Should we bother with seasonal cooking?
From someone who has been a seasonal cooking convert for decades.
Seasonal cooking has been one of the central themes of my food writing. My first article with Epicure in The Age was on this very topic in the early 1990's. And the annual Seasonal Produce Diary (1995-2020) of which I was co-author, featured month by month lists of the very best produce plus recipes which put this to good use.
In order to have top quality seasonal ingredients growers need the perfect combination of sunshine, rain, heat and cold to ensure it’s a “good year”. Tomatoes for example demand lots of sunshine to develop their classic summer sweetness. Potatoes require cooler ground temperatures to develop great flavours. If wild mushrooms don’t get cold weather and rain at the right time that just won’t appear.
This is definitely one of the challenges of seasonal cooking. There will be years when certain ingredients are just not that good. The summer just past, for example, has been a poor season for stone fruit. Peaches, plums and apricots never developed the beautiful sweetness we know and love.
With that in mind should we even bother with trying to shop and cook with the seasons anymore? Look across your local supermarkets shelves and it seems most ingredients are available year round. Should we just go with this convenience? Is it worth the effort of trying to keep up with what’s in season and what’s not?
Should we just relax and eat greenhouse grown tomatoes? Eat apples and pears kept in cold storage for months? Or buy produce flown in from growers across the globe?
Well, personally when I’m spending money on ingredients I want to ensure that the produce I choose is the very best in terms of flavour, texture and quality. What I’m after is bang for my buck and seasonal ingredients deliver this to me in spades. I just don’t get this trio of flavour, texture and quality from greenhouse raised, cold storage or overseas grown produce.
Seasonal cooking has a generations long tradition based on cooks knowledge and collective experience. A tradition I’m very happy to dig into and to be a part of.
Consider gazpacho soup made with the best summer tomatoes, cucumbers and capsicums. An apple pie made with winter apples. Jam with the ripest autumn plums. Pesto made with the best summer basil. And on it goes.
So based on what I’ve written here it’s safe to assume I believe we definitely should be bothered with seasonal cooking.
It’s something I have come to understand in over four decades of cooking and writing about food. The better the ingredients I start with, the better my cooking will be. And for me that’s seasonal ingredients.
Buying seasonal ingredients is something you can do relatively easily once you know what to look for. These ingredients are available in supermarkets, green grocers, farmers markets and to order directly from growers.
Try out the seasonal lists I have put together to get you started on shopping and cooking with the seasons.
Let me know in the comments your experience on cooking with the seasons.