A while back, I was having a discussion with one of my peers who accused me of only knowing the "old stuff". I admitted that current trends are not my strong suit because as a female who started in this business in the '70s (culinary school or not) I was relegated to working in diner-type places. My reply to him was that they can come up with all kinds of over the top things that seem interesting, but you can trot out your best, and I can set a medium-rare porter house with sauteed mushrooms and fried potatoes next to it and the average person will take the steak every time. What more do you need to know? If someone asks me what style of cuisine I specialize in, I reply "American diner classic". Recently on Iron Chef America, one of the chefs presented a cheeseburger and fries as part of his menu. One of the judges said "I could eat this every day". Nuff said. |