One piece in the New York Times' food section this week summed up a thought that has probably been on the minds of foodies since offal and rather less conventional cuts of meat became the "It"- foods of the last few years in fine dining. Namely, it put a voice to the sentiment that peasant food isn't simple if you aren't a peasant.
The writer explains her experiences cooking for her family, when she says they view just about anything that is made entirely from scratch with some degree of suspicion because it is unfamiliar. Cooking using some preprepared ingredients, like store-bought taco shells for tacos, seems simpler because it takes far less time to prepare than many "from scratch" dishes, especially when you consider you don't need to have spent any time developing a culinary foundation to use them. Everyone has taco shells at their local store. Tarte tatin, on the other hand, is not something that all people have ever eaten, let alone know how to make.
So is "simple" food stuff that is borne from necessity or does it consist of things that are easily and widely available? The answer is both and, to many, the answer is somewhere in between. Simple foods are those that seem uncomplicated to the chef who is preparing them, whether they take skill, experience or a trip to the store to make.
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