the 5 commandments of cole

Having decided to take upwards of twenty jobs, watching my face and resume get plastered about town in a weak attempt to become a local celebrity, I've ignored my sweet sweet blog of the Banana Omelettes variety...you'll most likely find me blogging now at Decadent Maine, promoting my cooking classes, foodie trolley tours and various workshops featuring cheese, herbs, and wine.  Though it's been fun, and has been a nice transition from not working to overworking, I miss my sarcastic, embittered, "witty" fun on my original blog.

I've realized that my cooking style follows certain guidelines...commandments if you will...

1. Simplify, simplify
I stole that one from Henry David Thoreau.  Food doesn't need to be complicated.  Keep it simple, which leads me into my next commandment
2.  Keep it fresh!
This allows you to better apply rule 1, if you have the best product, then you don't need to do much to make it delicious.  A perfect fresh scallop only needs a little sea salt
3. Keep it local
The farther your food travels, the more tired it tastes, the more chances it has of being less delicious.  We all have had that experience of something fresh from the garden, warmed by the sun...few things are better.
4. Respect the food.
This ties into my earlier rules, I've gotten to know a lot of farmers, foragers, and fishermen in my day, and these guys take such pride in their work and their product that it seems downright rude to disrespect their efforts by an overly complicated sauce.  Keep it simple, honor your producers.  The farmers are the true chefs.
5. Read. Study. Learn.
If you're SO determined to do something with effort, beyond proper seasoning, then study, know your stuff.  One of the best ways to approach a new style of cooking is to study the history of the ingredient, find it's origin and then follow it around the world, it will allow you to rethink preparations, I call it true fusion.  Look at how the history of the world has had an impact on different cuisines, look at how they've influenced one another, don't be random. Be smart.