Culinary Visions® Panel is celebrating 10 years in the business. We gather the trendsetters and dig into our brain trust to get the answers you need. Over the past ten years we have worked with renowned chefs from all over the country.
Take a peek at what they had to say.
Customers should understand healthy eating is about balance and moderation. They need to stop focusing on one thing to take out, like carbs or trans fats, and develop more balanced eating habits.
Local products last longer and taste better. You may need to go out of the box to get higher quality ingredients, but that's the way it's always been. It's hard, but it's worth it.
Quality plays a role in indulgence. Less of something better is often more satisfying and simpler ingredients don't need flavor masking ingredients…I do an exercise with my students with chocolate where they sample a poor quality product and an excellent quality product. The quantity they are able to consume of the lesser quality product is far greater because there is less satisfaction.
I don't put anything on the menu I cannot explain to my mother.
If it's a sustainable product, it's usually an abundant product, and if it's an abundant product, it's in season or it's managed by people who really care. The end result is that it's always better food. If you operate seasonally and you search for the best product available, nine times out of 10 you'll end up with a very environmentally sustainable organic product.
More going back to American food, turning vision to neighborhood food, something that your mom cooked and you want in restaurants. Among chefs, it's taking something traditional and making it fit for a restaurant, something everybody knows, but you have that little twist that nobody else has.
You can't just create crazy combinations for the sake of crazy. You have to respect the ingredients you're using and respect your customers. Test the flavors by tasting constantly and use your own sensibility to find what works.
I want to give good quality. Try to provide what we are proud of. Hopefully people understand but some don't.
Healthful food can indulge the senses and be very good for you.
