I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

If you are like me, you are always wondering what chefs know that the average home cook doesn’t. Without access to restaurant equipment and ingredients, can home cooks hope to cook like chefs? And what do chefs cook when they are at home? Well, chefs do cook at home and they have to buy food just like we do. As it turns out, the preferred Chicago grocery store of the city’s top chefs is Mariano’s. Why am I not surprised? With an amazing selection of produce, ethnic ingredients, spices, the freshest seafood and different cuts of meat, Mariano’s is clearly the store for serious cooks, chefs or not.

Now, home cooks can see how top Chicago chefs shop at Mariano’s and use their tricks for getting the most of your grocery store experience. Mariano’s Tastemakers is a series of videos featuring award-winning Chicago chefs shopping at their favorite Mariano’s store. For a home cook, these videos are like a peek inside the mind of restaurant chef.

Crunchy, refreshing Asian-inspired steak lettuce wraps

More than one of the Tastemakers chefs mentioned how they don’t come to the store with a firm list, but rather get ideas from seeing what fruits and vegetables look good. While I think that most of us need a shopping list when we go to the grocery store, I agree with the chefs that you can’t be married to a list. If you planned to buy asparagus, but the snow peas look better, you have to be flexible.

Also, when we are too dependent on a list, we never try new things. At Mariano’s, the selection is so varied that if you aren’t trying new foods, you are missing out on what the store has to offer. I give myself a challenge when shopping to buy at least one new thing each time, be it an unfamiliar vegetable, an exotic cheese or a different cut of meat. This way grocery shopping can be inspiring and not just a chore.

The Asian food aisle at Mariano’s can be overwhelming at first.

I was especially inspired by Chef Bill Kim’s Tastemakers video, in which he demystified some of the ingredients found in the Asian food aisle. I, for one, was extremely grateful for his explanation because I have always wanted to experiment more with the Asian flavors that I enjoy when dining out, but felt intimidated by the unfamiliar ingredients. And at Mariano’s the selection of Asian sauces, oils, pastes, noodles, and spices is enormous!

Chef Kim explained that one of his favorite things to make at home was lettuce wraps and that idea immediately caught my fancy. I envisioned crunchy, refreshing lettuce wrapped around tender steak and silky rice noodles. What a delicious, healthy and fun meal to serve my family!

With Chef Kim’s list of essential Asian ingredients in mind, I headed to Mariano’s to shop. Fish sauce, chile paste, sesame oil and Thai rice noodles were some of the new-to-me ingredients that I invested in for my lettuce wraps based on Chef Kim’s recommendation. Having the right ingredients really enables us, as home cooks, to achieve the authentic flavor that we are looking for.

I love the way that these lettuce wraps turned out and so did my family. They are such a healthy and refreshing dinner and the recipe is is easy enough to make on a weeknight, especially with the quick-cooking skirt steak. One of the benefits of skirt steak is that you don’t have to marinate it for a long time to get great flavor because it’s quite porous. A 20-minute dunk while you get the rest of the ingredients prepped is perfect.

So remember, to make the most out of your Mariano’s experience:

• Take a list, but don’t be wedded to it.
• Draw inspiration from what you see in the store, especially when shopping for fresh produce.
• Explore the ethnic food aisles to bring home the flavors of your favorite restaurant cuisines.
• Try something new every time!

Thanks to #MyMarianos and #CollectiveBias for the opportunity to participate in this shop.