Seattle Foodies

If you’ve heard Seattle’s culinary giant Tom Douglas speak, chances are you’ve heard him mention the Three T’s. Not three Toms, but a set of perspectives he trains all his chefs to cultivate: taste, texture, and temperature. The three bases that, when hit, can turn a plain dish into a home run. Or next time you’re eating a disappointing meal, reviewing them will probably tell you exactly why.

To illustrate, say you’re making lamb stew. The recipe says to brown some stew meat, add chicken stock, some carrots, onions, potatoes, slow cook, and serve. Bo-o-o-ring. You’re a foodie. You want more. So let’s fix it using the Three T’s:

Taste

Depth. A fantastic dish has depth and fullness of flavor. Before you say, “Duh,” what exactly does this mean?

The idea is to have a flavor concept for a dish, and then build layers of that flavor, and its complements, to reinforce and broaden the experience of that flavor. This means your dish needs a focus. It means bringing out the central ingredient and its highlighting seasoning (herb and/or spice).

Rather than plunking a couple cubes of “chicken bouillon” into warm water, start with chicken stock you previously made. Instead of pre-cubed stew meat, you bought a half leg, bone in (or boneless leg, because you have lamb bones from a previous dinner). After dicing the meat, set it aside. Then brown the trimmings and the bones in fat you just rendered, and simmer them in chicken stock to enrich the braising liquid with roasted lamb flavor. In more lamb fat, brown, really dark brown, the lamb cubes to bring out a caramelized depth of lamb flavor. And save the last of the lamb fat for browning the vegetables. Wait a minute, what about those carrots, onions, and potatoes?

To answer that, first think about seasoning. Going on a wild riff with oregano, chiles, bacon, sea beans, gruyere, and orange zest may make you feel like Jackson Pollock, but even if the flavors were compatible, there’d be way too much going on in the dish. Breadth without depth. Like blending a cheeseburger and sipping it through a straw, it’s confusing. Instead, you pick fennel as the main flavor, and add some fennel bulb to the braising liquid. Now decide on those other vegetables. Does a carrot go with fennel? Not sure? Nibble a piece of one, then the other. Now both together. Like it? Does the carrot interfere with the fennel or enhance it? Think about why the recipe called for carrot. Earthiness and sweet. Do you want that? Does fennel do that job by itself? What are you missing if you skip the carrots? Do the same with the other recipe ingredients. Keep them if they’re helping.

When serving, instead of drowning the lamb in thin braising liquid, strain out the vegetables (they’ve given all they can) and reduce the liquid down to a concentrated, thick sauce that will stick to the lamb. Now let’s build up that fennel flavor. Maybe grill some sliced fennel bulb for a side vegetable. Perhaps top the sauced lamb with chopped fennel fronds or a sprinkle of fennel pollen. Or both. Now you’ve got layers of lamb and layers of fennel. Adjust the salt, and your dish will go to eleven.

Breadth. Now that you’ve got some depth, it’s time to put on your flavor 3D glasses. Taste opposites excite your tongue along it’s full spectrum of senses, while simultaneously balancing each other. Apply them to your cooking, and you’ll be a kitchen rock star. So what are they?

Sweet balances bitter. Strawberries and rhubarb. Maple syrup and walnuts. Honey and mustard. Magical combinations because they hit this whole spectrum. In your lamb dish, fennel adds sweet. So why not add a side of braised bitter greens or a simple handful of Italian parsley leaves?

Salt balances sour. It’s why vinegar and salt are practically joined at the hip. Like those British potato chips or sour pickles or about half of all vinaigrettes (lemon and salt are in the other half). So dress those flat-leaf parsley leaves with a little lemon and salt and see what a difference it makes. Or add a splash of good wine vinegar to your sauce as you’re adjusting the salt.

Finally, astringency balances richness. Acids versus fats. It’s why wine is wonderful with a rich meal. “Palate cleanser” is just a euphemism for keeping your taste buds awake. Malt vinegar on fish and chips. Pickles on a ham and cheese sandwich. Oil in a vinaigrette. So that splash of vinegar in your sauce will play foil to lamb’s richness, and lets you get away with a swirl of finishing butter in the sauce. A little olive oil tossed with the lemon juice for those parsley leaves might be another good move.

Texture

Compared to taste, texture is much simpler. The name of the game is contrast. Something creamy versus something that snaps. Soft versus shatters on your teeth. Nuts on ice cream. Those pickles on a ham sandwich. Chips ‘n dip. That textural contrast is central. It packs comfort with a satisfying crunch.

Our lamb recipe started with everything slowly cooked with moist heat. A.k.a. mush. That’s why it’s hard to get excited about stew. It’s a slog. But already we’re on the right track. Those grilled fennel wedges should have some good body if not overcooked. That’s good, but cooked vegetables lose crispness the moment they get near heat. So you could swap that for a simple salad of shaved fresh fennel bulb (but still tossed with parsley leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt). Try moving the fennel pollen finish here to dress it up a bit.

And you don’t have to go light with fresh vegetables. Try something baked or fried. Cracklings, crumbs, toasts, or simple breadsticks (with fennel seeds, of course). Some starches can be crunchy too, such as root vegetable chips, or crisp fritters. Even faro has enough snap to add texture. And try giving your cooked meat a finishing sear or roast to put a little crust on it.

Or perhaps the crunch of that coarse-flake finishing salt is all you need.

Temperature

As with texture, with temperature contrast is king. Think about hot coffee with a dish of ice cream. The coffee heats up your mouth, which makes the ice cream melt so you taste it more and it fuses with the coffee flavor. After another bite of ice cream, your taste buds are getting numb, so you wake them up with more hot coffee. The play of hot against cold (and the bitter against sweet) makes the experience fresh with each bite. And the contrast intensifies your experience of the flavors.

Of course, temperature isn’t always about oven heat. There’s spicy heat. And so many dishes succeed by contrasting with it. Jalapeños and sour cream or guacamole. Spicy lamb with cool yogurt. Cool Vietnamese lettuce wraps and spicy dipping sauces. Buffalo-style chicken wings and blue cheese dressing.

So for your hot lamb dish, try serving it with something cold. Like what? Something that reinforces taste and texture, if you can. For our lamb stew, that fennel parsley salad now does quadruple duty by adding coolness as well as building flavor, flavor contrasts, and adding crunch. But temperature doesn’t always need to hit the other T’s, or even be on the same plate. Maybe veer toward rustic with chewy artisan bread and cold cultured butter.

Use your experience and imagination, think about the Three T’s, and you won’t go wrong. And be sure to let us know what you think!