Reverse Engineering Or …Imitation Is The Greatest Form Of Flattery

I really enjoy having a dish at a restaurant and then trying to replicate it at home. In fact most of my “Original” dishes are the result of this process. It is also a great way to come up with ideas for a supper club menu.

I started this process with our friends Debby and Marc Waldman when we lived in Dover Delaware in the late 1980’s. Mark and Debby lived across the street and our routine was to go out to a restaurant on Friday night and then I would replicate dishes on Saturday night at home via reverse engineering.

I’d better explain, “Reverse engineering”. It is a standard practice in the food business. It is very common for a major manufacturer to spend a lot of money developing a new product. If the product does well in the market, competitors, particularly private label manufacturers will develop a “knock-off” product. Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing the ingredient line and researching manufacturing options to come up for a match of the successful product.

Early on in my career, a representative of a private label manufacturer propositioned me. He said I could make a lot of money by helping him to develop a knock-off of Post’s Grape Nuts. The guy was a sleaze ball and there was no way I was going to help him. Divulging trade secrets is certainly unethical, but I have no qualms about replicating a dish I enjoyed at restaurant.

To be honest, not all the recreations that I made for Marc, Debby and Susan were stellar. Today it is a lot easier. There is a wealth of information available on the Internet. You can Google steak au poivre and come up with several recipes. Or better yet, you can search YouTube and get a few videos with step-by-step instructions. Back in the day, my victims were stuck with my rudimentary culinary skills. I learned a lot and Marc, Debby and Susan survived. You should never question wine’s medicinal value.

One of my early attempts t0 recreate a dish was Roasted Peppers. I can remember buying roasted peppers in the Lake Farms Italian Market in Silver Lake NY where I grew up. Mr. Belmonte would bring a tray of freshly roasted peppers from the kitchen. They had a wonderful smoky flavor from the roasting married with the garlic and olive oil.

Check out the recipe

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

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