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You may think that chefs are perfect omnivores - going everywhere in the culinary landscape and appreciating what they find. But this is not so.
My friend Chef M has eaten more critters than anyone else I know - from armadillo to kangaroo to zebra. But he can't stand gelatinous textures, as one finds in a braised brisket, or in a terrine with aspic.
Another friend, Chef B, is a thirty-year professional and lover of all good foods. He has a horror of dried coconut - doesn't even like to think about the stuff.
J can't stand the aroma or taste of cardamom which to him "is like the driest dust."
Chef JT would bicycle 50 miles for authentic pork carnitas in a taco, but can't touch cilantro. "To me, the flavor is soap. Pure soap."
So whatever your dislikes are, rest assured you're in company with the rest of the human race, even the chefs of the world. As I said before, not everyone likes every food.
I have noticed how likes and dislikes can cause us a lot of trouble and anxiety as individuals and in community.
For example, some of us never take the chance to challenge our limits - to find out what we do and don't like, or even what might be good for us, in the spectrum of what's available.
Case in point. I was training a former employee about how the items and sauces on his station should taste. One dressing contained blue cheese. "I don't eat blue cheese," he said. "Have you ever tried it?" I asked. "Hell no. My people don't eat blue cheese." What he meant by "his people" was a mystery that took some time to unravel. An American by birth, he lives in a large Midwest metropolitan area, where he was brought up in a blue collar family. In his early 20s, to overcome his "young worker" limits in earning potential, he had branched into kitchen jobs where he could work both a.m. and late night shifts consecutively. Clearly, he's a person with chutzpah and a strong work ethic. I discovered eventually that "his people" identified culturally with the South and its cuisine. Collard greens and cornbread. He had never seen a family member eat blue cheese, and wasn't going to cross that line himself even if it caused conflict in his working life, because of this idea of family identity. Food was a big part of his self-perception. Can you imagine ways that this is true of you?
I know I can. I get a special feeling of doing the right thing when I feed my body cooked leafy greens and lean meat. Does eating collards make me any more Southern than I am? Nope. But I do identify myself and these foods as compatible. I feel rightoeus and healthy when I eat them. When I meet someone who lives off of fast food and soda, I identify them as being different from me. I used to be part of a clan of teenage buys who proudly ate Taco Bell daily. That was our culture.
I came to understand that choices are merely that: moments of choosing one thing over another. I didn't start out eating escargot - but my older sister did, and over the years I saw the pleasure she had in exploring new foods. Like her, I have made it my ability to make any choice available in the spectrum of foods: animals, plants, fungi, ferments, fruits and whatever else I find. I have changed my self.
Most chefs learn to do this. Why? Because duty to the work supersedes who we are.
I was once making Malted Milk Ice Cream, and was trying to get the proportion of malt to the correct balance. The only person around at the moment was Chef M, who can't stand the flavor of malt. But he helped me taste the ice cream anyway, because that's what we do to accomplish our work.
Me: "Is the malt flavor strong enough?"
Him: "Well, it's not making me gag yet, so probably not."
Great moments in culinary research right there.
I have only begun to explore this topic of taste - and I want to understand it more thoroughly. Help me do that by posting your thoughts and letting me know how you have encountered "food anxiety" over issues of taste. Did your brother suggest stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey with Krispy Kreme doughnuts? How did you feel about that?
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