I’m a chef and I’ve been living a lie about the quality and authenticity of my food
I’m a personal chef for a upper class family in the US with a multi-million dollar house who go on many vacations every year. They claim they miss authentic European and Asian food after living abroad for several years.
When I first started cooking for them, I made elaborate dishes that took hours to make, finding the exact ingredients, examining each piece of carrot, potato, or chicken by hand. Finding the right brands and going to multiple grocery stores to find the exact pinot noir to make the perfect red wine sauce.
They didn’t like it.
I once messed up a dish and had to remake it really quickly, so I took a few shortcuts to make sure it was still tasty. A normally 12 hour dish, I made a quick version of in less than 30 minutes using vinegar instead of red wine.
They said it was the tastiest thing they ever ate. It reminded them of the times they were travelling through some European mountains.
Since then, I’ve realized I don’t need to spend hours making all the food perfectly “authentic”. I stopped using expensive brands of wine (sometimes I don’t even use wine at all. Grape juice or vinegar or even sugar seems to taste just as good, if not better to them). I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars and probably thousands of hours getting cheaper ingredients that have already been brined or marinated, and they absolutely love it.
They even had me prepare larger meals for parties or events, and they’d claim it was authentic French or Italian food. They’d ask me what combination of flour I used to make the pasta that was so clearly hand made (it was 99 cent boxed pasta from walmart). Or it was clear I used a very particular Pinot Noir for a coq au vin for which I actually just added a little fruit juice with some vodka. Or that the saffron really made a difference in my risotto when I really just used turmeric. Or how the food tastes so much better when sauces are freshly made with raw ingredients when it’s really mayonnaise plus ketchup or some other dumb combination of common condiments.
I just smile and nod. A part of me feels guilty, but not guilty enough to go back to making the more authentic versions that they’d just complain about that costs me way more time and money anyways. I’m more just worried that one day they’ll find out, but I’ve gotten away with it for almost eight years now
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