One Man’s Obsession

As a child, Bob Miller took an experimental approach to food preparation--attempting to achieve the crustiness of charcoal grilling by frying hamburger patties directly on his mother’s oven burner plates, for example. He turned professional at age 12 when he began working the griddle at Harvey and Miltie’s Delicatessen in New York City. By 25, the Bronx-born Miller had opened his first restaurant, the Machine Cafe. Since then, this Bay Area-based 45-year-old has held every cooking position imaginable, including head chef on a tugboat line. If Miller ever offers to make meat loaf for you, be sure to show up.

There are two types of meat loaf eaters: those who like it with brown sauce and those who like it with tomato sauce. I eliminate the devotees of tomato sauce because, as far as I’m concerned, they are just eating a giant meatball.

We were pretty poor when I was growing up. And one of the best things to help stretch a budget is meat loaf. I think, in fact, that it is good to add bread crumbs to meat loaf. It changes the texture and makes it nice and soft.

The essential meat loaf is not dry. It has flavor. And it should be proportioned correctly. Meat loaf consists of beef, pork and veal--a half to a quarter to a quarter, with variations, of course. Sometimes I use a little Italian sausage or different pork products. Meat loaf, though, should be juicy. It should hold together when you serve it but fall apart when you eat it.

I like to shape meat loaf. And I like a half-moon shape as opposed to a square. You could roast meat loaf like a sausage by rolling it in cheesecloth and then browning it. Meat loaf is very pliable, particularly if you get it semi-cold so that it is firm.

If people would make meat loaf, they wouldn’t be so afraid to make pate --after all, pate is really just a meat loaf. The problem is that everybody’s mom made meat loaf and sometimes you had no choice about whether you wanted to eat it or not. It’s not so much an acquired taste, but a taste you’ve grown up with.

It’s not something to make for one person. How many people would come over if I told them that I was serving meat loaf, peas and mashed potatoes? They would be insulted. But I would love to make a dinner like that and have all my guests enjoy themselves.

I think it’s because meat loaf is something that can be “thrown together” that it’s often mistreated. It is becoming a dying art, one which I think we should cling to. After all, meat loaf is a part of our past.