Welcome to Real Food on the Table!

In the modern world, it has become difficult to eat real food. By “real food” I mean food made from simple combinations of whole ingredients that you can hold in your hand: an onion, a carrot, a stalk of broccoli, a head of lettuce, a potato, a chunk of meat, some grains of rice, even a pinch of salt. Food that has substance. Food that has nutrition. Food that has life!

Unfortunately most food has been engineered to be palatable but not nutritious. And certainly not filled with life!

Processed, frozen, and even restaurant food is made with fillers, emulsifiers, additives, preservatives, and natural and artificial flavors and colors. These things are added to make the food look the right color, taste a certain way, and to not spoil. But they rarely add anything other than extra calories. And you almost never know what all these additives are made from.

So how can we get away from this modern Franken-food and get back to eating real food? One way is to eat at specialty restaurants that focus on high quality ingredients, farm to table practices, and nutrient dense menus. But how many of us can find, let alone afford, restaurant options like this, for three meals a day, seven days a week?!?!

Our other option is cooking!

Cooking is our way to get real food. But it is also a skill that we as a community have lost. Many people were never taught to cook as children, so how would they be able to cook as adults. They learned to heat something up, or maybe add a flavor packet to a quickly boiled pasta (mac and cheese/instant ramen anyone), but not to actually cook. Other people learned how to cook in the past, but cook so infrequently that they no longer feel comfortable fitting cooking into their daily lives.

Real Food on the Table is a resource for people who are interested in food and want to get cooking. All the recipes are for home cooking. They aren’t fancy or finicky. In addition to recipes, I will write about food quality, kitchen equipment, and books to read. If you are in the SF Bay Area I can provide in-home cooking classes and food coaching.

Hopefully this will empower and inspire people to get in their kitchens and cook real food!