The New Frugal Gourmets
Chefs offer advice on cutting costs when cooking at home

by Anya Hoffman

Over the past few months, as the country’s economy has collapsed around us like an overcooked soufflé and food prices have risen to panic-inducing heights, my husband and I have taken a closer look at our eating habits. We thought of ourselves as frequent home cooks, but in truth we were ordering in about four times a week. Our grocery bills were substantial, and a lot of our produce went bad before we got around to cooking it.

We decided to make some changes. For ideas on where to start, I turned to the Beard Foundation’s Professional members. Who better to advise us on cutting food costs without sacrificing culinary integrity than chefs? Here are a few of their top tips:

Cook Like It’s the 1930s
To keep their own grocery bills low at home, many chefs have been cooking like their grandparents: using smaller amounts of more costly foods or choosing less expensive cuts of meat. “I’m a huge fan of buying cheaper cuts of meat and braising them with seasonal vegetables,” said professional member Jeffrey Steelman, chef de cuisine at Todd English’s Tuscany at Mohegan Sun.

Another way to save money is by using the more expensive meats sparingly, if at all. “I’ve definitely been eating a lot more chicken and vegetables,” said chef Michael Carrino of Restaurant Passionné in Montclair, New Jersey. DeDe Lahman, who owns NYC’s Clinton St. Baking Co. and Community Food & Juice with husband, Neil Kleinberg, notes that some of her family’s favorite frugal meals include beans and rice, main-course salads, and pasta.

Shop Smarter
Due to the rising cost of food, many of our chef members are changing the way they shop for groceries. Some told me they’re reading store circulars and looking for sales. Others are frequenting different stores altogether, like Mark Quitney, executive chef of 5 Fifty 5 in New Orleans, who said his family is making “fewer trips to Whole Foods and more stops at Winn Dixie.”

Several of our chef members also belong to warehouse clubs like Costco or BJ’s, where they save money by buying in bulk. Not only can it be cheaper to buy groceries in large quantities, but it also helps keep your larder stocked for easy weeknight meals.

Clean Out Your Fridge
Many of the chefs I spoke to have been trimming their families’ food budgets by using a little ingenuity, particularly when it comes to leftovers. “We’ve been trying to stretch one meal into two to save time and money,” explained executive chef Michael Jackson of the Omni Mandalay in Dallas. “We’ll make a larger pork roast and turn the leftovers into pulled pork sandwiches or enchiladas.”

Denver chef Troy Guard used a little creativity to repurpose the ultimate leftover, Thanksgiving turkey. “We had turkey that day, turkey sandwiches the next, and turkey soup, and turkey tacos,” he said.

But perhaps the most important tip came from Michael Schwartz, chef and owner of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in Miami, who said that his family has always been very conscious of not wasting food. He suggested that the recession might encourage more people to follow suit.

“I think the good thing about what’s going on is that it’s going to force people to think about what they’re doing, how they use food and how not to waste it,” he explained. “I think people got careless about that.”

My husband and I certainly had become careless. But in the past few weeks we’ve followed many of the chefs’ suggestions.

We joined our local community-supported agriculture (CSA) group, making it our goal to use every last turnip and rutabaga from that weekly box of seasonal veggies. We’ve cut out unnecessary items (prewashed lettuce, frozen pizza) and turned to forgotten pantry staples, like pearled barley and dried beans, for inspiration.

The result? Financial crisis or no financial crisis, we’re eating better than ever.


Recipes

Roasted Lemongrass–Ginger Chicken
Troy Guard, TAG, Denver
Serves 6 / Cost: $10 total (or $1.67 per serving)

1  3-pound whole chicken
1 tablespoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon black pepper, divided
1 knob ginger, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, roughly chopped
1 cup roughly chopped onions
½ cup roughly chopped celery
½ cup roughly chopped carrot
3 tablespoons olive oil
Preheat oven to 350° F.

Rub outside of chicken with olive oil, ½ tablespoon salt, and ½ tablespoon pepper. Combine rest of ingredients and place inside chicken cavity.

Roast for about 45 minutes to an hour, until juice from the thigh runs clear and the internal temperature reads 175°.

Remove chicken from oven and let it rest for about 8 minutes before carving. Save carcass to make Leftover Chicken and Rice Soup (see below).

Troy Guard’s Leftover Chicken and Rice Soup
Serves 4 / Cost: $3.69 total (or $0.92 per serving)

Put chicken carcass into a Dutch oven and add water to cover. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and ½ cup wild rice to the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes. Strain broth into a bowl. Remove any remaining chicken meat from the bones and add to the bowl along with the wild rice. Add ½ cup sliced scallions to soup and serve.

This article originally appeared in the February/March 2009 issue of JBF Notes, the James Beard Foundation member newsletter. Don’t miss out on future articles; become a member today!