Just Cook It! 2-13-14
Today’s column is a bit off the wall, but follow me here and let’s have some fun!
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I’m sure you have been completely inundated with hearts over the past few weeks (including my For Starters column last Friday in GO! Magazine) so today, on Valentine’s Day Eve, I’ll spare you the lovey doveyness — sort of.
I actually planned on writing about how today is National Tortellini Day and how much fun that can be to celebrate. At the last minute though something magical happened. I really mean it was actually the minute before I began writing this column. I turned on my TV, just for a second, to delay the inevitable task of work ahead and what do my wondering eyes did appear — my favorite movie of all time (don’t laugh), “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
Needless to say I had to watch it for the 10,988th time before anything else could be accomplished. As I watched in amazement, as if it were the first time I was ever exposed to the genius that is Willy Wonka himself, I realized that someone (me) needed to write about the magical chocolate factory that Mr. Wonka calls home. I felt inspired.
With Valentine’s Day less than 24 hours away and with more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate sold every year for the big day, it just felt right. For anyone still skeptical about this sudden stroke of genius that befell me I simply respond with one of many perfect quotes from Willy Wonka, “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
We have to get on with this column, “We have so much time and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.”
Growing up we all dreamed of being one of the children to uncover one of the five magical golden tickets hidden inside the wrapper of Wonka Bars. I still to this day pretend to be searching for a golden ticket when I unwrap a chocolate bar. Yes it’s ridiculous for a grown man to do such things but according to Mr. Wonka, “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
A chocolate bar is a confection made of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar and milk. The presence or absence of some of those ingredients form the classes of dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. Chocolate bars may also contain emulsifiers such as soy lecithin and other flavors such as vanilla.
The candy bar actually evolved in the late 19th century as a way to package and sell candy more conveniently. This did however make buying chocolate in this form more expensive as the person buying the chocolate bar had to pay for the packaging as opposed to purchasing the standard loose pieces of chocolate.
Chocolate bars changed the way we enjoyed chocolate. Before the candy bar most chocolate was purchased for use in desserts or beverages. The introduction of eating chocolate as is, or simply for a snack, lead to the chocolate bar for convenience which then lead to enjoying it more often. It’s a vicious cycle but one we should all be very thankful for.
Since I mentioned that today is National Tortellini Day, I should probably also mention that tomorrow is National Cr猫me-Filled Chocolates Day along with being Valentine’s Day of course. Cr猫me-Filled Chocolates are those little delicious creamy filled chocolate bonbons. They come in all different flavors and are likely filling those heart shaped boxes that your valentine so generously gifted to you.
Sometimes those bonbons are delicious, and sometimes less so. Actually they are always delicious, they just seem less so when you are expecting to bite into a certain flavor and end up with a surprise cr猫me filling you weren’t expecting.
Another fun Valentine’s Day candy fact is that 8 billion candy hearts will be produced this year. That’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.
Candy hearts, or conversation hearts, are small heart shaped candies sold around Valentine’s Day that are printed with a Valentine’s Day message on each one. They are available in a variety of assortments including chocolate, tart, and smoothie flavors.
There is no direct correlation between Willy Wonka and candy hearts, however after laying eyes on his factory in the movie I refuse to believe that he doesn’t churn out the best candy hearts every February.
The item from Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory that really made me wonder in amazement was the gum that tasted like an entire meal. A wild contraption moved in all sorts of crazy directions while cooking, stirring and very clearly mashing tomatoes. The machine then deployed a single piece of gum whose flavor carried the chewer from course to course and even finishing with dessert.
Can you imagine being able to chew a piece of gum that begins as delicious tomato soup, then becomes roast beef with a baked potato, and finally finishes as the best blueberry pie you’ve ever tasted? If you search hard enough you can actually find some pretty off the wall flavors of gum on the market and having tried a few of them myself I can tell you that they are a fun and different experience.
Finally, allow me to answer the question you are ultimately pondering at this very moment. What does all of this mean and what does it have to do with food and cooking?
Obviously it has very much to do with food, as candy is itself a very big part of the food world. Also, Willy Wonka’s factory and methods remind me very much of food today. Chefs and home cooks alike are all pushing the envelope more than ever trying to uncover new and awesome ideas, flavors, and techniques. Willy Wonka is also a bit eccentric just as my column is this week so they actually go together quite nicely.
The idea of my column this week is to get you thinking. What’s possible with food and what can you conjure up in your imagination to make it more fun? Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to get in the kitchen and begin experimenting with things for and with your sweetheart.
I leave you with one final bit of wisdom from Willy Wonka –
“Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted. He lived happily ever after.”
Mario J. Porreca of Belle Vernon is a food personality, author, and the host of Just Cook It on WMBS Radio 590 AM. His website is www.JustCookIt.net. Twitter: @MarioPorreca