Why is it that we place a higher value on food cooked in a restaurant than the food we cook at home? If you think about it, many of us can cook dishes every bit as good as the average restaurant. I’m not suggesting you don’t go to restaurants at all, but these days we can’t all afford to dine out as regularly as we would like. Also when you have small children, outside of the cost, restaurants are not ideal venues no matter how child friendly they are. Children seem to have an inbuilt time clock when out in public. Step across the threshold of a nice restaurant and the hour glass instantly turns on its head and the sands trickle steadily. When my kids were very small we found that the ‘clock of good behaviour’ often ran out somewhere mid dessert (sometimes even earlier) and then it was a rush to finish, pay and leave the premises before we were forever banned from entering again with our demon possessed child.
Taking away the human element of the restaurant the things that feed into your experience are all very doable at home. The table is clean, fully laid and sometimes has a little extra like a candle or some flowers. The plates are often interesting – a different shape for different dishes. They provide proper linen napkins. The chairs are comfortable. The space is uncluttered and fit for purpose! Sometimes it’s just these little things that can elevate a simple meal into something of a joy. We tend to do this for special occasions like Christmas, Valentine’s or Easter and while they do call for extra special attention why can’t we just go half way on a normal day? Yes it takes a little effort but when you think of how much it will increase the pleasure of the experience it’s truly worth the five minutes. Even serving on a different size or shape plate every now and again will make the food appear differently. Sometimes I think we have lost the art of stopping and just sitting together and sharing food. It’s not always easy to coordinate schedules to do that these days but it happen a few times in any normal seven day period. 
Then we get to the food. There is a myth that good food or excellent meals are expensive. When we think of the countries that have given us great dishes such as China, India, Thailand and North Africa the common denominator is the lack of affluence. Yet for all our wealth, progress and modernity here in the West we don’t eat as well as they do. These poorer countries eat foods rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and fish, natural spices, locally grown grains and rice – the list goes on. They also understand nose to tail cooking so much better than us. Only last week I was watching a fantastic programme about street food in Asia and on one stall there was a full tray of roasted ready to eat rabbit heads. These are foods that you buy and eat as you walk along – a little like a bag of chips here. Even if we look to our European neighbours many of our favourite dishes from Italy, Spain and France have their origins in simple home cooking and what was known as peasant food.
However if you take a big pot of tasty ‘peasant’ food, serve it in big generous bowls with large chunks of crusty bread it can be delicious and on a par with the piece of fillet steak the size the of a two euro coin and the three mange tout balanced artfully on the top that you would get in a high end restaurant. Food is all about the taste and the flavour but we also eat with our eyes and so if it is presented well in a nice environment it certainly adds another layer.
Great food is about using good fresh ingredients, not necessarily the most expensive ingredients. Budget meals can feel incredibly luxurious. I recently came across a recipe for Beef Casserole with Parsley and Parmesan Dumplings. Now it required about two and half hours of cooking time but it’s the oven that’s spending the time not you. It is not something you can knock together for a ‘quick’ meal after work, but with a little thought the day before or the use of a proper slow cooker it is very doable. Certain cuts of beef, lamb and pork are incredibly reasonable and as long as you cook them long and slow the taste is fantastic.
We need to start thinking like restaurants do. What food can be prepared in advance? And what about all those unusual things that are popping up on menus all over – lamb and beef shank, rabbit, offal – again what do they all have in common? They are inexpensive cuts of meat cooked in a great way. We can do the same at home.
It’s time you visited the James Whelan Butchers website for some more inspiration or either of my books, An Irish Butcher Shop or The Irish Beef Book, contain a number of recipes that use fresh foods and less expensive cuts of meat for outrageously good dishes that the whole family will enjoy.
Eat at home restaurant style and you are creating memories for the family that will last a lifetime. They will also bring it with them into adulthood and create a family tradition of sitting together and enjoying food. It’s a lovely thing to teach them.
We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin. Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers
