Q: Please tell us a little about yourself and your publication.
Hi! I’m Mindy Crosato, owner/founder of a restaurant group in Portland, Oregon that includes: Decadent Creations Bakery, Collective Market, Collective Kitchen (the cooking classroom inside the market), and Notorious B.A.G.E.L. My Substack is about my new project, Oregon Trail Table: you have died of deliciousness. Where I travel around Oregon cooking and baking delicious food on site in beautiful places. I love to showcase the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.
Q: What kind of fridge do you have? Fridge Freezer/Upright/ Double doors?
My fridge is a Black Bosch, it’s very Euro style. It’s a relatively small footprint in my kitchen. My husband is French and this type of fridge was very important to him. We max out on space quickly so we have a backup fridge and freezer in our garage.
Q: How often do you food shop? Do you buy in bulk - if so, what do you buy?
Since we own restaurants where we cook and bake fresh daily, we do have a steady stream of unsold food coming our way. We have a massive garden that has been quite fruitful ( thanks global warming 😬). I sell bagels and pastry at 6 different Portland area farmers markets. One of my favorite things of all time is to throw capitalism out the window to barter or trade my unsold goods for other vendors’ unsold goods. At the end of each market day, I haul home a milk crate of fabulous crusty bread, homemade chimichurri or jam, ripe tomatoes or peaches, you name it! We are very into dehydration, canning, fermentation, and preserving in my house. Not everything can be made homemade, alas. My husband does a Costco run about once every 3 months for bouillon, Kerrygold Butter, Parmesan, paper towels, and a few other things. We have teenage daughters that adore some of the premade foods from Trader Joes for their school lunches, like spicy lentil wraps, chicken tikka masala, and Caesar salad. For the children, we do a Trader Joe’s run once every 2 to 3 weeks. Last but not least, I personally go to my local New Seasons Market about once a month to fill in the holes of anything and I couldn’t find at the market. I love their house sausages, Dr. Brew Kombucha, and avocados to mash on my day-old Cheesy Garlic Bagels.
Q: What is the most used ingredient that you always have a good supply of?
I always have a good supply of Parmesan. We have four daughters and they love pasta! We also go through so much Better Than Bouillon. Soup is one of my favorite ways to utilize whatever random vegetables are popping in my garden. When I bring home a milk crate full of celery root from the farmers market, I love to roast, smoke, and purée the vegetables. To make it no-brainer, I make a quick stock out of veggie or chicken bouillon. Bisque is also a great way to use that random and then bits of cheeses or lunchmeat, diced up.
Q: What is the oldest item/ingredient in your fridge, and what did you originally buy it for?
I generally have a good fridge through-put, rotating stock pretty regularly. I have some plum vinegar that a friend made that’s been lingering a couple years. That has been slow going for me to use up. It’s quite sweet, but also pungent, so I couldn’t throw it in too many of my soups. A few times I used it like a drinking vinegar with some seltzer water and some gin. Since she made it, I can’t bear to toss it.
Q: Do you meal plan? If so, would you please share your secrets with us?
I did not meal plan! I am not one of those people that are so organized. I am a fly by the seat of my pants type of girl. The closest I get to meal plan is at the beginning of the week when I ask my daughters what they want in their school lunches, Which is usually simple things like ham and cheese sandwiches, or previously mentioned Trader Joe’s packaged things.
Q: What is the most expensive item in your fridge, and what do you use it for?
The most price per volume item in my fridge is Caviar, which I eat with crème fraiche on Ruffles potato chips. It’s the best. Oh, and with champagne! There’s always a bottle of champagne at the ready in my fridge.
Q: Which items would you advise people not to keep in their fridge and why?
If you can avoid refrigerating fruits and vegetables, do so. There’s something magic about a cucumber salad made with cucumbers that have never been refrigerated. I totally understand the timing of life can’t always be perfect like that. But when it is, It’s so good. Check out my goodie drawer of veggies below ( veggie shelf life timing wasn’t on my side today)
Q: How do you organise your fridge? Is it chaos, or a place for everything and everything in its place?
As far as tidy police, my husband is more particular than me. He has elected himself to be the Fridge organizer. He does it about once a month. I have to be very explicit if there’s something that I don’t want him to throw away because he can get garbage happy in a fridge feng shui attack.
Q: What are your top tips for storing items in your fridge and keeping it tidy? Do you use storage containers?
We do a lot of vacuum sealed bags, The air deprivation really helps things like egg salad last twice as long! It’s so you can stack things super tightly with less wasted space.
Thank you for sharing your kitchen with us, Mindy Crosato
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