4 minute read
A Q&A with Graham Elliot
Graham Elliot
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ON THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE
What is The Great American Recipe? It’s a culinary creation rich with tradition, heritage, and memory that someone from Mississippi or Oregon or New Mexico makes for a celebration, or just to express their love for family and friends. It’s also a new cooking competition series on WTTW that will search for that outstanding recipe, giving a diverse group of home cooks from across the country the opportunity to showcase their talents and background before a panel of judges. One of them is chef and restaurateur Graham Elliot, who ran several highly successful Chicago eateries and has appeared on numerous cooking shows such as MasterChef and Top Chef.
WTTW spoke to Elliot about the show, and his excitement about working with home cooks and sampling their recipes. The Great American Recipe premieres Friday, June 24 at 9:00 pm on WTTW.
GUIDE: Why did you want to be a part of The Great American Recipe?
GRAHAM ELLIOT: I always loved the idea that we were going to focus on the food and the story, as opposed to, “You have twenty minutes to cook with one hand behind your back, using a dull knife.” And—not that everyone wins—no one’s looking bad. There’s one blue ribbon at the end, but you’re not playing for a million dollars. Nobody’s going to turn your oven off to do whatever it takes to win.
Not to be too preachy, but with the state of the country being so divisive, to be able to showcase your ethnic background and the part of the country you’re representing, I really thought was a positive message. We all kind of universally come together around food.
GUIDE: Why is it important to celebrate the stories and backgrounds behind food?
ELLIOT: Because people do best with whatever they have. Regardless if you’re of meager means in the South or you’re a second-generation Vietnamese American, I feel that the more people know, the more open they are to the entire culture – not only that dish.
GUIDE: You have more typically worked with professional chefs. What’s the difference between that and working with these home cooks from so many different backgrounds?
ELLIOT: It was eye-opening for me to not see professionals who nowadays live on Instagram and just plate food that looks like it came from Noma, regardless of whether they’re in Omaha or Atlanta. This is more authentic, from the soul: “This is my grandma’s recipe; this is what I love to make for my kids.”
You’re not dealing with tweezers and paintbrushes and things like that. And nobody on the show was there because they wanted to be the bad guy, or the fun one, where they’re playing characters. And none of them are hoping to open their own restaurant tomorrow and were using this show as a platform to promote it. We literally had a 65-year-old grandma making great food.
And I think that’s why The Great British Baking Show connected with so many people. The viewership is “everyday American” and they relate to that. I feel that that’s a great direction for food shows to go.
GUIDE: Did you learn anything from getting to experience more regional, homebased food and hear the stories behind dishes?
ELLIOT: Absolutely. I didn’t really know that Rhode Island and Providence had such a rooted Italian population, and seeing food coming from a firefighter that he just cooks for his family, sharing his mom’s pasta recipe. Or you get rid of borders and
Judges Tiffany Derry and Graham Elliot, host Alejandra Ramos, and judge Leah Cohen with a contestant.
you realize that California, New Mexico, Arizona – that was Mexico, 150 years ago. And then despite having discovered that, it doesn’t change the food all of a sudden. I feel that, even if you were just a passive viewer of this show, you would come away from it saying, “Damn, I didn’t know America was so cool.”
I think some PBS viewers are going to be seeing dishes that they’ve never been exposed to. And they might say, “I want to try to make that,” or “I’d like to go to a restaurant somewhere and have that.” That’s the most exciting thing for me, because as I get older, it’s teaching, inspiring, showing where the food comes from, why they make that, what the ingredients are, the geography, the history – that is so much more rewarding
than “I have a Michelin star and I’m on this other show.”
Food should be the thing that introduces you to the who, the what, and the why. For instance, if you keep kosher, you won’t eat shellfish, but then someone else is going to pay $100 for a lobster. You can’t judge.
GUIDE: Why showcase home cooks and their stories?
ELLIOT: I feel that when you cook in a restaurant, you’re pleasing the guest and you’re also being that ego-driven artist. A lot of people just want a giant-ass Caesar salad with croutons, but no, I’ve gotta make it all about the brioche Twinkie. [One of Elliot’s signature dishes in Chicago was a deconstructed Caesar salad that included giant “croutons” of cream-filled brioche bread.]
When you’re at home, you’re just having a great time with friends or family and making tasty food. If you go to a friend’s house and they’re grilling in back and making family-style steaks and charred veggies, that’s way more tasty and fun. I think that’s what’s cool: understanding why people cook and what they do.
