by David Salerno | May 4, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks, Culinary Anthropology
Lifting the cloche on another piece of food history, this week we discuss the origins of Alfredo sauce. At first glance this sauce may beg the question, “is this sauce even Italian?” Noodles with butter and cheese? Sure, but it’s a far cry from the...
by David Salerno | May 3, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks, Culinary Anthropology
We’re going back to our butchery class to answer the question, what is ham? I can tell you that growing up, a lot of the families I knew would have ham on Easter, and I can also tell you that most would have ham without knowing the reasoning behind it. Ham is...
by David Salerno | May 2, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
How and why would you use these to thicken a soup, sauce, or stew? I still have nightmares thinking about calling 30 seconds out from a meal being delivered to the pass and knowing my sauce would never thicken to the right consistency in time. A good...
by David Salerno | May 1, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks
Brown food tastes good. Put simply, the Maillard reaction occurs at 250F and above, and is a when the amino acids and sugars in food react to the heat. The most obvious sign of the reaction is the browning that happens to food. The...
by David Salerno | Apr 6, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks, Healthy Recipes
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a few volunteers come and make pitas with me for our meal. We made 120 pitas, which were then served with roasted spiced chickpeas, a lemon dill sauce, and an arugula salad with pickled radish and onions. So...
by David Salerno | Apr 4, 2023 | Blog, Cooking Tips and Tricks, Culinary Anthropology
Al pastor tacos come directly from Lebanese immigrating to Puebla, Mexico. Without going down a huge historical rabbit hole, these immigrants left due to the fall and disintegration of the Ottoman empire. If you’ve ever seen the way the meat is cooked for the...
