White bean dip with fresh basil
Heirloom tomatoes with burrata cheese When in doubt, don’t fuss. The recipe for one of the dinner appetizers—sliced, fresh figs and cambozola cheese wrapped in proscuitto—called for a sprinkle of toasted, crushed walnuts. But Henderson used pistachios instead because that’s what she had in her pantry. (Tip: Place them in a bag and pound with a mallet in lieu of chopping). But shouldn’t we faithfully follow recipes? “You can’t go crazy,” she says. “I hate to say it, but it’s only food.” However, she’s adamant on these points: Never use iodized salt (“It’s just chemicals.”). Replace it with kosher salt, but use sea salt to finish dishes. Use powdered garlic for rubs, but never any other time. And retire the garlic press, which wastes half the clove. She makes chopping garlic easy by sprinkling (kosher) salt on the clove and smashing it with the side of her chef’s knife. “The abrasiveness of the salt is creating a platform for the garlic so it’s not running all over your chopping block.”
Proscuitto-wrapped fresh figs with cambozola cheese 54 Devour Utah • September/October 2015
Keep it simple; cook with love. Making a meal is my way of showing love. My boys would prefer sickly sweet store-bought cakes, but I make cakes from scratch for their birthdays, because that’s love. When I host parties, I want to make everything I serve for the same reason. I nod in agreement when Henderson explains why she became a chef: Cooking is “what you can do for your friends and get instant gratification. You create something and they go, ‘It’s the best … I’ve ever had.’ ” So it was relief I felt when she confessed to shopping at Costco and Trader Joe’s (true fact: many restaurant chefs do) and occasionally buying pre-made dishes. If she’s serving three appetizers at a large party, she’ll make one and buy the rest. For a fundraiser, she bought frozen lemon and cheesecake bars from Trader Joe’s and served them after she sprinkled powdered sugar and mint leaves on top. When you employ store-bought food, “You’ve got to make it better,” says Henderson. “Kick it up a notch.” “[Hosts] feel like they have to make everything from scratch, but the best