartines?
I don't think the use of premium industrial foods should offend a restaurant diner's palate nor should chefs feel embarrassed or uncomfortable using these foods with discretion in their restaurant kitchens.
Yes, the dough used in high-end restaurants probably should be fresh; vegetables, particularly when served uncooked, should be seasonal and fresh; most meat and fish, particularly entree portions, should be fresh or properly aged. But fine dining is about culinary creativity and the complementarity of tastes and textures as much as it is about the freshness of ingredients. The argument for freshness can be taken to such a painful extreme it excludes other elements of equal importance, including a chef's talent.
Industrial foods have been pummeled over the past several years and much of the pummeling is indeed merited. But the total rejection of these foods is another matter altogether -- it seems to me neither culinarily astute nor honest.
In my next posting I'll address the issue of industrial versus artisanal foods. Hope you'll stay with me!
7:00:48 PM 
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