Choosing Healthy Foods

with campus executive chef Tom Barton As a chef, seasoning and flavoring of food is one of the most important things that we do. What is the difference between seasoning and flavoring?  Seasoning is enhancing the natural flavor of a particular product while flavoring is changing the natural flavor of that product. For example: when roasting a chicken simply adding salt and pepper enhance the natural flavor of the chicken but if you were to enhance with a BBQ rub, that would change the natural flavor. Knowing when and what to season and flavor foods with is a skill that I am constantly working on. Hopefully at this point everyone knows that excessive use of salt is a health issue that should be taken seriously. As someone who prepares food for others, we have an obligation to serve tasty food that is also good for you. Here are a few ways to reduce the amount of your salt intake: Read nutritional labels You would be amazed at the amount of sodium in some of your favorite foods espec...

with Northeastern campus executive chef Tom Barton Building flavors and making sure our foods are seasoned properly is a large part of what we as chefs and cooks do and part of that is using salt. Teaching someone how to season is not easy as all of our palates our different; what is enough salt for one might be too much for another. There is much in the news about our salt intake and how we must take steps to reduce it and if you are a label reader then you already know there is sodium in many of the foods that we eat, especially those that are processed or pre-prepared. We definitely support the notion of using fresh herbs and spices to add flavor rather than increasing the amount of salt to most preparations; however, as a chef I have to say, when used properly, there is no substitute for salt. As a cook coming up through the ranks I learned that salt should be added throughout the cooking process, not all at the beginning or all at the end. Over-seasoning tends to occur when salt i...