CHOOSING

Food Matters

Little choices make a big difference.

Cooking is a definitive social experience and personal choice. What we cook and eat is an essential daily decision; how we shop for ingredients expresses a statement of our values. How we choose our food directly affects how it tastes, our personal health, and the health of our communities. When we make food that is healthy for our bodies and environments, by using sustainable ingredients and supporting the communities we live in by buying local, everyone wins.

I understand the counterargument: “This isn’t practical. I have a demanding job, children, a tiny kitchen, and no garden. I don’t have time to hop on the subway or drive twenty minutes to the farmers’ market, make my own vegetable stock, grow my own vegetables. I don’t have time to be thinking about everything I put in my mouth.” It’s a realistic response. We all lead busy lives. But those lives are made better when we stop to consider what we eat and why.

As a chef I feel an obligation to use the “right” products, to highlight great local produce, to support the community. It can feel like I have an overzealous food activist sitting on my shoulder, reminding me, “That’s not organic, that’s not local, and that’s not grass-fed.” I have compassion for that voice, but if I listened to it all the time my restaurant would be out of business and I would be living in the woods.

Still, when I get frustrated at the market, waiting in line or dealing with crowds, I try to embrace the idea that the daily choices I make can have a positive impact. Changing your approach to cooking is a simple way to contribute to a greater cause. The sum of your choices has a profound personal effect and improves the quality and enjoyment of your cooking and the world we live in.

The Brooklyn Rustic approach is an effort to balance the little choices we make every day with a larger holistic picture. I selected the main ingredients in this book to leave the choice of this approach up to you. Almost every highlighted ingredient can be found in most modern supermarkets and also at the farmers’ market when in season. Even staple items like soy sauce or cooking oil present a choice. Do you buy organic soy sauce for a couple more dollars? Do you use organic cooking oils instead of chemically processed vegetable oils? My choice was made quickly, after I compared the smell and taste of the chemically processed oils to the natural ones.

Awareness and connection can start with the simplest act. Change is driven by us, the consumers and voters, not by producers and politicians. Change can begin with thoughtful choices about how we cook and eat.