Project Food Blog: Challenge # 1: Ready, Set, Blog

So here I am...Writing the post for the first challenge of  Project Food Blog, organized by Foodbuzz, of course, in English !!! (not my mother tongue, as you must have noticed) Now I have the jitters !!! 

What defines me as a blogger?? Well, my life!!


This is my cooking-chronology!!


* From Date of Birth up to 2005: Argentinian specimen, university teacher, not interested AT ALL in cooking, yes in eating!!!!, but cooking?? No way!


Reader: Sorry Cristina, you didn't specify your date of birth...
Cristina: Well....I don't have to tell THE WORLD everything....;D


* 2005/2007 (France) Learning to cook seems to have become a question of survival. Many dinners at home....French people come to eat !!! One blunder after another!! Frustration....Yes, I have to start learning...

Pistachio/Raspberry Mini-Cakes - 2008

* 2007/2009 (Argentina) I miss "la France" terribly...What can I do to perpetuate my French memories? Yes, go to cooking school, to specialize in French Cuisine !!! In the meanwhile family and friends believe I have gone crazy...People call me to offer jobs as a teacher...I say "No, I'm a cook now...". I even go to France for training....

Pistachio/Raspberry Mini-Cakes - 2010

* 2009 (France) Back to France, happy but also feeling lonely, VERY! I miss family  and friends!...One day I go to see Julie & Julia..


Husband:"Why don't you start a blog?"
Cristina (sarcastic): "Don't you have a more original idea???  There are aprox. 364,896 bloggers that write in English, not to count those that do it in other languages..."
Husband: "But you love cooking, and you always liked writing AND teaching..."
Cristina: "That's for women that have nothing to do..."


Only two days later, I was already thinking what I would  blog about...(without telling my husband of course...so as not to admit he was right, as usual.....) In what way was I different from the 364,896 bloggers out there...?
Well, my life is unique...it's MY life! And my blog shows that: from Buenos Aires to Paris, from the girl reading "French Cooking for Dummies", to the woman that after frustration, decides to learn...and believe me, it was not easy...Chefs are tough!!! Humiliating remarks about how badly I did certain things!! Looks of scorn of another apprentices...Tears, many hidden tears!! Until one day, almost miraculously, things begin to look well...The chef gives a look of approval (just 2 seconds, let's not exaggerate!... but for me...glory!!!) And the lesson was learnt, and this is what I want to show my readers....discipline, hard work...learning to cook is not a game...because chemistry and physics are involved in cooking...and chemistry and physics are SCIENCES...so cooking is a science!!!
Then yes, once we know the fundamentals, we are free to do whatever we want: create...break rules...."flirt" with Japanese and Peruvian cooking...

My Ceviche/Sushi

But first the basics !!! It is absolutely no use to have the most original and marvellous sauce for chicken, if we overcook our chicken...because it will feel like plastic in our mouths...no matter how good our sauce is....If we ignore how much time chicken should be grilled, there is no point in learning about the sauce....
This is what I try to show in my blog: learning with discipline, a bit the tough way if you want..."Knowledge is Power" someone said....I would like my readers to develop this cooking knowledge...the knowledge that will set them free, to create, to have fun cooking...
I don't like euphemisms: we have fun in the kitchen only when we cook well...because when we burn things...and everybody says "No thanks" when we offer a dish, we don't have any fun !!!
And then, last but not least, the last ingredient present in my blog: refinement in presentation! Even kids are sensitive to that...!  "La comida entra por los ojos"! (Food gets to you through the eyes), we say in Spanish.  Mind you!! Refinement doesn't mean luxury....it means providing a nice "setting" to  pay a tribute to dignified food...

Chicken Liver Mousse

This piece of bread is dignified because it has been made by an artisan that knew his trade...this country pâté is dignified (even people nowadays don't like too much the look of liver) because it has been made with good products, and because it respects tradition, a "savoir-faire" (know-how)...Then, the nice yet simple bowl..."Simplicity is the ultimate luxury", someone said. Would it look the same if I had put the pâté in a plastic bowl? No, probably not...

Argentinian Empanadas

I find these empanadas so irresistible in their country-like simplicity....They are not luxurious...yet in spite of the spartan presentation, they are appealing to the eye...




Then, this is more sumptuous....

My Moelleux au Chocolat, with Chocolate Mirror Glaze

Macarons: technique....serious technique!

Up to you to decide which type of food you feel more comfortable with.....but you need the tools to go from one to the other...and this is what I try to give my readers in the blog!
I think in fact, I never lost my passion for teaching, only now I teach different stuff: before I used to teach the Romantics in English Literature...now, very humbly, I would like to transmit my passion...my love for food but with the teacher inside!


This is my blogging philosophy: technique, discipline, elegance in simplicity...but please, not shedding tears...it should be just for the joy of cooking !!!!
If you agree with this, I invite you to follow me...!!!