‘Mary Makes It Easy’ to turn out great meals in new Food Network series
There is a certain intimidation factor that comes with cooking, posits Mary Berg, which she hopes to remove from the equation with her new series on Food Network.
In “Mary Makes It Easy,” premiering Saturday, Feb. 5, the Toronto-based chef and cookbook author shares easy and delicious recipes that she guarantees will impress family and friends and offers up tips and tricks designed to take the stress and fear out of meal prep.
“I really don’t think there’s anything you should kind of steer clear from,” Berg, the Season 3 winner of “MasterChef Canada,” explains. “I think if you’re a little worried, you just have to shake it off and go in with an open mind of ‘I’m going to learn something today,’ and it might be how to not wreck something. Or it might be how to make the absolute most perfect thing that you didn’t even know that you can make. It’s all opportunity in the kitchen.”
In the 13 half-hour episodes, Berg endeavors to break down cooking techniques and meal planning into easily attainable steps as she shows what to do with a fridge full of leftovers or how to add pizzazz to chicken, the ubiquitous dinner staple that is versatile though at-times boring.
And, Berg says, deceptively easy to mess up.
“(The) chicken is dry, you’re worried about undercooking it and then you overcook it,” she says. “You’re worried about that kind of lackluster, kind of pale skin. You want a good goldenbrown crust. It’s boring. There are so
many things about chicken that people complain about that none of those things are true or have to be true.”
So in Saturday’s premiere, Berg demonstrates easy recipes for a classic roast chicken with gravy, chicken parmesan, chicken noodle soup and hoisin chicken with green onion pancakes.
As for her favorite techniques and tricks, Berg mentions searing, cooking with bacon fat and using generous amounts of salt when boiling pasta as things any home cook can pick up. And old schoolers shouldn’t turn their noses up at using using electric appliances like a food processor or hand mixer if they have them.
“Anything that can help you get food on the table quicker,” she says. “If you don’t want to do something by hand, I think take it. I love those things. I love shortcuts and I love those things that help you feel as successful as possible when you put dinner on the table.”