One time, in a former life as a food writer I interviewed a Nordic three Michelin star chef. I asked him whether how the food he ate growing up might have inspired his cooking. Almost all Asian and French and Italian chefs say ‘my mother’. He said, ‘we had horrible food at home and I was determined to break the cycle’
@skinnylatte
My mother was an excellent cook but meals at home were basically meat and potatoes with a vegetable. Delicious but boring. When I ate new dishes 'out in the real world', there was no holding me back on learning to cook EVERYTHING!
@skinnylatte My Mom mostly cooked things she learned from my Dad's mother and sister. To be fair, 1) there is a reason you don't see restaurants serving traditional New England cuisine and 2) my grandmother lost her sense of smell due to an illness when she was young.
(My Mom's Dad had been a cook in a lumber camp before migrating to the US, but I don't remember him cooking anything at home but pancakes, which were great)
@skinnylatte That's the brutal Scandinavian honesty I appreciate.
Seriously, if you ever need someone to give you absolutely honest, raw, unvarnished, "I don't have time for bullshit" feedback, ask a Swede or a Finn or a Norwegian.
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