Childhood Processed as Adulthood Gourmet

My biggest childhood dream (and current one) is to open my own restaurant. Mainly because I love to cook but also because I want to be the only authority I have to answer to (muahaha). Of course, being interested in such things I am constantly thinking of unique dishes that will be able to set my restaurant apart from the others and align with my vision. I will not release those ideas here because they need to live in my brain and also capitalism. But, I would like to discuss where many of these ideas are birthed from and why that trend is taking an interesting turn.

You’ve heard it all before from chefs “I grew up cooking with my grandmother/mother/aunt/family member and we made this dish and now that I’m grown up I want to make it just like them so everyone else can share in this experience”. Cute. Great. Makes for a wonderful interview and an even better cookbook intro. But what about chefs that didn’t grow up cooking with their family? Or those whose fondest memories of food come from culinary school and not at their grandmother’s hip? There has been a beautiful response from the culinary world and that answer is processed food.

I’d like to think that I toe the line between the two worlds of cooking with my family and eating processed foods. My father is diametrically opposed to all processed foods (except for nutty bars) and thus my childhood contained some barriers to access. My mother, however, and my mother’s side of the family openly enjoy processed foods so I got my kicks at every grocery shop with her and every weekend spent outside of the house. Thus, I am able to see the different outcomes ascribing to either school of thought can produce. Many chefs who appreciate processed foods can be looked down upon by the older, more formal chefs (think Alton Brown’s disappointment at the idea of trained chefs curling up with Hot Pockets). Chefs who enjoy processed food are perhaps more honest and accepting of human nature, we really like grease and sugar. But the questions that arises to the mind is, are all these memories of equal ranking? Does cooking in the kitchen with mom comparable to that bite of a honey bun when you were outside playing with your friends? Is that an experience that you would want to give to someone else? I’m tempted to say yes. The memories, though different, are all about the warmth and safety that our childhoods can bring us, and remembering what a full belly (be it nutrition or hydrogenated oil) felt like. And believe me, there is nothing like watching someone eat a processed food for the first time (this is coming from someone who has force fed Popeyes, Dinosaur Egg oatmeal, and other atrocities of the processed world down the gullet of the previously pure).

Though, with both of these schools of thought, there is the question on what elevation will make of them. When you want your father’s coconut chicken, do you want a $36 plate of one chicken leg sprinkled with the finest coconut laid over sticky rice? Or do you want the original? When you want a hot pocket do you want a $15 “poche” that leaves your tummy rumbling but your taste buds sated? Do we ever really know, or does the moment have to strike us? These questions in my opinion become even more difficult when applied to processed foods. Sure, elevating your family’s cooking may be a difficult undertaking but it is already somewhat elevated considering is was made in a home most likely with fresh ingredients. Processed foods, however, are a different world entirely. When I am craving a Hostess treat isn’t a part of me craving that delicious fake flavor it provides? If I wanted a chocolate cupcake filled with light airy pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache, that is what I would’ve sought out. For those of us brought up on the “fake stuff” don’t we have a more developed appetite for the fake? It’s an interesting idea to take off with. As restaurants continue to elevate the mundane, they fail to cater to a population the craves the mundane (or at least does so ashamedly and in secret). Formally trained chefs (and me) will howl about the failures of the food system and how disgusting processed foods are but McDonald’s is still in business for a reason and it’s only partly because there’s a value menu. Hostess and Lay’s still fly off the shelves and you’d be deluded to believe that only children are buying them. The truth is, we never really grow out of loving the processed foods of our youth. But society tells us “Trix are for kids” and our bodies can no longer metabolize them so, ashamed, we filter into restaurants that will serve us a bougie version of our childhood favorites in hopes of us calling back to yesteryear and remembering some childhood glee.

I’m really here for this trend, no matter how damning my words may sound. I think we all have the right to relive our childhood food favorites be it family cooking or a box of Twinkies. Many restaurants, and publications at this point, are able to toe the line of what we really want and what our adult bodies can handle. Bon Appetit for instance has done an excellent job of creating a series surrounding the subject. Some things become quite clear through all of this, so much about cooking is about returning to an earlier, happy state where your belly was full of whatever you damn well pleased.

 

Eat well and be good piggies.