While assertive aromas are nothing new in the culinary world, funky foods seem to be popping up with more prominence lately
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During a recent dinner at the revamped Les Faux Bourgeois, a fresh tomato-and-peach salad topped with a very generous amount of blue cheese shavings arrived at our table.
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It stood out for its unabashed abundance of pungent fromage. Plus, it was glazed in an anchoïade sauce of anchovies, olives, oil and garlic.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love blue cheese. Most cheeses, really. Fresh, aged or downright smelly, I’ll likely eat it with ease. But I know that’s not the case for everyone. In fact, foods that harbour a bit of funk can prove polarizing.
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Rich fish sauce, soft Roquefort, tangy kimchi … there are plenty of examples of fermented or naturally aged ingredients.
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West Coast Table
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“A funk ingredient adds another depth of flavour, whether it’s umami, acidity, bitterness all of these add to a more rounded flavour within the dish,” says Brent Thornton, co-chef of Les Faux Bourgeois. “Especially in French food where balance is so important, it’s nice to have these flavour builders that add a uniqueness.”
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While nothing new in the culinary world, funky foods seem to be popping up with more prominence lately.
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According to Dave Cassese, co-chef of Les Faux Bourgeois, we have the once world-no. 1 restaurant to thank for that.
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“The obvious answer can be attributed to the obsession with Noma in the past eight to 10 years, what’s grown from that is natural curiosity in cooks/chefs to explore flavour building through scientific measures,” Cassese says. “At the same time, with the amount of information circling online, it gives cooks at home more ways to explore what happens in professional kitchen and that tends to be flavours that are more bold and ‘funky’.”
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The duo say diners can expect to find an “array” of funk-filled items on the menu, which has been revamped alongside the rest of the restaurant following the ownership change that saw Yianni and Petro Kerasiotis of hospitality group Gaia House (Nammos Estiatorio, Selene Aegean Bistro, and AMA) take over the E 15TH Avenue favourite.
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“In almost all of our dishes you’ll find some form of fermentation or pickle,” says Thornton. “We’re also obsessed with anchovy.”
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They’re not alone.
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Over at the Michelin-starred restaurant Published on Main, chef-partner Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson says they’ve been leaning into foods with funk from the very start.
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“We use a lot of funky ingredients in our menu, from lacto-fermts, misos, shoyus, and garums,” says Stieffenhofer-Brandson. “We also use a locally made garum from herring produced by Old Habits.
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In addition to adding a touch of the unique, fermentation is an underlying attempt at ingredient conservation.
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“As a baseline, I think we use these techniques to preserve ingredients at their peak and to build flavour,” Stieffenhofer-Brandson says. “We always try to balance the food, between sweet, salty, sour, spicy, umami, and so on.”
