Simone Diament: I love the introduction to your book in which you approach cooking from a chemist’s point of view—how cooking changes the texture and flavor of foods or understand your palate. Can you tell us what umame is?

Linda Carucci: Oh, certainly. Umame is that sort of sixth sense that we all have. It describes both the sensation and a quality of food that is the perfect ripeness of a melon or a perfectly cooked and perfectly ripe ear of corn. Umane is actually naturally occurring glutamates that are in certain foods like shitake mushrooms, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Simone: That’s like MSG, Linda?

Linda: Good question. MSG is the synthetically produced naturally occurring glutamates. And MSG was developed by a professor in Japan who was trying to isolate why it is that this certain broth he was making had so much flavor. And the reason it had so much flavor, he discovered, was that it had these naturally occurring glutamates. So he went on to develop a synthetic of those glutamates in his own laboratory. And we know this synthetic now as accent or MSG. But what they knew in Japan is what we’re all discovering across America today. And that is that these flavors give you a sensation of fullness, richness, body... It really, really takes the food from an okay level to a very exciting level. A dimension of flavor that chefs and fine cooks strive for.

Simone: But, you’re applying them actually to recipes. You’re applying all that science to recipes.

Linda: Yes. And I’m trying to make it fun in the process.

Carole: Well, your book is fun. And for a beginner or for a very experienced cook, you tell all the recipe secrets--why something happens. And I think that’s so important because it you know the reasons why, then you’re able to apply that to any recipe. To any recipe. Anything that you’re doing.

Linda: It gives you the confidence that if it worked this way in that recipe, then I’m going to try it again in this recipe. And once you have confidence, your cooking goes to another level.

Carole: As a cooking teacher and as a cookbook author of a book like this, that’s what you impart to your students or readers.

Linda: Well, thank you. I’m glad it struck a chord in Florida.

Simone: You know, what I liked is how you talk about how fats enhance flavor, yet you don’t advocate lots of fat. In most recipes, a touch of butter, olive oil or cream will do. Why is that Linda?

Linda: Well, Simone, it’s really important to think about when you add that fat. If you’re watching fat grams, the best time to add a little lump of butter or a touch of cream is at the very end just before you serve it. And the reason is that the molecules of the fat coat the food, and then those fat molecules are the first to hit your tongue. And you know, we grew up with this idea—at least I did—that the tongue has four basic areas, and one detects bitterness, one sweetness, etcetera, etcetera. Well, the modern thinking is that in fact, those areas are in less definite parts of the tongue. And what fat molecules do is they sort of bleed the flavors across the surface of the tongue so that your tongue becomes like a hypersensitive taste receptor. And you taste things more fully when there’s a little bit of fat in there to sort of bleed those flavors across the surface of your tongue.

Carole: I’ll take a spoonful of fat then before I begin eating. (laughing) But it’s the same thing with herbs, they’re best if you add them at the very end.

Linda: Exactly. It’s common sense, especially if you’re using fresh herbs, that you’re going to lose some of that fresh vibrancy if you add them in the beginning. So a lot of cooks start with a few herbs in the beginning of the cooking just to impart the flavor early on and then finish with the same herbs. And it’s like building flavors as you cook, which results in exponentially increased flavor.

Simone: I found your secrets for successful risotto particularly enlightening. You seem to have an innate talent for it. Could you tell our listeners the secrets for great risotto?

Linda: Well, it’s funny, I did not grow up with risotto, even though my last name is Carucci. All of my grandparent came from around Naples. And so we never had rice in the house--never mind risotto…

Carole: It was pasta all the way.

Linda: Yes! Yes, with a nice red sauce. But when I went in cooking school, I had a marvelous Bolognese Italian teacher, and she taught us to make risotto. And the first taste I had convinced me that I wanted to really understand this dish. And like other dishes that don’t have many, many ingredients, it’s all about the technique. So here the technique is that you sauté some onions in butter. And the idea here is you want to make that sure you sauté the onions until they’re soft because soon thereafter you’re going to add a little wine. And what we now understand about acid ingredients like wine or tomatoes is once you add them to something like onions that have been sautéing, if the onions haven’t sautéed ‘til they’re soft and translucent and almost sticky that the acid in those other ingredients will impede the further softening of the onions. So if you ever end up with crunchy onions in your tomato sauce or in your risotto, that’s why. Now it’s not to say that eventually those things wouldn’t soften, but it’s really important in the beginning—not only for the acid and the crunchiness factor—but because the onions naturally have sugar in them, and as the onions cook, the sugars come out and they become sweet and a very beautiful foundation of flavor for your tomato sauce or your risotto or your soup or whatever you’re cooking with onions in the beginning.

Linda: Then, you add some rice. Special Italian rice. Actually, there are three varieties used in Italy. The one most common is Arborio. And Arborio rice has a certain proportion of starches that allows the rice to emit just a little bit of starch as it’s cooking, and if you toast those grains in the butter with the onions, the grains of rice individually become coated with the fat from the butter, and then as you add the hot broth to the rice, as you prepare the risotto, the rice gives off the starch—and rather than giving off the starch to its neighbor grain of rice—as it would if it weren’t coated with butter, because it’s been coated with the fat, it gives the starch off to the broth, and then you get that really creamy, wonderful, luxurious texture in risotto.

Linda: And then at the end…here’s another secret I learned from a Venetian cook. It’s a step called Mantecato, and what they do is, once the risotto is done and the grains are done, they put a little lump of butter, the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a little bit of broth… Stir it in—just until the cheese is absorbed and the broth is absorbed—put the lid on it, take it off the heat, of course, and let it sit for three to five minutes. And when you remove the lid, you wouldn’t believe how shiny it is. And that’s again the fat molecules in action. So it’s important, I think, when you’re using fat like butter or olive oil to use it wisely. So that not only do you get the benefits of, say, the nutrients from olive oil or the flavor from butter, but you get them playing on your team so that you see the beautiful shine of the butter because it’s been emulsified and you taste that first fat molecule on your tongue.

Simone: All of your recipes are as enlightening at this one. And Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks is available in all bookstores and on amazon.com.

Simone and Carol: Thank you, Linda Carucci.

To hear the audio file of Linda’s interview, go to www.southfloridagourmet.com.


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