A Clevelander's Guide to the Grocery Store

The major thrust of my professional cooking falls into the genre that most people would call "healthy".  Although the specific details of their regimens do vary, everyone I cook for has the goal of being well and strong, and they all pay close attention to their nutritional choices to make sure they feel they are always working towards the goal of good health.  That being said, many people automatically assume that I have some strong opinions on which grocery store or chain best supports the goal of good health.  I tell clients that I will honor their consumer preferences but if you press me to find out what I really think...the big surprise is that I think all of my vendors are about equal!  There are great choices and not-so-great choices in every store:  I find great products in the rinky-dink mom-and-pop shops and poor choices in the places that proclaim they are the champions of good health.   Furthermore, even though some stores have a reputation of being expensive and some have a reputation of being cheap, I have to tell you I've patronized them all and most of the time my total bill only varies about 10% no matter where I shop...every store marks some items down, but then marks others up.  It's called "loss leader" marketing.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

So, if you can get "healthy" products anywhere, and if it's really that hard to manipulate the bottom line of your grocery budget based on perception, then where in the heck should you shop?  The short answer is:  wherever you want to.  I do admit that some stores seem to do especially well in certain categories.  I am willing to share my opinion and will do so here, with the reminder that opinions are like elbows (sic)...and everybody has one:

-HEINEN'S:  Heinen's built their reputation on meat and their meat department is great.  Even the stuff that is not wearing a certified organic or humanely-handled sticker is still up to very impressive standards...after all, the Heinen family (who still runs the chain of stores), knows they built their reputation on fine meats and is not willing to let that slide.  They have adequate organic selections, health foods, gluten-free items, and their local produce really IS local!  (Some chains call items "local" that were trucked from 3 states away!)
-WHOLE FOODS:  Their produce display is usually impressive, their cheeses are always nice, and they are one of the few places that still has a bulk section...sometimes you only need 1/4 cup of an ingredient and WF will let you buy it that way!  They also sell great coffee.
-THE FRESH MARKET:  The Fresh Market posts the latest Wine Spectator ratings (if available) on the wines they sell.  This is immensely helpful if you are like me and appreciate good wine, but do not keep up with it as a hobby, so you need a little extra help avoiding trumped-up vinegar.  They also provide an east-side alternative to Whole Foods for those who like to focus on organic selections.
-DAVE'S MARKETS:  Dave's is the dark horse of Cleveland grocery stores---some folks want to dismiss them, but they are undeniably strong in a number of categories.  Firstly, I think their fish is great.  Some outposts do not carry the fancier catches, but their selection is always fresh, beautiful, and well-priced.  I also find their bakery to be very good, both savory breads and sweet treats are top-notch.  Finally, if you are looking for ethnic specialties, Dave's is your best bet.
-GIANT EAGLE:  If you want a lot of selection and extended hours during which to consider that selection, Giant Eagle has both.  Also, when you just can't get around to doing your own cooking, I have to admit that their prepared foods are quite tasty and professionally done.
-FARMER'S MARKETS, PRIVATE VENDORS, & SPECIALTY SHOPS:  Here is where you really can find special items.  However, it is always on a catch-as-catch-can basis and often priced to support the local business owner who doesn't have the purchasing power of a chain.  These places are great venues for serendipitous gourmet surprises if your time and budget enable you to make them a regular part of your shopping week.
-ZAGARA'S:  Their beef is often excellent, and they will carry some harder-to-find meat items (i.e. rabbit)  They are very fair about labeling and reducing the price of day-old produce which is a wonderful way to extract flavor AND savings when making a stew or other slow-cooked item that benefits from overripe ingredients. 

Yes, I know there are many more ethnic shops and smaller vendors in this great food-centric town of ours, but I am making mention of the ones that are most practical for me to use on regular basis in my profession...where I can get almost all the healthy stuff I need for the good people for whom I cook. 

But feel free to offer up your opionions, too.  Where do you like to do your shopping, Cleveland...and why??

