Gastroville

The newly found interest in blogging will instead focus on my search for ingredients and how took cook them based from the perspective of what nature has intended us to eat. Over the last year and a half a new dimension to gastronomy has been added for me as I have discovered that the conventional wisdom of what constitutes healthy eating is very far from the truth and that much of the diseases of civilization - diabetes, heart disease, many forms of cancer, MS, Alzheimer e t c - are to at least a great extent the result of our changed dietary patterns compared to what we have eaten during most of our evolution. I will come back in a post at some point in the near future with what I exactly mean in this respect. I have always had a desire to search for the core of gastronomy and have now come to the belief that we must search for this from the perspective of what nature has intended it to be. I already a few years ago thought that gastronomy - on not only the haute cuisine restaurant scene - was more or less dead mainly as a consequence of the molecular gastronomy movement coupled with the media and publicity hunger of today's chefs. The realization of the detrimental health impacts of industrial refined foods packed with high glycemic index ingredients, industrially processed oils and chemical additives further cemented my beliefs that gastronomy in the restaurant environment will die unless a reversal takes place of recent years' practices to add chemicals and using questionable cooking methods to add novelty in flavors and textural effects. At the same time the importance of the quality of the produce has more or less lost interest amongst many starred chefs as has the importance of tastes. Fortunately, there are signs that the tide might be turning as there are some chefs who do put high emphasis on produce sourcing. These chefs will be highlighted in this blog.
More about Mikael
I have always had an obsession in produce and produce quality and still never stop turning any stones in my search for understanding produce and how to let it shine in different ways. According to my mother this obsessive food interest started about the same time as I could walk. I started cooking very early in life and cooked dinners in people's homes when I was a young teenager. Obviously destined to become a chef, I did some basic training in professional kitchens but due to allergy I had to give up plans to work professionally as a chef. I was fortunate enough to at an early age be intoxicated by haute cuisine and have for a long time studied fine dining at various dining temples. I am never impressed by prestige, stars or luxury settings or by prestigious or expensive produce. Only the quality of what is served matters, based on expensive or inexpensive raw materials, and I could enjoy exceptional food even if it was served on a cardboard.
As stated above, a year and a half ago I realized that the conventional wisdom of what constitutes a healthy diet, in other words that a diet should be low in fat and high in fibers, that saturated fats were bad and that poly-unsaturated vegetable fats good, totally lacked scientific evidence. I changed my eating habits and as a consequence lost 30 kilos and have now a weight below that I had in my late teens when I was active in various sports, with the difference that I am fitter and stronger and have gained a health I have never experienced. What was the recipe? It is simple. I try to as much as possible emulate the food humans were designed to eat. This means that I am not afraid of eating a lot of saturated fats. I avoid omega-6 fats as much as it is possible. They are inflammatory and possibly one of the main culprits of many of the diseases of civilization. I eat very little refined carbohydrates and sugar and when I eat bread I only eat 100% sour dough fermented bread made with stone milled flour, but even then I eat it sparsely. I try to prepare ingredients with techniques that as much as possible remove anti-nutrients from them yet at the same time preserve the nutrients.
I will not with this blog try to convince people to eat exactly like I do. I think that humans are very adaptive and can thrive and stay healthy on a range of different diets but it is clear to me that certain foods for example create inflammatory responses and can be detrimental to our immune system. What I will try to convince my readers is that certain foods and preparations should be avoided and certain foods should be prepared in certain ways to minimize the dangers they otherwise pose. I think we should demand gastronomic restaurants to not serve unhealthy food. I also want to be a source of inspiration in exploring and approaching ingredients as well as in how to find culinary excellence in a domestic kitchen.
My preferred hunting ground for ingredients is the Mediterranean Basin, currently mainly in Malta where I search for some of the best sea food that can be found in the Mediterranean sea due to the relatively clean Maltese waters.
I like to eat most great produce the planet has to offer but I am especially fond of gamberis from San Remo, tuna belly, sea urchins, Gaulois chicken, telinnes from Camargue, Chianina, Salers and Simmental beef, pré-salé lamb, Pauillac lamb, black and white truffles, courgettes nicois, asparagus from Vaucluse and Valbenga, morels and ceps. I like to drink wine from Burgundy and I will never say no to a well matured cheese.