Desert Island Lists

How is it possible to characterize the cuisine of a particular chef? Labels such as “Californian,” “French,” or “Mediterranean” are only somewhat useful in categorizing a chefs efforts, as even within those parameters there is a personal interpretation being expressed.

In our hope to capture a “snapshot” of how the chefs we interviewed approach food and cooking, we posed a dilemma: If they were asked to choose only ten ingredients to take with them to a proverbial desert island to cook with for the rest of their lives, which of their favorites would they choose? Which ingredients and flavors do they feel they couldn’t live without? How do these ingredients and flavors “color” their cuisine? Similarly, we asked them which three cooking techniques they would choose if limited to cooking with those three for the rest of their lives.