Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Cream Puffs at the Wisconsin State Fair! And fried cheese curds. And root-beer flavored milk from Herb Kohl's stand- see, people in the government DO come up with good ideas, sometimes :)

Elephant ears

AARP bumper sticker:

Food has replaced sex in my life.
Now, I can't even get into my own pants.

Carolina de Witte - chefs can taste if they want to, of course. Some do, some don't. Some do sometimes but not always.

I was never taught to taste during service before sending it out to a customer but rather to be sure that I knew ahead of time by smell and look and by focus on the initial prep and even ordering/checking in of goods that when in the process of putting out anywhere from four orders to 250 orders that they would be good and correct in taste just from the building "from the ground up" so to speak.

As executive chef I worked on instilling this same way of doing things in the chefs and cooks that worked for me. It requires a lot of standardization of recipe and focus on initial ingredients, along with an intensive structure that involves detailed production schedules and a well-trained team who are willing to work together. It's not just about the food itself, its about the people who are putting it together.

This takes away from "creativity" allowed in a free-form way, yes. But the guests get consistency.

It's a beautiful thing when a kitchen of ten can trust each other to come in and together put out a range of meals where some of the plates might be finely detailed "fine dining" and the other plates are fine banquet service for 50 hitting at the exact same time.

Granted, part of this is intuition. But most of it is training, teamwork, knowledge and consistently-implemented procedures that run from step A to step Z.

But to each their own, and to taste on an ongoing basis is one way of doing it, for sure.
But what I said is true and workable also. :)

foodvox said: "No, chefs don't have to taste all the time if they are chefs for they know what they are doing and don't have to double-check." This isn't true. I've been a chef for many years, but I was taught to ALWAYS taste before sending it to a customer. There are many variables in cooking. If you aren't a good 'taster', you can not be a chef. The difference between ordinary, bad and sublime can be just a touch too little or too much salt, nevermind such ingredients as acids, etc. That being said, a 'taste' doesn't mean an entire mouthful of food, it is just enough to judge...a few drops could be sufficient.

I am not overweight, as I usually skip the 'house meals', and I go to the gym several nights a week. I eat the majority of my meals at home with my family, and we love fresh fruits and vegetables, organic and local if possible. I love preparing meals for my family even more than I do for patrons at work. Moderation is always key. I do splurge, but not everyday.

From my perspective, there is absolutely no moral triumph for being thin. You want to be thin, be thin. But when people pat themselves on the back for what they perceive to be better eating habits than someone else... I just find that, in and of itself, self aggrandizement of the grossest variety.

I despise the type pf thinklng which tells people that they look fat simply because they enjoy their food. This is a screw-up of the Puritan ethic, which told us that, if you enjoyed something, it would hurt you.

Today's foodies stand against that. We want to know more about every aspect of our food, not so we can shove rich things down our throats constantly, but so we can have a great salad or cookie or pasta dish or veggie casserole or hot dog or grilled cheese or or or...and makes sure it gives us strength and health as well as the calories.

I have been thin all my life (as is the majority of my family), the type of thin that people stare at you if God forbid you have to pee at a restaurant, and feel like making snide remarks is perfectly fine. I developed progressive, chronic illness at age 20, and a few years ago I was so ill I weighted 78 lbs. at 5'8" because my insurance wouldn't pay for the medication that allows me to eat.

That is resolved now thank goodness and thanks to medicine, food blogs, and my learning how to cook I put on 40 lbs. I'm still thin, but feel as good as I can, and love to be able to eat, because 2 years ago I couldn't, and I pray no one ever takes that for granted.

I am also glad by reading these comments that it seems most foodies know how to be healthy, the rest of the population could take some hints from here on how to eat well, with awesome tasting food, and not become overweight.

I currently fall into that range known as "normal" on every chart you can imagine. Some people think I'm think, but I think that's because the population, on average is getting a little larger, so normal starts looking svelte.

I'm at an age where being model-thin isn't important to me, but good health is, so I watch the scale. I'm also at a point where I see no reason why I should have to eat food I don't like. Well, barring the occasional social outings where there's no graceful way to decline.

But otherwise, if I want ice cream, I eat ice cream. Good ice cream. And a little makes me much more happy than a gallon of cheap, low-fat/carb/calorie pretend ice cream.

Most of my foodie friends, and me included are, as BaHa put it, "metabolic swines". But I think that's just coincidence. In the big picture, I don't think there's too much correlation. I think being a foodie probably makes one a little more heavy than perhaps if you weren't, but then again, lots of people have unhealthy relationships with food which makes them just as heavy.

oh, forgot, I'm skinny, so is my entire family.

Tony Bourdain and James Beard were both foodies; Bourdain is one of the skinniest men you'll ever see, and Beard one of the fattest. A lot of it must be metabolism. I've never heard of Bourdain abstaining from anything, and neither did Beard.

For myself, I'm fat, but not as fat or unhealthy as I was when I was ashamed of hunger and ate only things that could be bought and eaten immediately--processed food. I was ashamed to be seen eating and ashamed to be seen in the kitchen.

To me, being in tune with my body and my appetite means paying attention to food, "eating thoughtfully" as they say. Sometimes I'm so interested in cooking, I eat less while preparing the food. Or I say, why waste your time with that chocolate bar or slice of bread when you've got that terrific salad planned for tonight.

I used to eat processed food because I didn't have the patience to cook. Now I know to keep a little cheese or nuts or tomato juice or salad around the place just to amuse my mouth when the main meal is on the way.

i would be a very, very big fatty if i did not work out religiously, eat tons of fruits and vegetables, pack my own lunch every day, eat out only very occasionally and only order two appetizers when i do, eschew all alcohol, start off every dinner i cook for myself with a gigantic bowl of lightly dressed romaine lettuce, and make constant bargains with myself about what i will and won't be eating.

i know this because i used to be quite a bit heavier than i am now and it's taken a tremendous, sustained amount of effort to change my habits.

i love to cook and i was not too self controlled about serving rich, heavy, multiple course meals every night when i lived with a man who was six feet four and had a great metabolism. he could eat my cooking without sustaining too much damage, but i could not.

as much as i love food, thin {and despite all my efforts, i am hardly that} does taste much better.