deLux

Gourmet comfort food seems to be the phrase on the lips of every chef in town.  I didn't have enough space to really talk about it in my review of deLux in today's Style Weekly. Everyone (and, of course, this is a gross generalization) cooking out there seems to want to strip their food down and get back to basics--basics in this case meaning old-fashioned American fare like mac and cheese (lordy, there are lots and lots of iterations of mac and cheese: see CHOW's  Mac'n'Cheese Challenge) or meatloaf.  You know, stuff Mom used to make.

Of course, there's that word "gourmet" there, and that's how chefs hedge their bets.  Truffle oil, garlic, white anchovies, and all sorts of great-tasting, but unexpected ingredients abound in gourmet comfort food. But why, exactly, is this style of cooking surging to the fore now?

I don't think it's because chefs are tired of fancy food; most of the fancy ingredients are still present.  It might be a desire to attract less fancy customers (or to eliminate the need customers might feel to be fancy when they eat in a particular restaurant) and thereby encourage more repeat business.  Given the high/low ubiquity (hey! I use that word in my review too!) of blue jeans, maybe what we're seeing here is merely a reflection of a fashion trend translated into food.

More about comfort food after the jump . . .

Maybe. I don't know why everyone's been wearing jeans everywhere (even grandmothers) for the last few years but it's a trend I can really get behind.  Since I don't have a real job, I don't have any of those real job clothes anyway.  Sartorially, I'm prepared either for carpool or a wedding.  There just isn't a whole lot of middle ground in my wardrobe these days.

However, I digress.  Why mashed potatoes?  Why creamed spinach? I think the really easy answer is that life is pretty scary in this country right now (the war, the economy, the sinking dollar, the emotional instability the endless Democratic primary creates--can't we just finish this thing, for crying out loud, and get on with the real race?).  Comfort food is a reflexive balm for the aching heart/wallet of the American soul.

But doesn't it have just a whiff of xenophobia about it as well? Before every chef and restaurant owner  starts to sharpen their mandolins so that they can have the satisfaction of shaving me into hundreds of ultra-thin slices that don't speak, I think what the chefs are responding to is a desire on the part of diners--in other words, all of us.

We've become accustomed to our fancy-schmancy ingredients but we're a little freaked out by the rest of the world right now.  We seem to be under assault from all sides, and it feels like it might be a good time to hunker down for the duration.  Of course, we don't want to actually give up anything (what, me sacrifice?), for instance, all of those lip-smackingly good culinary traditions we've become accustomed to, but we'd like them Americanized, please, so that we feel less troubled by their foreignness.

I'm curious to see if the menus stay the same in the summertime; I'm not sure how the heavy dishes I've been seeing will fare once we all get a look at our flabby, pale bodies in the harsh sunlight of June and July.  Scalloped potatoes might start to look like the nasty kind of trap our will power needs to tiptoe past instead of the soft, culinary hug it represented in February. But maybe it's a trap that transcends the caloric and ventures into the the philosophical--and don't you think that's the kind of cultural snare we need to avoid all year long?

Comments

[kitpollard]

Hmm...I wrote a post about the same underlying themes yesterday (it's not quite as specific, but I was thinking about mac and cheese as I wrote) - AND I was in Richmond over the weekend.

Interesting coincidence.

Great post, though. I think you're absolutely right about the draw to comfort foods.

I'd bet on a lot of foie-topped burgers and truffled fries for the summer...

[Bookstore Piet]

I agree with your point on uneasiness leaving us grasping for something that makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. One other thing may also be playing a part in this though. The ever expanding range of ingredients available to the home cook has made haute-cuisine chefs of us all. Read the blogs of Veronica, RVA Foodie, Messy Cuisine, or, yes, even mine and you will find big ambitious dishes for us and our friends with ingredients that you couldn't find for the home just a few years ago. Perhaps we are burning ourselves out on all those big productions and when we go out we just want something simple and filling. Basically what we're not cooking at home anymore... Just a little food for thought.

[genevelyn]

Here's another thought: The froo-froo mac and cheese trend filtered to Richmond from another metropolis or cookbook via a visiting cook who found inspiration. It doesn't take a master chef to make this kind of food. The cook added it to his menu, or even created a comfort food menu and it did well and people talked about it. Then, a second and third and fourth cook hoping for success riffed off the first menu. Being that the ingredients for mac and cheese and mashed potatoes are widely available through Sisco, and it's still winter, adding a little truffle oil to them is pretty simple way to upcharge an inexpensive menu item.

[anne]

I've been wondering the same thing. Why the heck is everyone doing gourmet comfort food? At first I thought it was a Richmond thing, but then I keep seeing it all over the Food Network, Food & Wine, Gourmet, etc. It's almost like it's becoming it's own cuisine, like the tapas craze or something.

I figured it was just a fad (everyone copying everyone else like these things tend to go), but you put it so well taking the influence to a larger level. It's true. Our country is pretty screwed up right now, so why not make ourselves feel better with mom's mac 'n' cheese?

And it's weird you bring all this up in the restaurant sense because I feel I've been doing it at home unintentionally. For example, growing up, I lived on fried egg sandwiches with mayo. Sounds gross, but I ate it so much growing up because it was just about the only thing I could make when my mom wasn't home.

Last weekend, I had some eggs leftover from making cookies, so I decided to make the good ole egg sandwich. It was so good! I got all warm and fuzzy remembering sitting in front of the TV after school eating egg sandwiches. Weird.

Anyway, just my two cents.

[Deborah Dowd]

Not many people head for the celery sticks when they are feeling down! Maybe just the uncertainties of our modern life are driving us back to foods we associate with a simpler time.

[veron]

oooh...oooh...I love the picture of all those fried wee fish. I miss eating fried whole fish we call "galungong" back in the Philippines. I loved having it with ketchup.