Quality Ingredients Only for Michelin Star Chefs

Do you believe in the importance of quality ingredients for the best flavor in a meal?

I ask this because Cameron and I have recently found a show on Netflix called Chefs Table. It is about the world’s greatest chefs all over the world. A few of the episodes you must read subtitle because the chefs don’t speak English. The show does a fantastic job of telling these culinary geniuses’ stories. Which is what I think we find the most interesting. It is not about recipes or how they use their knife, so much as it is about how they create amazing dishes out of some of the simplest ingredients. Or how they showcase their particular countries signature cuisine. It has been very fascinating!

A common theme a lot of these chefs have shared is not about their own skills or imagination, but the importance of the best ingredients. They have spoken of how important it is to find local farmers and ranchers to supply them with the best ingredients so they can combine them and bring out the best flavor in everything.

Now I have to admit that a lot of these fine dining restaurant plates do not look that appealing because of some of the different traditions of other countries. I would like to say that if I had the opportunity to eat at some of these places, that I would put aside my feelings toward things like ants and goat’s brains and just give it a go. It would be hard though, and there might be somethings I am not that interested in trying.

It has me thinking about all the home chefs that cook every day for themselves and for their families. Sourcing the best local ingredients gives you the opportunity to cook like these Michelin star chefs right at home. I think it is interesting that we have sacrificed flavor for convenience. In all industries of food production. It is not about quality or flavor; it is all about convenience and doing it as cheap as possible. If it was about flavor, dry aging beef would still be the norm. Pigs would not be raised in barns from birth to processing. Chickens would take longer than 35 days to grow and they would not be $1/lb.

I am so thankful there has always been the farmer and rancher looking out for the quality and flavor of our food. If there had not been the small farmer out there, all of this could have been lost before Cameron and I even came to be. I am also thankfully that there are chefs out there looking for what only small farms and ranches have to offer. Then taking that showing the world what can be done with it and hopefully sparking more and more people to make a connection with a famer or rancher.

P.S. I just googled Michelin star to make sure I spelled it correctly and the first thing that popped up was "A Michelin Star is awarded for outstanding cooking. We take into acount the quality of the ingredients, the harmony of flavours..." there was more if you want to google yourself but I thought it was interesting quality of the ingredients was first!