I've been cooking for a number of years and I thought I knew quite a bit before I became employed in my current position. I am one of 12 to 15 chefs who work in a major catering kitchen in Denver, CO. Our chefs come from varied backgrounds and bring with them a vast amount of experience. Classical cuisine and all the latest ideas pass through our kitchen on a daily basis, but the most fascinating is what I call "On the Fly cooking". You may have heard of it in a different way "Fusion" cuisine. From Wikipedia " While fusion cuisine is a general term for the combination of various forms of cookery, the concept can take several forms. One approach is regional fusion that combines the cuisine of a region or sub-region into a single eating experience. Of these sort, Asian fusion restaurants have become popular in many parts of the United States, often featuring Indian, East Asian, and South-East Asian dishes alongside one another and offering dishes that are inspired combinations of such cuisines." One of our owners spends agreat deal of time inventing dishes as he speaks with our customers. So on an almost daily basis the kitchen has to come up with a way to translate and then prepare the creation. Elements such as "pesto" have been changing for several years but it is confusing when you receive an order for poblano pesto and use pumpkin seed in leiu of pine-nuts. Today our usual scallion cornbread stuffed chicken breast became polenta stuffing with zuchini and queso blanco cheese. It will be interesting to see how it comes out tomorrow when I arrange it cold on a bed of mixed greens. Will it resemble Chicken wrapped sushi surrounding a center eye of yellow and green Zuchini with white and green flecks of Queso Blanco in suspension of the yellow polenta? Interesting.
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