Thursday, April 27, 2006

In Living Colo(u)r!

Many people in the U.K. have been fortunate to get a taste for Tom N-D, whether it be through his books or occasional appearances on TV and radio. I, and my fellow Americano compatriots, have not. It was through my good fortune, and some lovely person's kind generosity, that I obtained Cupboard Love and now that I have an inkling of the man through his writing, I wanted to get an idea of him in the kitchen. So, today at work, with my crappy dial-up connection, I actually found a web link to a cooking segment he did, and he even made a recipe from CL I have already done!!

Click here to see Tom cook Bean Curd with Peanut Sauce and Cucumber!
Now I'm sure you will notice his recipe on TV differs only slightly from the recipe in the book, but I dare say he does like those tofu pieces quite large!!! Or is that an overenthusiastic kitchen assistant?? LOL.

The main thing I came across from seeing even this small part of how Tom operates in the kitchen is how completely unpretentious he is! I read a little bit about him here, and what I found is here is this young guy, goes to Asia, comes back, and falls into cooking, and you know what, is actually pretty darn good at it!! He has instinct, he has a love for fresh ingredients and cooking seasonally, and I say 'Bravo'... It is obvious that Tom was a wonderful student of his mentors, and I feel I can cook quite confidently under his tutelage.

One thing that struck me about his cooking segment was that one of the hosts said something like this is not fancy, dinner party food... Ok, well I guess a stir-fry, for all intents and purposes, is not 'fancy', but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not 'dinner-party' food. A lot of people my age, serious and driven professionals (haha, I'm not reallly serious and driven!), don't really take the time to cook simple meals for themselves and their friends. If they invite someone over, they order takeout, or if finances permit, they just all go out to eat together. Well I can count on one hand the number of friends I have in New York, so anytime I invite anyone over, it's a dinner party, no matter what I'm cooking!!!

With that in mind, watch this space for tomorrow's report of my curry banquet -- that is, if I don't have a sudden panic attack and go hide myself in my room. I really, really need to start drinking! ;)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved the demo (except for the rude brunette)! The dish looks delicious, mm-mmm! The tofu looks great, too.

Lady M said...

Hey, G!! well you know I'm the original challahbackgirl so you be respekin'! Step!
Yes you are so right, she was very rude. What was up with all that pointing she did, and kept mentioning Anthony W-T, even though the subject moved past that... hello, it's a Tom N-D segment!!
Good eyes, G, that's why I keep you as part of my posse!!!