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Puffo absurdo
Growing up I was a very picky eater and HATED eating but even then, my favorite part of movies and books was when food was incorporated into part of the stories. Food was always a synecdoche that brought the larger story to life. Watching or reading about my favorite characters enjoy a foreign cake or some invented soup made me curious what they tasted like. I grew up in a small town in New Jersey, United States where there weren't very many diverse foods being sold. If I wanted to try something, I used the internet and made it at home. The advice goes that if you want to write, read a lot, similarly, after watching many many cooking shows and tasting so many different foods around the world (particularly cheap eats), I subconsciously started to build a theory in my head of what people crave physically and emotionally.
In a modern world that is more and more foodie-obsessed, I think I can still make an impression with my cookies that use the psychology of human emotions (we feel them all instead of always being sweet and happy) and the traditional Chinese philosophies of balance (the 5 elements and yin yang) to design a complete, perfectly imperfect cookie that like a good friend or family, will always challenge you and surprise you, but will always feel like home.
My Main Inspirations:
Applying the principles of savory cuisine cooking (particularly Samin’s Nosrat’s theory of SALT, FAT ACID HEAT, the aforementioned Chinese 5 elements) to complete the taste and mouthfeel range of a cookie. Think of Thai Tom Yum soup that is sour yet spicy yet salty yet sweet. Before the sip is over it bombards your tastebuds, and you are addicted to eat it over and over again to experience that feeling. Most desserts already capitalize on the sweet salty, sweet tangy, sweet bitter, dynamic. Or if you ask someone to describe their version of the perfect cookie, often times they only mention texture—fudgy, crispy, cakey chewy. Level of sweetness (not even type of sweetness) is often the only consideration in regards to flavor (hence probably why white sugar had reigned supreme for so long). My goal is to increase the complexity, depth, and breadth of what is possible to experience within 1 humble cookie. To make you feel.
Using the concept of synesthesia to engineer the taste and mouthfeel range of a cookie, as baking is a true marriage of art and science.
-Visual Art: just like complementary colors on the color wheel, opposites juxtaposed make each individual color or flavor shine. Soft makes Crispy feel crispier, Tangy makes sweet feel sweeter, Sweet mellows bitterness, Saltiness throws everything into sharp relief, heat holds it all together.
-Music: I think of the flavor and texture components like parts of an orchestra. The percussion is the bitter chocolate, a grounding force. It is also the crunchy crispiness. The strings are the fat buttery dough, the core integrity of the whole thing: soft, rolling, yet finicky, manipulated wrong and it turns rough and scratchy, it makes or breaks the entire ensemble. The woodwinds are the sweet soothing marshmallows and oat milk. The tangy buttermilk covered millet is the acidic brass section. The optional piano is the sprinkle of salt that weaves through everything. And the special ingredient, the human touch, the musicians and the applauding audience is the cinnamon or speculaas pasta, the spicy snap that infuses warmth.
Puffo = round, soft, unsophisticated, comforting.
Absurdo = its multitude of facets (flavor and texture simple yet complex) defy comprehension (in a good way). It’s life, it’s art, it’s absurd.
Ingredients: Quality ingredients used for both health and flavor purposes. Whole wheat, oat milk, organic eggs, organic vanilla, dark chocolate hand chopped, fairtrade raw sugar. The cookie isn’t too sweet because as mentioned above, a too sweet life is boring, a dynamic and full flavored life is the answer to a content life, even with a little sourness (buttermilk) and bitterness (dark chocolate).
