OMG TV moment

[figmo]

My TV turned on to "Sara's Secrets" on the Food Network. She was making a meal that was supposed to be for "both vegetarians and carnivores." One of the items she made was two versions of a savory strada. When she went to plate it, she first stuck her spatula in the sausage-laden strada, then, without cleaning the spatula, stuck it into the vegetarian strada.

I blurted out "Oh my gawd!" so loudly I awoke Warren, who was sound asleep two rooms down with the door closed.

For those of you who aren't chefs, if you're feeding a vegetarian, that's like dipping your spatula in poison before serving your guests.

Comments

[tsennyipa.livejournal.com]

I think this is just about exactly analagous to mixing the milchig and traifdig spatulas. To someone who's serious about keeping kosher, it's a major nono. To someone who just doesn't want to choose the death of an animal, it's not a big deal. To someone who's a meativore, it's beneath notice.

I think cooking schools actually tend to foster this attitude about meat versus vegetarian. Vegetarian is like this weird thing you do as an alternative to meat, rather than an actual culinary tradition. It was nice in our hotel in Delhi because there vegetarian cooking really is a culinary tradition, and so at this five star hotel they had *really* good vegetarian food.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

When my mother was in restaurant chef school they had an afternoon-long seminar on "How to Cook for Vegetarians." Some of the recipes were interesting, but the sweeping generalizations made by the woman teaching the seminar were ludicrous. "Vegetarians don't like smooth textures; they like things chunky" was one of the examples. I always thought there were just as many vegetarian palates as there are vegetarians, and so far personal experience has proved me right and Mom's instructor wrong.

To get really good vegetarian food you need a chef who eats vegetarian food and likes good food. I've had some phenomenal vegetarian dishes over the years, and although I'm an omnivore, I find the "weird thing" attitude about vegetarianism to be somewhere between annoying and frustrating. Sometimes I don't want to eat meat for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean I don't want a tasty and balanced meal!