— Estella Vasconcelos

You know, there's a lot of discussion right around the preservation of nutrients and a lot of people are might favor raw vegetables. Um because they're concerned about the degradation of nutrients due to the heat of cooking. All right, some of that's true. Okay, but not necessarily all of it. Okay. The the fun thing about nutrition is that it's pretty complex. And what we know about nutrition is really the tip of the iceberg so to speak that's that's what I believe. Um, when it comes to raw foods, certainly there are nutrients that are best preserved in that state. Okay. The challenge is that raw foods when compared to their cooked counterparts, they're generally more difficult to digest and I mean ultimately our body will assimilate nutrients after digestion has taken place. All right. So if we put something in our mouth that we think is chock full of the best nutrients, but our body has a hard time breaking it down because it's raw then we might not be extracting the nutrients to the fullest as we might think we are. Okay now on the other hand There are certain nutrients that are made more bioavailable after cooking. Okay, and so really at the table in terms of of the menu composition, you're probably going to be best off if you're eating some of both some raw vegetables and some cooked vegetables now in terms of You know roasting or steaming mmm. Yes, totally up to you. Ultimately, of course, but keep in mind that dry heat cooking methods. So roasting or grilling or sauteing gives you the chance. Excuse me in a second here. It gives you the chance to impart Browning. Okay that the caramelization or the Browning you do to the my yard reaction. It's it's the development of flavor as well as the visual appeal that we see but in this case we're talking about flavor. And so you've got a certain, you know type of flavor profile. It's just gonna be deeper. It's gonna be more rounded that can be developed via that dry heat cooking methods and you don't get that with moist heat methods like steaming or simmering. Okay, but it's so the the finished the the end flavor profile is simply different. I'm I you know, I'm not gonna split hairs and say that you know steaming is better than grilling or roasting is better than simmering. It really depends on what you're trying to do with your food. And this is really the beauty of understanding cooking because you get to choose your cooking method right from your toolkit. So to speak and and deploy it in the manner that you wish in order to create the finished product that you imagine. Okay, and so try it out, you know, try your your carrots or celery or whatever in a raw form in a roasted form and then also an esteemed form. And and compare the texture compare the aroma compare the flavor development and then think about the the additional flavorings that you will pair with those vegetables, you know, whether it's herbs or spices or or what have you and then see what is going to be most compatible and most enjoyable for you in your audience. Okay, you know also keep in mind that You know because raw vegetables especially certain raw vegetables, they're harder to chew. So we need to also choose our knife Cuts appropriately and basically cut them smaller very often in order to bring more enjoyability to the eating experience. Okay. So again, just another example of how our skill development in this case knife skill development can go a long way in getting us control in the kitchen to design and create a dish that is purposeful that is going to be most enjoyable, you know based upon the ingredients that are used. Okay, but you know any of those I think could be healthy. You know, you might want to consider, you know, minimizing added fat that's certainly the opinion of a lot of people out there when it comes to to health or the healthfulness of a given dish. Okay, but otherwise, this is a good time for you to practice using spices. I'm a big fan of spices. And you know spices can be used you know with oil without oil. They can be used whole they can be used ground and in order to impart Aroma which equals flavor and visual interest to your finished dish. All right. Thank you.