About Tamme McCauley
Tamme McCauley is a food and beverage enthusiast who resides in Palisades, CA. Formerly, Tamme was a chef for major US restaurants and hotel brands where she worked diligently to design menus and pairings that remain in rotation to this day. Tamme McCauley would later leverage the skills and expertise that she has developed over the course of her career in the industry to begin a new path as a food blogger and content creator. Tamme has since grown her platform substantially and enjoys travelling both nationally and internationally to try new cuisine and her keep her audiences updated on interesting and innovative foods of all kinds.
As a chef, Tamme was positively regarded for her keen ability to take well-known, classic foods and modernize them in an innovative, yet accessible, way for diners. Tamme McCauley’s ability to build complex flavor profiles in simple-seeming dishes has earned her acclaim from many critics who speak highly of her worldly approach to the food and beverage scene. As a foodie and content creator, Tamme is noted for her ability to highlight foods ranging from familiar to exotic. Tamme prides herself on being able to use her platform to help people connect with their passion for food, experiment, and come together via cuisine.
Tamme McCauley of Pacific Palisades Explores What Makes Great Food
Tamme McCauley’s experience as both a chef and food content creator has meant that she has tried and critiqued hundreds —if not thousands — of foods in her time. Naturally, a question that commonly arises is what makes great food. Meaning, why is some food simply better or more appealing than its competition. Tamme McCauley has spent years evaluating factors that separate excellent food from the pack and, here, she explores a few reasons she finds that some cuisine emerges as great.
Ingredient Quality
Perhaps the most important sign of great food is quality ingredients. Fresher, local, and quality controlled ingredients have a knack for tasting better when prepared. There is a reason why many of the most successful chefs in the industry are seen at the market every day — better ingredients equal better food! It is hard to mask ingredients that are not high-quality and, while making excellent food with sub-par ingredients is certainly a skill in and of itself, such cuisine often does not make the top of the list. If you want to find great food, Tamme McCauley speaks to how the search starts with great ingredients.
Thoughtful Preparation
Tamme McCauley of Pacific Palisades finds that it is not enough to just have great ingredients if your goal is to make great food, you must also have thoughtful preparation and consideration for those ingredients. Take a simple Italian classic, caprese, for example. An excellent restaurant will be sure to select high-quality tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and olive oil for the dish as there is nothing to hide behind in terms of flavor. They will also need to be sure to thoughtfully prepare each ingredient as to not overwhelm the overall dish. A caprese consisting of unevenly cut tomatoes, untrimmed basil, etc. will certainly not impress diners. Tamme mentions that thoughtfully preparing even the simplest ingredients is the mark of a great chef and quality food. This is true from the humblest of dishes to the most innovative and boundary pushing. Diners want to eat food prepared by chefs that are really thinking about how they prepare and present their dishes.
Balance
Balance is a concept that is sought after by every notable chef in the food industry, however, true balance in food can be elusive and is often the mark of a great dish. When considering balance, Tamme finds that chefs will usually create a dish utilizing core components that include salt, acid, fat, and heat. If any of these are out of whack with the others, it may lead to a dish that leaves a lackluster impression on the palette. When perfectly balanced, however, even the simplest meals can truly shine and leave a lasting impression. Tamme finds that, while many casual food enthusiasts are not formally educated in concepts such as balance, it is something that many of us innately know from experience. If you can only eat a few bites before you feel as though there is too much of this or not enough of that, it is likely that the dish is not very balanced. Flavors should not overwhelm one another and should instead work together to form a cohesive symphony on the palette.
Creativity and Consistency
Creativity is the lifeblood of the food scene, and great dishes are often innately creative, innovative, and inspiring in their preparation, plating, and flavor. This is what helps certain dishes stand out in the sea of excellent food that is available to us within modern society. Tamme McCauley of Pacific Palisades notes that it is not enough for food to only be creative, however, as it must be consistent as well. Tamme finds that this is especially important for foods that are excellent representations of a cuisine but may not be reinventing the wheel in terms of flavor, preparation, or presentation. What diners seem to crave the most in their meals is a consistent experience. Whether you are trying a burger now, next week, next month, next year, etc., you naturally want it to be of the same quality as your last experience at the location.
More from Tamme McCauley
Tamme McCauley of Pacific Palisades recognizes that there are many people who are interested in learning more about food through the lens of an experienced chef, foodie, and food content creator. To this end, Tamme aims to provide readers with a variety of insights that can be utilized to better understand all of the work involved in the scene, learn more about home cooking, experiment with building new flavors, and more. Through these resources, it is her goal to help others find their love and passion for food and continue to find ways to bring communities together via cuisine. Future posts updated to this site will cover topics such as ways to vastly improve your home cooking, great restaurants in the greater Palisades area, tips for improving your food content, and more.
Want to learn more about food through the lens of an experienced foodie and chef such as Tamme McCauley of Pacific Palisades? Check this site for frequent updates inspired by Tamme’s insights.