....Winston Blick, chef and owner of Clementine in Baltimore, points out that restaurants have access to the time, techniques, equipment, and ingredients people at home do not. “At Clementine, we aren’t doing anything fancy, we are doing it well, and with consistency. We make food like mom and grandmom made, but use fresh, organic, all-natural ingredients—a style of cooking that skips back maybe three generations to when people had to use fresh and local because that was the only option.” For Blick, ingredients and emotion are at the core of comfort food, and he draws a comparison to music. “It’s all derivative,” he says. “When I think back to my childhood and remember all the music that was being played, I didn’t really like it then, but today almost everything I listen to is either similar to, or has its foundations there.” That’s what comfort food is. Something you might’ve regarded with indifference as a kid, but today, brings back fond emotions or memories, perhaps of a better, simpler time; a dish that takes the best of the past and blends in new and unique influences of today—sustenance not just for the body but also the spirit.
Hamilton - Lauraville Main Street News
