I’m not a strict locovore, but I do try to keep things local when I have a choice. It makes sense for a lot of reasons: sustainability, shipping costs (monetary and carbon), supporting local economies in general, and our local farmers and fishermen in particular. It’s a good thing Christey and I love seafood, citrus, and chilies — items very common to Florida. I don’t know what we’d do if we lived in Needles, Arizona. Eat a lot of javelina, I suppose.
I don’t go overboard with locovarianism, though. I think regions and cultures from around the country or around the world can teach us a lot through cuisine. If “you are what you eat”, then sampling other cultures, especially through cuisine, can only help bring other people and cultures just that much closer. Technology has given us foodies a way to sample the entire world in ways that could not have been possible even when my parents were my age.
I’m self-taught when it comes to cooking. I’ve studied primarily French techniques (not out of any superiority of the French when it comes to cuisine, but Escoffier and his followers have made the art of cuisine approachable, teachable, and marketable). As a foodie, though, I will happily ingest the world. I’ve noticed within the last year or two that if I have a personal cooking style, I like to take a technique, ingredient, or recipe from one part of the world, and fusion it with another (or three or four). In one sense, it’s surprising how often this actually works. In another sense, food and cuisine were created by people, and we’re all just people, no matter what our origin.
Last night, I fused a lot of areas into one great meal. I took local grouper, covered it in sauteed criminis and shallots, tossed on some green chilis and red jalapeños, and some sharp cheddar. I covered in phyllo, baked, then served over baby spinach with a brown butter noisette, with toasted almonds.
Fuse on inside…