appreciative palate

My mom forwarded this to me yesterday. It's an article from the Tucson Citizen I think, about my gradmother, Mrs. Elmer Courtland.

She talks about cooking, learning to cook, and cooking for my grandpa: "'His palate is an appreciative one,'" she says. It's a perfect phrase. Far more precise, and less elitist than the popular terms for someone who cares deeply about food. "'And cooking for people who appreciate good food'" she continues, "'is a real incentive.'"

That said, these recipes seem strangely simple for publishing. My grandmother was a truly great cook, and although I agree that if you can read a recipe, you can cook, there's also a special touch to cooking you can't learn from a book. And she knows that more than most.

My grandmother, no longer Mrs. Elmer but Fanny, made matzo balls with this special skill. Dozens of small globes, perfectly light, and perfectly schmaltzy, that required her hands. I'll grant that most people think their grandmother's matzo balls are the best because that's what they grew up with. But my grandmother's actually were superior, as were her chocolate chip cookies. I mean, nobody else made cookies that tasted/crunched like hers, and she used the recipe on the Nestle Tollhouse bag!!

My grandma hasn't cooked in at least three years now. She fell and broke her hip a month before my graduation from UCLA, then again shortly after recovering the first injury. The second spill left her with some brain damage and enough cumulative muscle atrophy to keep her from standing on her own. My grandma believed that food was her gift to us, so none of us learned the secret to her special touch and I worry that it's lost to us now.

I wonder if my grandma was holding back in the article. She was of course politely understated about her skill, but she didn't believe in microwaves and her spaghetti sauce took hours to simmer, so the idea that she'd offer Easy Peach Compote and Fish Mold as her summer dishes somehow feels overtly withholding. I understand why people would want to have secret recipes, but I disagree with it.

For this reason I'd like to submit an addendum to "Everybody Cooks: Cool Summer Dishes": Good food should be for everyone. It isn't enough to cook well for your family, you have to teach them to cook well too. I'd much rather live in a world where you didn't have to eat before certain dinner parties, than one where a few very special people made a few very special dishes. Also, no one should ever make fish mold.