Week 1

My main goals for this project are to 

1: Improve my tangible cooking skills

2: Focus on the process of creating a meal (Shopping, prep, cleaning, community)

3: Explore the foods of each region thoroughly and respectfully

For my project, I am cooking foods from four different regions of the world, one each week. I am going to be improving my cooking ability, as well as finding dishes that I really enjoy cooking. It will also be really interesting to switch regions every week, giving me a bunch of time to do research and learn about each culture and region that I am cooking foods from. A big part of my project is also personal responsibility, as I will be shopping, preparing, and cleaning each time I cook. I want to be able to get into a nice rhythm with my cooking, and really feel as if I have accomplished something with tangible cooking skills. I’ve always been interested in cooking, and helped my family with big meals as well as cooked myself, but this will give me a ton of time to get much better at something that it is very helpful to be good at.

This week, I started my project trying to follow a theme of exploring the food culture of Latin America, and more specifically the food of Chile and Argentina. I had two cookbooks by Chef Francis Mallman, who has brought the Patagonian barbecuing method known as an Asado to worldwide prominence. He owns 9 restaurants, and his recipes and cookbooks were a very good place to shape the first week of my project around. I also have spent about 2 months in Patagonia, so I wanted to try to recreate and look a bit more at the food in the region. I started out by watching an episode of the series Chef’s Table on Netflix, which was the episode about Francis Mallman. It gave a pretty good introduction to him and the style of food in Patagonia, and helped me understand a bit more about the culture in the area.

The first dish I made was a cauliflower soup, and it went very well. I forgot to take pictures of the process, but it was made using mostly ingredients we already had, so there was much less of a process involved. The soup was very good, and I made a good amount of it to eat all week. The second dish I made was from Francis Mallman’s first cookbook, and was pounded chicken with a crust of potatoes. It was a slightly complicated dish to start out with, but the shopping and prep experience went pretty well for the most part. I ran into some issues with the mandolin not cutting the potatoes thin enough, which left them not cooked all the way though while the chicken and thinner potatoes were already done. It was successful overall, but maybe had too many steps that were difficult to follow to be one of the first things I made. The next day was more of a research day, but I did make some Mate, which is a traditional tea that I learned how to make while in Chile, and drink regularly. My next big meal that I attempted was an Argentinian bruschetta, mussels, and a pasta dish. Interestingly enough, there is a large italian influence in Patagonia cuisine due to Mendoza, a highly regarded wine region in western Argentina. Both of these turned out really well, and were very fun to cook. I also prepped and cleaned the whole meal, and worked towards my goal of more responsibility. Unfortunately I couldn't cook the next two days due to a climb of Mt. Hood, but I had a very successful week overall! Heading into next week, I'm definitely going to up how much food I cook, as well as focus on smaller dishes with one big meal towards the middle of the week. I also think I will return to Patagonian food to cook an Asado on a sunday either next week or the week after!