The recipe calls for what?!

Have you ever gone to make a meal that sounded so good and then half way through the recipe you realize, “I need what? What ingredient is that?” and then gave up because it got too confusing?
There is no reason that food needs to be that complicated.
There was a restaurant review in the Contra Costa Times this weekend on a restaurant in Oakland called Camino.
It got a great review of three stars, which makes it better than Good but not Extraordinary.
As the critic and author, Chrissa Ventrelle, explained what she ordered there were a couple of words that were not obvious to the average cook, like myself.
One of the first things Ventrelle ordered was a tomato, cucumber and chervil salad.
Chervil? What is that? For someone who cooks regularly and watches the Food Network, this word has yet to come up.
It was time to use dictionary.com.
The definition of chervil is an herb of the parsley family, having aromatic leaves used to flavor soups, salads, etc.
Okay, that is not bad, right? That is something we can understand and possibly use in the future.
The next starter, which Ventrelle didn’t care for, was the ling cod brandade. Hmmm.. Never heard of the word brandade either. Let’s look that one up as well.
The definition of brandade is a Provencal dish of salt cod pureed with olive oil and milk or cream and sometimes mashed potatoes and garlic.
Well, my mouth is watering already!
It seems simple enough and yet there is a need to use fancy words with no acknowledgment for those of us who do not speak French or have gone to culinary school.
There were a couple of other words that did not ring a bell, for example rapini.
The dish Ventrelle tasted was a side dish of black-eyed peas and bitter rapini.
The word is also in another language, Italian this time, and means the leaves of the turnip eaten cooked or raw as greens.
Besides the fact that that does not sound very tasty, why is there such a fancy word for what it really is?
News papers are supposed to be at a fifth grade reading level. So why is this column filled with vocabulary that involves dictionary.com?
Ventrelle should really ask herself, “ Is this a technique, ingredient or instrument that a high school student would know?”
Not being a regular reader of Ventrelle’s column, who knows if it gets more complicated or not but the point is that this kind of negligence is intimidating people not educating them.
This is the exact reason why most of my friends hate to cook.
They tell me, “How do you know how to do all of this? Where did you learn?”
When you have a growing interest in something, it is easy to teach yourself.
Unfortunately, not all people share this interest and decide to eat out at fast food “restaurants.”
Do not get me wrong, fast food is fine sometimes, but it is always healthier and beneficial to cook your own meals, not to mention a turn on FELLAS!
The beginning to every dish that you are going to make should start off with the foods you know and love.
Do not make a dish that involves ingredients that “sound” good or that someone told you were good.
If you already know that you like cheddar cheese, there’s no need, at least in the beginning, to use a fancier cheese like feta or fontina.
Another helpful tip is to think of the meals you enjoy and try and create your own version.
For example, canned albacore tuna is a good source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids and can be made several different ways.
All you have to do is mix it up plain and then add whatever sounds good to you, pickle, celery, tomato anything will work and it’ll be easier to remember because you’re not reading it from a cook book.
Don't be afraid to get a little dirty and creative.