Week 1 Blog

    To finish off my time at Catlin Gabel, I decided to dedicate myself to a project focused around tasting and eventually cooking foods in Portland. When thinking of my senior project, I realized that soon I would be leaving Portland and there are so many cuisines I have not yet tried. In addition, going off to college requires certain skills and I feel that having a few recipes under my belt will be useful. Finally, the past year has been incredibly difficult being away from everyone and I felt that food would bring a few of my friends and I closer. 

    Grant Underwood initially proposed this project to me as a project to simply try foods and critique them. Along with myself, Rishi Alluri and Cai Fernandez-Powell would be joining us. After some brainstorming we decided that incorporating a cooking aspect would bring even more value to this project. Lastly, we knew that producing our amateur critiques of the food that we try would give us a new perspective on the food industry.

 Since day one, the project has evolved. At first we wanted to structure our four weeks around specific country's cuisines but we realized a regional approach would provide more variety. Our weekly schedule started with three days of eating and one day of cooking but it now consists of two days of cooking and eating. Our flexibility has been key in the beginning of our project and I feel it will be valuable as we move forward.

    Our first week has consisted mostly planning but also some cooking and eating. Our week started off by scheduling the next four weeks and breaking it down into four regions. The first week would be food of the Mediterranean. The second week would focus on food from different Asian countries. The third week will focus on food of Central/South America and our final week will look at American food in Portland. To start off, we visited Grassa, a local Italian restaurant, to get a taste of authentic Italian food in Portland. Our next step was to try and replicate one of the dishes we tried. So, a couple days later we found a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara and headed to QFC. The preparation was challenging and it took time to find the ideal group dynamic but once we made progress, things became easier. Once we finished mixing the spaghetti and the carbonara sauce, we served it into five plates (one for our special guest Jaden Edwards) and tasted the food we had just created. I was personally surprised how well we had done for our first dish together but there was definitely room for improvement. This process of tasting dishes from Portland restaurants and trying to replicate them is our model for the project going forward. 

    Looking ahead, we have set three main goals for our project. The first is to learn more about the food industry in Portland. I feel that most of the time I find myself eating at many of the same restaurants so branching out to other tastes will open my eyes to a new angle of Portland. Our second goal of learning how to critique food will also give me a new perspective on the food industry. Focusing on critiquing will force me to observe beyond the taste of the food and look at the presentation and background of the dish. Lastly, our final goal is to improve our cooking skills. Cooking is a crucial skill moving into adulthood and I am glad to have the opportunity to focus on it for the next month.