Garlic: a Cooking School Requirement

Can you imagine how boring Italian cooking would be without garlic? The very heart and soul of a cooking class is often the pungent heady aroma of sautï¿½ed garlic that fills the kitchen.

Garlic to Die For

Legendary chef Louis Diat of NY Ritz-Carlton fame once said, “Without garlic I simply would not care to live.” Almost all cultures cook with garlic, a staple in international cooking schools and kitchens around the globe. From Italian pasta with zesty pesto and garlicky Tuscan bruchetta to Chinese garlic-ginger stir-fry to roasted garlic slathered on toasted crostini, garlic is universally accepted as one of the most versatile cooking ingredients in any kitchen.

Garlic to Live For

Garlic has other uses outside of cooking school. Aside from its obvious presence in most cooking school classes, garlic can be used as:

A natural insect deterrent for vegetable and flower gardens, as well as a repellant for mosquitoes and ticks
A dietary supplement that is purported to lower cholesterol and enhance immune function
A dietary supplement that may have anti-carcinogen and anti-tumor properties
An amulet to ward off vampires, werewolves, and devils

In my opinion, the depth and flavor that garlic adds to food more than compensates for the bad breath it causes.

Varietal Garlic

There are different types of garlic with slightly different potencies. Mild green garlic is harvested in the spring before the garlic bulbs start to form. Purple Italian and Mexican garlic bulbs also have a mild flavor while common white-skinned or California garlic has an extremely strong garlic flavor. Although you can sometimes use elephant garlic in cooking class to add a hint of garlic taste to more delicate dishes, it is actually more closely related to the leek family.

Garlic, the Total Experience

As a cook, you can bypass chopping all of those garlic cloves by using garlic infused oil or hi-tech garlic that has been roasted, pressed, juiced, and packaged in convenient spray bottles. However, chopping garlic is part of the quintessential cooking class experience, where convenience should never trump taste.

Sources

Garlic Valley Farms
The Garlic Store

About the Author

Judi Sandall is a regular Chef School Review columnist. She is a graduate of the State University of New York.

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