Cooking like it's 1999

Ten years ago, I was a wee little assistant media planner in the big NYC world of advertising, living Three's Company-style in Hoboken with a college roommate and a high school friend (only Eddie didn't have to pretend he was gay and our landlord, sadly, wasn't Mr. Furley). Given that I made more money scooping ice cream in high school at Erikson's than I did as an entry-level advertising agency employee, my fellow assistant planners and I would intentionally work late so that we could order a pizza for dinner that would be lunch for the next few days.

However, one of my favorite perks of media planning was the "comp-ed" magazine subscriptions. Part of my job was to go through magazines to check for my clients' ads and their competitors. My two main accounts were Reynolds Wrap and Wild Turkey, a combination that led to an interesting selection of magazines at my desk - from Good Housekeeping and Food & Wine to This Old House and Playboy (which always disappeared from my cube regardless of how well hidden). The print sales reps were always signing me up for their publications (I drew the line with the Penthouse rep).

I plowed my way through countless food-related and female-focused magazines: Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Saveur, Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Women's Day, Martha Stewart Living, Fitness, Health...if it had recipes, I inevitably read it. Needless to say, my love of epicurean magazines, bourbon, and aluminum foil can be traced back to this job.

When my personal magazine collection expanded to the point of being a fire hazard, I finally started to clip recipes and the occasional article. There was one article in particular from a 1999 copy of Esquire that I kept: an interview with Mario Batali (pre-super chefdom, back when he was just Molto Mario and his only restaurants were Babbo and Po) written by Ted Allen (yep...former Queer Eye, Top Chef judge and current Chopped host).

In the article, Mario gives ten pieces of advice "for a guy in the kitchen." And while I'm not male, I remember being struck by his advice back before I was really a cook. It wasn't exactly groundbreaking information, but it was definitely innovative thinking for a 22 year-old in the very early stages of finding her place in the culinary world.

So I filed the article away into my giant recipe binder and as I re-read it over a decade later, I am impressed by how relevant and commonplace Mario's advice is today. To paraphrase Mario and Ted:

1. Salt: "Things like salt aren't just salt." Use really good sea salt rather than Morton's because it's much more complex. When you cook simply with minimal ingredients and "can upgrade at any level," that imperceptible flavor starts to shine through.


2. Extra virgin olive oil: Buy two different types of extra virgin olive oil - a commercial label for cooking everything and "an expensive, single-estate produced oil from Tuscany" to drizzle on food right before serving.


3. Immersion blender: Use this underrated kitchen tool to quickly and easily make an emulsified vinaigrette or sauce with vegetables.


4. Equipment: All you need is a chef's knife, a paring knife, a fish knife, four or five pans (including two sauté pans, a pasta pot and a few saucepans) and simple white plates.


5. Shopping: Cook seasonally. Shop first to "figure out what's the best stuff and then consider your menu."


6. Cheese: Instead of serving dessert, think of serving a cheese course with three perfectly aged cheeses: a "squishy, stinky one, a hard one like the veritable king of cheese, parmigiano reggiano" and an aged goat or sheep's milk cheese.


7. Aperitivi: Impress your friends by pureeing seasonal fruit and mix with white vermouth for homemade aperitifs. And, as long as everyone is drinking, make sure to have a drink, too.


8. Meats: Always marinate your meat, even if it's in plain oil. Add a little yogurt or "something with a little acidophilus" to really boost flavor and help tenderize the meat.


9. Wine: "Most people serve their white wines too cold and their red wines too warm." Instead of a wine cellar or an expensive wine cooler, just use a small dorm room fridge set at 60 degrees to store your whites. Put your reds in there the morning of the day you're going to drink them and ice down the whites ten minutes before serving.


10. Mise en place: Prep as much as possible before you actually start to cook. That way, you can get your friends into the kitche to entertain. And serve family-style: "Don't try to make restaurant food at home. Make home food at home."

This article was hugely influential - it became the foundation of my cooking and its advice still holds true for any cook today. And those free magazines helped pave the way in my culinary path. Unfortunately, I now have to pay for my subscriptions to Food & Wine, Gourmet, Martha Stewart Living, and Saveur. But I still draw the line at Penthouse.