Food Processing

It is the same song every single day. After a hard day's work 'to put food on the table', there literally must be food on the table. The trend in the Netherlands is 'pure, fair, and artisanal'. At the same time, the current demand of three hungry teenagers and two (also hungry) adults is: can we make it quick? This food processing really needs to be done fast. Because our stomachs are rumbling and they have to go babysitting, to the sports club and, boy, do they have a stash of homework to do. 

My husband, who joined a cooking club just for men with culinary aspirations, likes to take out all the stops in the kitchen. During their cooking evenings, everything is prepared from scratch, all according to the motto 'pure, purer, purest'. And once a year, the partners of the hobby chefs are invited to taste their skills. This took place again in March. Some of the highlights of the 8-course dinner: a small mojito ball that explodes in your mouth (a truly amazing sensory experience), home-made spaghetti (the result of half a day of kneading, proofing, and expert rolling of strings of pasta), and an airy raspberry mousse with slices of candied kumquat and caramelised blueberries... yes, this certainly is a pleasant way of spending your evening. But it is a hell of a lot of work. 

On 7 April, the contrast with that dinner could not be greater. That is when I ran the Rotterdam marathon. During the course, I had to supplement my energy levels and us runners all do that by taking 'sports foods', whereby the word 'food' is quite the overstatement for the rather chemical-tasting 'super liquid gels' that I and my fellow runners ingest. Don't think, just swallow. But they do the trick. Big time.

Back to my kitchen at the end of a regular working day: how relieved I am that the industry, so all of you, want to help me. Needless to say that I also follow the trend to cook without using ready-made packages, sachets, and additives. But when everything is suitably pre-cut so the vegetables go straight from the fridge into the pan or oven, the meat has already been marinated, and I don't have to make a complicated roux in order to serve a delicious sauce.... well, that makes me very happy indeed.  

Judith Witte
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