Eric Burkett
Job1211
103 Webster Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
United States
job1211
Clips
Samples of some of my recent work
Eating Well is Eating Safely
Author Anna Thomas's cooking style has always been distinguished by its simplicity.
Frequently ordinary but always fresh ingredients combine to create memorable, soul-satisfying dishes. As it happens, her style of cooking does more than simply taste wonderful, it brings a measure of security to her dinner table.
While many of us worry about the safety of the food we buy, Thomas doesn't worry quite as much: "Maybe I'm in denial like everybody else," she suggested. Maybe, but her approach to cooking and eating goes a long way toward mitigating her anxiety.
Thomas, who has just published her fourth cookbook, "Love Soup", is the author of the classic "The Vegetarian Epicure". First published in 1972, "The Vegetarian Epicure" took vegetarian cooking out of the realms of brown rice and tofu - and ideology - and moved it squarely into the realm of sensuality and pleasure. Over the years, she's written more cookbooks, raised two sons (one is vegetarian and the other is vegan), and written and produced a number of films, including the Oscar-nominated "El Norte". Food continues to be a tremendous source of satisfaction for her though, and she entertains frequently. While she's concerned about food safety she feels she's in a pretty good position to protect herself and those for whom she cooks from many of the problems.
"If you don't eat meat, you're way ahead of the game," she said from her home in Ojai, California. "If you only eat some meat, and you make sure you know where it comes from, you're also giving yourself a big advantage."
Cooking one's own food, using as minimally processed ingredients as possible, is another key step in keeping her kitchen safe. That's a far cry from food factories where numerous ingredients, often heavily processed themselves and from multiple sources, are combined to make products that are then shipped thousands of miles away.
"If you're eating food that's been mixing with other foods, in places where speed and profit margin are more important than safety," she said, "you just expose yourself to real risk."
An even greater advantage is how little processed food ends up in her kitchen to begin with. Although she granted a green light to canned Ortega brand chilies at least as far back as 1996 when she published her third book, "The New Vegetarian Epicure", her pantry is largely empty of ready-to-eat foods and other highly processed stuff, she said. For Thomas, it's a matter of control.
Scouring her local farmers' market and getting deliveries from a local CSA (local farms that deliver produce and other foods to subscribers who pay in advance for the season ahead), Thomas prepares her dishes from ingredients she's selected herself.
She knows what goes into that batch
of soup. There's virtually no question about the dessert or the salad dressing.
"I'm not saying nothing can happen," she said, but it's all about odds and, like crossing the street, you can improve your odds by looking both ways. Ultimately, however, it's about common sense.
"Fortunately, in this case," she said, "common sense and keeping your food fairly safe happens to coincide with really eating well."
Like any well-prepared cook, she keeps a pantry full of staples that free her up to make last minute choices at the farmers' market, but even those items - save for some select cans of vegetable stock, those Ortega chilies, and luxuries like balsamic vinegar - are mere ingredients and not the soul of the food she's preparing. Bringing home her own produce, washing it herself - even when it has supposedly been washed already - are just part of the routine.
"I think just as a question of improving your odds, the more you bring it back home and make it a little more basic, the more you're in a position to control how those things are done. And you're not trying to rush the process.
"The more of the process you control," she said, "then the more of the process you control."
Frequently ordinary but always fresh ingredients combine to create memorable, soul-satisfying dishes. As it happens, her style of cooking does more than simply taste wonderful, it brings a measure of security to her dinner table.
Thomas, who has just published her fourth cookbook, "Love Soup", is the author of the classic "The Vegetarian Epicure". First published in 1972, "The Vegetarian Epicure" took vegetarian cooking out of the realms of brown rice and tofu - and ideology - and moved it squarely into the realm of sensuality and pleasure. Over the years, she's written more cookbooks, raised two sons (one is vegetarian and the other is vegan), and written and produced a number of films, including the Oscar-nominated "El Norte". Food continues to be a tremendous source of satisfaction for her though, and she entertains frequently. While she's concerned about food safety she feels she's in a pretty good position to protect herself and those for whom she cooks from many of the problems.
