From The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. ©2002 by Judy Rodgers. Published by permission of W.W. Norton Co.
Cookbooks will give you ideas, but the market will give you dinner—study your market at least as avidly as your library. Look for a market that takes pride in featuring local, seasonal produce, however modest it may be in variety, and pay attention to that produce most of all. Clamor for organic and sustainably farmed foods. If there is a farmers’ market in your area, shop there. Talk and listen to the growers. You can learn from the people who raise the food; they probably have more insight into the corn and lettuce that you are about to buy than any cookbook. Fewer handlers and handlings mean that the grower can dare to pick ripe, and that more flavorful but fragile fruit and vegetable varieties become a viable option. By contrast, large-scale-for-long-distance packing practices demand hardy varieties and uniformity. They favor shelf life and looks, not flavor and fragrance. I’d rather pay the premium for a low-yield but delicious variety of melon or berry in peak season than swallow the cost of waxing apples or gassing strawberries just so they conform to an ideal market standard at any time of year, and any distance from the garden. Raw ingredients trump recipes every time; farmers and ranchers who coax the best from the earth can make any of us appear to be a good cook.
—THE ZUNI CAFÉ COOKBOOK