How to Cook Like a Personal Chef

I watch the same the cooking shows and read the same cooking magazines that you do, so I know the clichéd expectation.  You think that because I am a personal chef, on my days off I must ride my whimsical 60’s-era beach cruiser bicycle down to the Farmer’s Market where I carefully handle and consider some seasonal produce, some grass-fed filets, perhaps some unpasteurized cider before pedaling off, ruddy-cheeked and with a baguette peeking out of my knapsack, into my afternoon of slicing and dicing because I am that passionate about good food.

Oh, puh-lease.  I don’t have time for that nonsense!

Look, I most assuredly am passionate about good food.  I cannot imagine loving any vocation more than I do this one, of creating and executing personalized menus for all kinds of wonderful people, but, holy cow, there are so many nagging little details of daily life, so many obligations outside of the workplace, that having a day, even a weekend day, that resembles a miniaturized culinary vacation is a treasured rarity.  On the contrary, the details of grown-up life have me twirling as chaotically as the rest of my busy peers.  The bottom line is sometimes I don’t feel like I have time to cook…at least not for myself.  But somehow I do.

So, how do I, as a personal chef, do it?  How do I cook all day and not find myself reduced to standing in a carryout line 5 nights a week?  How do I manage to make wholesome dinners for my household without dropping the ball on my other obligations?  Well, trust me, it’s not talent or some specialized training that keeps me out of the drive-thru.  It’s just a commitment to wanting to eat well coupled with the occasional (and re-energizing!) creative idea that gets me through.   Here are some tips I have come up with to get good stuff on the table with a minimal investment of time.

1. Make Your Grocer Your Prep Cook:  Buy your onions already chopped.  Buy your garlic already peeled.  Have the butcher trim your meats.  See if the prepared foods counter makes fresh stock each day.  This is not unhealthy pre-packaged convenience food…it’s still your home cooking…you’ve just taken some time-robbing chores out of the recipe.
2. Think of Easy Favorites:  I love chicken Caesar Salad.  I can grill a chicken breast in a few minutes (or get it done ahead of time on the weekend) and there is even a bottled Caesar dressing I find acceptable.  That’s a dinner I can get on the table in about 5 minutes!  There are too many quickie dinners to list here, so don’t you dare turn your nose up at those cheerful magazines with house-wifey, D-list food celebrities promising you recipes with dinner in 10 minutes.  Their recipes are often quite good, and lets face it…most nights all you have is 10 minutes, so you are not above their advice!    
3. Do Double Duty When You Can:  If there is one night you are able to muster up the energy to cook, then capitalize on it.  Double your recipe and freeze half of it for later.  Or make two dishes at once so you’ve cooked tomorrow’s dinner, too.
4. “Italians Do it Better”  Remember that slogan?!  Well, they might do it better.  At the very least, Italians might make pizza dough better than you.  And they might sell it at their neighborhood market.  Along with great pepperoni that they cure themselves.  And maybe a top-quality 3 ingredient sauce (Tomatoes, Garlic, Herbs).  If you stock up on some of their raw materials once a week, you can have the best gourmet pizza in town in less time than it would take to pick up the phone and call for delivery.
5. Breakfast:  It’s What’s for Dinner:  Little kids go crazy for breakfast foods at night.  Almost everyone can scramble and cook some eggs in less than 5 minutes.  And ounce for ounce, there is no finer or more easy-to-assimilate protein on the face of the earth than the humble, affordable egg.  Put together a quick salad  to go with your eggs and pair it with a light red wine and you are practically dining en Francais.
6. Bake Your Own Bread…Sort Of:  Did you know many grocery stores and a few bakeries sell frozen dough?  Freezing protects the raw ingredients from spoilage so that the dough is not packed with chemical stabilizers like already-baked commercial breads are.  Just thaw the dough overnight in the fridge and put it into a hot oven for 20 minutes.  You’ll feel like an artisan baker and the house will smell heavenly.
7. Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle:  OK, fine. You caved and bought a rotisserie chicken.  It’s alright.  Just don’t throw away any bones.  Stick them in the freezer until you have time.  Because when you do, you are going to boil them in a big pot of water later in the week, maybe with some onions, celery, or carrots thrown into the pot.  Maybe you’ll even use the leftover rice from Chinese take-out night.  There!  Chicken-rice soup.  You just got another meal out of the dregs of your leftovers.  And I promise you, it will actually be amazing.  So doggy-bag everything.  It might come in handy!
8. Set Yourself Up For Success:  When you are not doing a quickie-dinner-in-10-minutes meal…when you have a little bit more time and motivation to try a more ambitious recipe...then cook like they do on cooking shows and in professional restaurants.  They read the ingredient list and measure everything out first, setting it aside in little containers, before starting in earnest. That way, when you have vegetables on the cooktop, on the verge of burning and you see the recipe command: Add chopped chicken pieces, you are not thinking, “oh, no!  I forgot to chop the chicken!”  Instead, the chopped chicken is already waiting for you to calmly add it to the pan and keep cooking like a pro.

