Instructions
If you love food as much as I do, you’ll undoubtedly have a special memory tucked away somewhere in the back of your mind. A memory of an extraordinary meal that changed the way you think about cooking and eating. A meal that invigorated your sense of taste in ways you had never thought possible.
I’ve had several of those experiences of the years, but none more revealing than as meal I enjoyed at a little restaurant in Portland Oregon in the north-west USA about ten years ago. The restaurant is called Wildwood, and it’s run by Corey Schreiber, a chef whose family have been in the game for over 100 years.
Typically of a restaurant owned by a chef, the kitchen wanted for nothing in terms of equipment or staff. He employed butchers and bakers (though no candlestick makers that I saw), and everything was produced on the premises. This encouraged a philosophy of excellence amongst his team that I have rarely seen in my travels around the world’s kitchens.
Here’s the rub. As Corey knew, it is sometimes the simplest dishes that can showcase the true talent of the farmers with whom he works, and the chefs in his brigade.
The pork. Oh the pork.
I still sometimes wake in the middle of the night tasting the ghost of its flavour.
An organically grown local pork cutlet, lightly breaded and fried until crisp, served with the most perfect crackling and a salad of wild-picked herbs in vinegar made from Golden Delicious apples and oil pressed from pumpkin seeds.
What made his dish so remarkable was twofold: the quality of ingredients, and the ingenious way he reconfigured a humble domestic meal into a transcendental offering.
Pork cutlets are cut from the rack, and have a thick layer of fat under the skin. Remove the skin and most of the fat before cooking them, as the skin will only toughen, not crackle, in the time the cutlet takes to cook. The meat itself is lean, so resist the temptation to over¬cook. Medium to medium-well will yield plump, moist pork, a flavour on which to build your own favourite memories.
Pork cutlet Milanese with herb salad