Fit or Fat

Remember Covert Bailey?

My wife, Lynn, is a wonderful cook. She loves cooking just shy of fashion shopping, and maybe more than wine. Nearly every week we delight in a new recipe, often taken from The New York Times Wednesday dining section, but they can come from everywhere, except Red Book or Rachael Ray. Lynn also took a two-week French cooking class in the early ‘80s from a fancy restaurant.

When we used to cook French dishes at home, I watched Lynn and learned to make the sauces myself, perfecting them over many attempts. Then Lynn got healthy. It happened in the late ‘80s. Crème disappeared first, then butter and lastly fatty meats. Now we cook with olive oil, lots of fresh vegetables and will usually employ chicken breasts, rather than thighs, when we are not having omega 3 fish.

I don’t cook at all anymore; I just do the chopping and some of the cleaning. But I dreamed of the day I would hang up my portmanteau and take on some of the executive parts of dinner preparation, again. In the back of my mind I had reminisced for the days when dinner at home was close to four-star dining out,—guests were wowed.

Last week Lynn reminded me of the obvious: you need to use fat for food to taste four-star, and we don’t use much anymore. Of course there are a few low- or good-fat combinations which belong in the French Laundry. But for the most part, we will have to settle for two- and three-star plates, except on rare occasions when we dine out. And I guess I will not bother doing any of the cooking, since Lynn is a master of making the best of healthy fare.

I’m just putting this down to see if I am missing anything.

P.S. On Thursday, Lynn is actually taking a Greyhound Bus (there is no train over the mountains) from Albany to Boston just to enjoy a fatty four-star dinner - out - with me (I’m working there on Wednesday and Thursday), and then drive back home with me on Friday. It’s not that a part of her doesn’t long for the good old days, too.

I would suggest going all-out for the fatty, unhealthy version once per month. In the early '90s. my wife got into the "healthy" versions also, when she decided that Weight-Watchers was the way to go. After a lengthy time, when she got down to her desired weight, she started to eat "fatty" foods again on occasions. This led to her having to have her gall bladder removed, as her body was no longer used to fats.

I don't know if the Sunday article was syndicated; my wife read it in the New York Post and read outloud to me in the car. Married men live longer because their wives do just what ours did; so you got to love 'em, even if you have to trade love for like in foods,--execpt for once in a while, like you said. But you do get so you can't enjoy fat as much, so you can really never go home again. Thank God for wine. We don't have to compromise on that.

Covert,
Our cooking is much like yours but maybe not quite as extreme. Haven't had a big marbalized steak for years, cook chicken and fish (didn't know breasts were that much better than thighs which is the part I like), use OO and many fresh herbs. Half and half or milk has replaced cream in 99% of dishes. We still use butter and are fans of cheeses. I think that the fattty 3 star restaurant has changed. There are a few but most have adjusted to the lower fat menus, just not as much as we have at home. We have a very well known classical French restaurant in St. Louis that still makes food the old fashion way. Going to this restaurant just doesn't appeal to me anymore as I am not a fan of cream sauces which abound there.
Walt