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Meribo, a modern Italian restaurant in downtown Covington, is where Chef Gavin Jobe practices his craft.
The televised cooking competition “Chopped” is where he earned a measure of fame.
But of if you’re looking for where it all started, where he learned his waste-nothing ethos and his appreciation for fresh-from-the-garden vegetables, look no further than his grandmother.
“I grew up cooking with my Granny,” Jobe told the crowd of more than 40 home cooks gathered Monday (Jan. 30) for the nonprofit Healthier Northshore’s latest Eat Well, Live Well cooking demonstration. “She always had a garden growing, so we always ate fresh things, whatever was in season.”
No surprise, then, that the dish Jobe prepared for the Eat Well, Live Well crowd was highlighted by roasted seasonal vegetables – including Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and red onions – nestled around seasoned chicken thighs.
It’s also no surprise that he gave everyone in the room permission to make the recipe their own by experimenting with whatever fresh ingredients they might find in their garden or grocery.
“This is more a method than a recipe,” Jobe said. “It can be turned into a spring dish, a fall dish, a winter dish, depending on what’s in season.”
Got summer squash in your garden? Sub it out for the potatoes. Got broccoli? Use it instead of Brussels sprouts. You could even sub out the chicken with pork loin.
“If you have a lot of color on your plate, with a lot of natural ingredients, you’re really on the path to something healthy,” Jobe said.
For Monday’s cooking demonstration, held in the classroom kitchen at the Samaritan Center in Mandeville, Jobe stuck mostly with the recipe he provided to those in attendance. Through the generosity of the American Heart Association and Gulf Coast Bank & Trust, all attendees were also provided with a box containing the fresh ingredients necessary to re-create Jobe’s dish in their own kitchen.
Jobe also had a few tips for his audience:
- Try deboning the chicken thighs, although it’s advised to leave at least some of the skin on the chicken “because that’s where so much flavor is.”
- “This recipe can be scaled down, even for one person, by using just one sweet potato and one chicken thigh.”
- When roasting vegetables, preheat your sheet pan along with your oven, then add the veggies to the hot pan before popping them into the oven.
- Don’t “crowd” your veggies. Giving them just a little room will promote caramelization, which results in more flavor.
- “You owe it to yourself to use fresh garlic,” Jobe said. “I really, really, really hate jarred garlic, and I hope you don’t use it at home.”
- Among his simplest and most impactful pieces of advice: Always use fresh herbs over dried herbs for maximum flavor. Don’t have any? Grow your own.
- “Herbs are great, and it’s a really great way to get started gardening,” he said. “They grow easily, don’t need a lot and it will give you confidence to maybe grow your garden.”
The Eat Well, Live Well cooking demonstration series is a quarterly series hosted by the Healthier Northshore coalition with key support from St. Tammany Health System and the American Heart Association. Access to and education about nutrition continues to be a priority for Healthier Northshore and a major focus of the programming surrounding the community garden at Safe Haven, which is managed and maintained by NAMI St. Tammany. Learn more at HealthierNorthshore.health.