Have you ever thought about using Greek yogurt in a savory dish, roasting carrot tops to make pesto or enjoying a “surf and turf” of eel and beef tongue?
Artistic creativity combined with culinary science and an audience of adventurous palates was the setting for taste experiences presented at the 16th annual Worlds of Flavor Conference held at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in California’s Napa Valley.
“We meet to ask what’s next and what will dazzle our guests next,” says Greg Drescher, vice president at the CIA and creator of the globally focused conference for food professionals.
More than 70 top chefs and food experts from 15 countries including Australia, Denmark, Peru and Turkey met to demonstrate their take on showcasing the best flavors today. From chile-spiced sea beans to smoked salmon roe with Key lime and the surprise of a carrot and Bacalao cupcake — mealtime samplings offered a world marketplace of dining discovery. How about some charred celery with licorice syrup or a mosaic of squid?
Creative changes
“There is a crack in everything, and that’s where the light gets in,” observes Claus Meyer, co-founder of world-renowned Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, famous for reigniting interest in Nordic cuisine.
“Cabbage is now being worshipped and rye is the new black,” says Meyer, who is passionate about getting back to basics such as baking really good bread.
Changing mindsets from sweet to savory was the theme for cooking with Greek yogurt. Recipes included carrot-curry yogurt, orange-black pepper yogurt and corn-chipotle yogurt as dips for crudite.
“Kids in Turkey put yogurt on pasta and dip meatballs in yogurt,” says chef Mehmet Gurs of Istanbul, who presented braised lamb shank with a garlic smoked yogurt sauce.
Taste-driven techniques
Pressure cooking emerged as a popular cooking technique for chefs. Maxime Bilet, co-author of the award-winning cookbook series “Modernist Cuisine,” says, “The pressure cooker is rooted in tradition and poised for the future because it gives you the very essence of flavor.”
Mark Miller, an American chef known for Southwestern regional cuisine, says pressure cooker technology improves healthfulness: “By concentrating natural flavors, you don’t need to add a lot of sugar or salt to a recipe.”
Fried chicken world view
Cuisines connected most memorably for me through fried chicken. Louisville, Ky., chef Edward Lee showed how cooking chicken in white vinegar on low heat for 15 minutes and then deep fat-frying in peanut oil helped the pieces absorb less oil yet still yield a tasty, crunchy result.
“Whether it’s a gas station or a fancy restaurant, everyone has a recipe for fried chicken,” Lee says.
Guess so because chef Isaac McHale of London surprised the crowd with his Scottish Buttermilk Fried Chicken scented with fresh pine he collected in the woods behind the culinary school. Now that’s truly local and global all on the plate.
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