Delicious, Creative & Inspirational

by Roxanne Garcia

Cooking for someone is one of the nicest things you can do.  The food choices you make should be as important as the cooking itself.  This past weekend we had three different chefs from three unique restaurants come to demonstrate their skills at the markets.  I am looking for words to describe the experience…let’s say, delicious, creative, and inspirational.

Delicious is defined as highly pleasing to the senses.  How many of us stop and look over the plates we are served?  How about smelling the aroma?  Food should be considered delicious in aroma and taste.  The difference between a fresh-picked tomato and one that has been shipped over 2,000 miles is undeniable– they taste and smell very different.  Thank you Daniel Perez of JW Marriott for your delicious fresh green chile salsa (chiles, tomatos & onions courtesy of Sleeping Frog Farm), candied poblano chiles, and red beef chorizo (using beef from Double Check Ranch).

Creative is having the ability to create.  We all have the ability to create amazingly tasty dishes.  The challenging part is creating dishes from seasonally grown fruits and vegetables, week after week, month after month.  A big shout-out goes to Doug Levy of FEAST restaurant for the creative tasty mix of farm fresh peaches (from Leo at Big D Farms) and fresh roasted green chiles drizzled over pork scallopini (using pork tenderloin from Circle Key Farms).

Inspirational is having the quality to inspire.  Where do you find your cooking inspiration from? Cookbooks, television, magazines, or the internet?  Do you have a food philosophy? Perhaps it is just about cooking simply and honestly with the best quality produce you can find.  Noble Hops chef Angel Fabion was inspired by all the fresh local produce.  His sensational Sweet~Spicy Swine (using produce from Richcrest Farms and Hatch green chiles from Bob’s Roasters) was an inspirational hit.

We at the farmers’ market consider ourselves lucky  to have access to such great local chefs.  Perhaps the questions you should be asking is: What inspires you to be creative in making delicious food?

Maybe all it takes is a walk around the farmers’ market!