His food is like a Time Machine……
Yesterday my boss, who is a Restauranteur, Chef, Food Architect sent me to the store.
The instructions were to buy summer fruits and vegetables and some sort of Chicken breasts. These items were to fill his own personal kitchen.
Sounds easy enough right?
When I arrived at the market and saw the colorful display of fruits and veggies in the rows upon rows of cruciferous delight, my face became as red as the crimsom plump strawberry’s that were on sale for $2.99!
What would please his palette? Is he a tart variety kind of man, or a juicy sweet kind of fellow?!
I have dined on his decadent creations at his restaurants but what did this culinary designer make for himself in his own home?
As I stared at the pre-sliced pineapple in plastic containers I felt the beads of sweat forming on my brow and knew they were just as big as those pineapple slices.
Then I decided to make an executive decision…What would Grandma do?
I am an Italian American Transplant here in Nashville via Brooklyn, NY.
My grandma is a master chef even in her 90th year of life! It is the MAJOR thing I miss by living here, her cooking.
I will just go with what I know I thought, whatever grandma would buy that is what I will get for him.
I filled my cart with peaches, plums, kiwi, mango, strawberries, celery, red, green and yellow peppers, carrots, asparagus, romaine lettuce, onions, limes, lemons, broccoli, and two packages of chicken breasts.
I arrived at his stellar bachelor pad and started to unload my sacks of treats.
As he came down the stairs to help me unpack he teased me and said DAMN….GINA!!!
It seemed as if I was unloading those bags FOR-EVER!!
As he quietly helped me find places for this ARMY of food, he sweetly reminded me that he lives alone and maybe this was just a little too much.
I understood but coming from an Italian family the phrase too much food is NOT in our vocabulary.
That night at home, I couldn’t help thinking that I purchased too much food and I was worried it would all go to waste.
Today when I arrived at my boss’s home, which is also where my office is. He presented me with this splendiferous pot filled with pasta, chicken and vegetables.
He had concocted it from the food that I bought the day before.
As he left for his meeting I heated it on the stove.
The aromatic flavors of onion and asparagus put me in a food trance.
To my great surprise I suddenly inhaled some hints of red wine that that were slowly rising from the chunky moist pieces of chicken.
His food now became a time machine!
I was sopped up and wisked away to a family dinner I had right before I came to Nashville.
We were all under a tent in my uncle Louie’s back yard and each family member brought their best recipes.
Of course the first one I went for was Grandma’s. It was a whole wheat pasta dish with asparagus chicken , onions and peppers.
Her “secret” ingredient was red wine. We ate and laughed and ate and ate and DRANK that night, listening to Louie Prima and The Doobie Brothers, Singing loud and hard embracing the gusto, the spice, the character that food had become in our lives together.
It was a perfect send off and the quilt work of food that was sewn that night will remain forever etched on my brain and chiseled into my taste buds!
As the pan bubbled a bit on his stove and the juices sizzled I was brought back to my present day reality.
I stirred , and enjoyed looking down and seeing the red peppers, red onion, broccoli, asparagus, and very luscious looking chicken, hugging the whole wheat rotini.
I could not scoop it into my bowl fast enough. The crisp red peppers and the hint of red wine along the edges of the poultry were a taste explosion.
That first bite was so pleasing to me, I thought it was such a shame that I was alone and there was no one else to share in this.
Then I thought share this, what am I CRAZY!!
This fresh summer pasta dish was something you could only find at an authentic family meal.
Each bite was more satisfying than the next. I marveled at the perfect amount of olive oil that hit my tongue as it melted and fused all the flavors together.
When I put my fork down for the last time after practically licking the plate, I was sad.
Then I thought…. I can’t wait to “over shop” again!!!!