"If you don't eat meat, you're way ahead of the game," she said from her home in Ojai, California. "If you only eat some meat, and you make sure you know where it comes from, you're also giving yourself a big advantage."
Cooking one's own food, using as minimally processed ingredients as possible, is another key step in keeping her kitchen safe. That's a far cry from food factories where numerous ingredients, often heavily processed themselves and from multiple sources, are combined to make products that are then shipped thousands of miles away.
"If you're eating food that's been mixing with other foods, in places where speed and profit margin are more important than safety," she said, "you just expose yourself to real risk."
An even greater advantage is how little processed food ends up in her kitchen to begin with. Although she granted a green light to canned Ortega brand chilies at least as far back as 1996 when she published her third book, "The New Vegetarian Epicure", her pantry is largely empty of ready-to-eat foods and other highly processed stuff, she said. For Thomas, it's a matter of control.
Scouring her local farmers' market and getting deliveries from a local CSA (local farms that deliver produce and other foods to subscribers who pay in advance for the season ahead), Thomas prepares her dishes from ingredients she's selected herself.
She knows what goes into that batch
of soup. There's virtually no question about the dessert or the salad dressing.
"I'm not saying nothing can happen," she said, but it's all about odds and, like crossing the street, you can improve your odds by looking both ways. Ultimately, however, it's about common sense.
"Fortunately, in this case," she said, "common sense and keeping your food fairly safe happens to coincide with really eating well."
Like any well-prepared cook, she keeps a pantry full of staples that free her up to make last minute choices at the farmers' market, but even those items - save for some select cans of vegetable stock, those Ortega chilies, and luxuries like balsamic vinegar - are mere ingredients and not the soul of the food she's preparing. Bringing home her own produce, washing it herself - even when it has supposedly been washed already - are just part of the routine.
"I think just as a question of improving your odds, the more you bring it back home and make it a little more basic, the more you're in a position to control how those things are done. And you're not trying to rush the process.
"The more of the process you control," she said, "then the more of the process you control."
Do Krispies Boost Kids' Immune Systems?
The battle over food health claims took an interesting turn last week in San Francisco when City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent a letter to Kellogg Company on Tuesday taking issue with their claim that Cocoa Krispies "now helps support your child's immunity."Herrera, evidently, is dubious.
"At a time when parents are increasingly worried about the spread of the H1N1 virus ('swine flu')," he wrote in a letter to Kellogg President A.D. David MacKay, "it is vitally important that parents receive accurate information about what they can do to protect their children's health."
Herrera requested a laundry list of information including consumer research, marketing studies, scientific research, and any additional "sources, studies, research or other documents" upon which the cereal giant has based it claims.
Kellogg's immunity claims are "a potential violation" of California's Unfair Competition Law, Herrera wrote, and may "undermine critical public health efforts to prevent the spread of [H1N1 virus] that the President has declared to be [a] national emergency".
Kellogg has 30 days to respond to Herrera's requests for information, or he will seek to put a stop to, or alter, the company's advertising pitch. Kellogg, however, is standing by its claims.
"The claim we're making is based on peer-reviewed and published research as well as authoritative statements from the Institute of Medicine," said company spokeswoman Ashley Currie, "which state that the antioxidants and nutrients in Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereals have been shown to support the body's immune response."
Kellogg has "added more positive nutrition" to its Rice Krispies cereals in response to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which show that Americans don't get enough of vitamins A, C, and E, Currie said. "These nutrients have been identified by the Institute of Medicine and other studies as playing an important role in the body's immune system."
In addition to a wide range of nutrients and vitamins, the web site Fooducate describes the cereal as "an excellent source of Vitamin B1," but notes too that it's high in sugar. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup comprise the second and third ingredients after rice, and three-quarters of a cup - a single serving according to Kellogg - has 160 calories.
Job1211
103 Webster Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
United States
job1211
