The Toughest Audience I’ve Ever Cooked For

By Jonathan Bardzik

Jonathan Bardzik is a storyteller, cook and author based in Washington, D.C. Jonathan is known for delivering entertaining performances from farmers markets and private homes to corporate team-building events and storytelling workshops. Having developed more than 700 fresh, simple, seasonal recipes for his weekly, live demos Jonathan has written two cookbooks, Simple Summer and Seasons to Taste. His cookbooks, recipe and story blog and booking information are available at jonathanbardzik.com.

This post was originally published on GMO Answers' Medium Page.
 

In honor of National Nutrition Month, GMO Answers reached out to a local chef to learn more about the food choices he makes to create the most nutritious and delicious meals.

As a storyteller, cook and author I have cooked for some pretty demanding crowds, audiences from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to Fortune 500 Executives and even a well-known national TV and restaurant chef, but the toughest crowd? Kids.

No, I don’t have any myself, but my sister and several good friends do, plus my live, farm market cooking demos give me plenty of time with the under 10 set and whew, is this a rough crowd. Even a dish that wowed them at dinner can meet with turned up noses just a day later. And they’ll let you know it.

So what’s my secret to feeding kids? Build a thick skin and set your expectations on low. Seriously though, as I talk to moms and dads, their biggest concern is that their kids are eating healthy, nutritious food. On the upside, that means a balance of the basics: protein, carbs and some fat, plenty of fiber, vitamins and minerals. On the downside, my sister and my friends all talk about a litany of modern fears about our modern food supply. Should it be organic? What about gluten, hormones, and GMOs?

Now, I’m not a registered dietician, but I’ve talked to plenty of them and their advice always comes back to what I learned from my Mom: shop the outside of the grocery store — or even better the farm market, and read the back of the label.

My husband was part of a diet group last year and one of the members asked the group leader why they weren’t worried about counting their daily servings of fresh fruit since they contain lots of natural sugars. Her response? “I’m pretty sure none of us are here because we eat too much fruit.”

The fact is, if most of our diet is made up of whole, unprocessed foods that we prepare ourselves, the odds of having an unhealthy diet are pretty low. But sometimes, packaged foods are an important convenience as you run from the office to dance class or lacrosse. So back to Mom: read the back label. All of the regulated disclosures on food, except weight or volume, are on the back including allergens, antibiotics and ingredients. That means the rest of the information on the front — gluten-free, hormone-free and GMO-free — comes from the folks in marketing.

I’ve seen gluten-free soap. Really! Unless you have a rare and special allergy, this is completely irrelevant to you. Those hormone-free eggs? In fact, no laying hens in the United States are given hormones. This is the same as claiming an apple is vegan. And GMO-free…

As someone who feeds people for a living, I am sensitive to dietary restrictions and choices from animal products to dairy and gluten, so I’ve spent some time researching GMOs. First up, all of the science conclusively and continually finds no negative health effects and, as importantly, no difference in nutrition from non-GMO crops.

Maybe more significant is the fact that if you are already shopping the outside of the grocery store, chances are you are bringing home few to no GMOs. Though the first commercially grown GMO crops were planted more than 20 years ago, there still aren’t that many of them. If you’re not eating foods with added corn, soy or sugar (check the back of that label again) there are only a few crops including sweet corn, some summer squash and potatoes and papaya (you’re not eating a lot of papaya, are you?) that are modified. No tomatoes, none of those baby carrots you’re packing in your child’s lunch box, and there’s no GMO wheat, so the bread for that sandwich, unless it has soy and sugar (check the back of the label), is also GMO-free. Want more info? I’ve sent questions to GMOAnswers.com, a group of volunteer professionals including scientists and farmers, nutritionists and chefs, who have given me detailed, straightforward answers.

At the end of the day the biggest threats to our children’s health is not the game of Fear Factor on the front of the package, it’s salt, sugar and junk food — foods that have a low ratio of nutrition to calories. That and the fresh asparagus that arrives at farm markets next month. Just ask my niece and nephew.

P.S. You should totally cook asparagus for your kids, with mushrooms. And steak. They’ll love it. Or you’ll slice up an apple and give them a few bites of beef and there will be more asparagus for you.
 

Sirloin, Asparagus & Portabella Sauté

Serves 6–8

Rich, meaty mushrooms and seared sirloin pair with grassy spring asparagus for a hearty meal satisfying enough for a lumberjack and elegant enough for your wedding china. Dress it up for company with a Béarnaise sauce.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbs olive oil, divided

• 1 pound asparagus, cut in 2" pieces

• 2 pounds top sirloin, cut in 1 1 ⁄2" cubes

• 2 portabella mushroom caps, thinly sliced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 ⁄4 cup Cognac

• 1 ⁄2 cup chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 tbs red wine vinegar

• 1 tbs cold butter

• 2 tbs parsley

Directions:

• Warm 1 tbs oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Add asparagus and cook 2 minutes. Remove from pan. • Return pan to heat with 1 tbs olive oil. Season sirloin with salt and pepper. Add meat to pan in a single layer, cooking in multiple batches, if needed. Brown on all sides, about 4–5 minutes per batch. Remove from pan and reserve.

• Return pan to heat with remaining 2 tbs oil. Add mushrooms, cooking until browned on edges. If brown bits on bottom of pan begin to darken, reduce heat to medium. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Remove and reserve.

• Return pan to medium-high heat. Add Cognac and deglaze, scraping up brown bits. Add stock and cook until reduced to 1 ⁄4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in cold butter. Season to taste with salt, pepper and vinegar.

• Toss pan sauce with reserved asparagus, sirloin and mushrooms. Serve mixture topped with parsley.

TIP: Crowding the mushrooms or the steak in your skillet will result in the release of a lot of liquid which means, whether you want to or not, you’re now braising, not browning your steak and mushrooms. Make sure your pan is hot and cook those ingredients in multiple batches if needed.