Finally, just shrug it off and forgive yourself if life gets away from you and a couple times a year you wind up eating a McBurger or a Kentucky Fried Heartburn.  After you’ve gotten a few home-made meals imprinted on your palate you’ll come to be semi-allergic to those poorer choices and you will find that those emergency bail-out meals become more and more of a rarity in your healthy, gourmet-inspired life.  And when you are on vacation, or by some miraculous twist of fate, your schedule is completely clear, feel free to pedal your beach cruiser to the Farmer's Market and play TV chef for the day!

Roast-y, Toasty Seeds and Nuts

Just home from a long and chilly hike, I was craving a salty snack, but the cupboards were relatively bare, save for about a handful of raw, unsalted sunflower seeds.

Hmmm...it wouldn't take long to turn those pathetically wan, little seeds into a lovely burnished, salty snack for one.

I turned the oven dial to 350, spritzed them with a short blast of spray oil (just to get the salt to stick) and sprinkled them with a couple pinches of sea salt.  10 minutes later, my seeds were a gorgeous shade of golden brown, hot, salty, and far more satisfying and nutritious than, say, some mass-manufactured chips.

There is no immediately compelling reason to roast your own seeds and nuts. After all, they are sold roasted at the same price point for which they are sold raw.  And, generally speaking, the nut roasteries are not pumping bizarre or dangerous additives into the nuts and seeds before they roast them, so there is no health benefit to the DIY approach.

So, why bother?

Well, friends, those brief 10 minutes in the kitchen allowed me to choose how burnished I wanted my roasted seeds.  Some folks like their food little more than blushing in hue while others crave things teetering on the cusp of charred...(I practically went fisticuffs with a friend when I picked her up for a post-breakfast walk one day and saw her throwing away perfect toast.  She claimed it was burnt.  I thought it looked just right!)  So, of course, roasting your own allows you to customize.  You can also adjust your flavor to something beyond what they offer in the grocery store by roasting seeds and nuts with celery salt, garlic powder, cinnamon sugar, spicy cayenne, smoky paprika, and more.

10 minutes is hardly a daunting amount of time to commit to glean that level of customization in your snacks.  For much the same reason, I am swearing off microwave popcorn---popping your own is so easy, and I recall (back in the days when microwaves were rarities) my mom used to do the most wonderful things to the popcorn she prepared on the stove-top, sprinkling the kernels with dried herbs, chili powder, and more.  I am not even going to get into the horrible additives they put into those faux-butter flavors, but if you are inclined to do the research, the workers who have to breath that stuff in while packaging it have had some serious health repercussions. 

I am digressing, though.   Please consider taking 10 minutes some weekend to make a healthful, personalized snack that seems so fitting with the autumn season.  If you carve pumpkins, you are going to have cups and cups of raw seeds on hand anyway...might as well make them delicious!