Chef Chiarello favors techniques, not recipes

By Richard Leong

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Chef Michael Chiarello's Italian-inspired California cuisine is recognized for its simple style and robust flavors.

Just three years after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America the California-native was named Chef of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine in 1985 at the age of 23.

Since then 45-year-old Chiarello has branched out -- hosting television food shows, operating NapaStyle which sells home goods and fine foods and running a small vineyard that focuses on organic farming techniques.

Chiarello spoke to Reuters about his cooking:

Q: What inspires your cooking?

A: "What I try to do is to celebrate the artisan who makes the product. It inspires not just me but all cooks to do simpler foods more naturally.

I farm my 20 acres and my inspiration comes not only from my family but also the old guard farmers who have been farming 50 to 60 years. If I'm having a problem with my vineyard because I farm organically, you can't just add a chemical to solve a problem. Everything takes a long time."

Q: How do your contemporaries influence you?

A: "There's so much talent. It's less about what your contemporaries do with a dish. It's more about a technique that you see. So I never take somebody's dish, but I will borrow someone's technique. For example, I'll see somebody poaches, then juliennes and sautes a duck together. Then, I'll think about the technique for a dish of my very own."

Q: Speaking of borrowing techniques, what is your view on fusion cuisine?

A: "The only thing that I fuse is classic Italian cooking and my point of view. For me, I don't like to cross borders. When I want Thai food, I want Thai food. When I want Chinese, I want Chinese. When I want Italian, I want Italian. But what I don't want is mung bean in my marinara sauce.

When you cook food that has a history and a point of view, it lasts with you much, much longer. If you have a fusion dish, it may taste awesome, but I'm likely going to wake up the next morning and forget what I ate."

Q: Do you have any preferred ingredients?

A: "I borrow a lot of ingredients from the Mediterranean countries. You'll see a lot of stuff from the south of France, from Spain and certainly from Italy. You'll certainly see ingredients from Greece because they share the same ingredients."

Q: Any tips for at-home chefs?