Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Learning outside the restaurant

I just finished the notes for chapter 25 of The Professional Chef, on cooking vegetables. It was by far the most intensive sitdown with the tome yet. After reading McGee, one thinks about fast vs. slow ways to cook veg and wet vs. dry. I came to the conclusion that were probably about eight different ways to get a vegetable from raw to finished. TPC lists ten. The difference seems trivial, but when committing to memory the advantages, disadvantages and rules for each one, ten feels like a lot. And I haven't even gotten around to the cooking yet.

Restaurant work, especially in a kitchen that doesn't change menus frequently, or approach dishes with ambition, can get tedious, and it's important for a chef to keep learning, even if it's got to be done at home. This week, I've found quite a few motivators to get me cleaning my fridge out at home, and trying things I don't get to try at work.

On working clean: I used to be a damn mess in the kitchen. Then one Saturday night I got the tongue-lashing from the chef. The rest of the week, the sous chef would come over at the correct times during service, and say "You might want to take this time and wipe down." At work now, I don't have a station, and keeping the whole kitchen clean is a sight harder than wiping down one station after every pop. But it makes such a difference, it's breathtaking.

Ratio I didn't get in on the chart and scale giveaway--I need new glasses more than a new cookbook, sadly--but I want this book. So much. Ruhlman's posts about the ratios and the variations one can get from them only fuel my longing. I love kitchen math, and ratios have always been the easiest way for me to make the same thing time after time. I can't wait to see what he's come up with.

Nostalgia?Perhaps. I learned a lot from Tuohy at Woodfire. I remember how amazing the vegetable ragout was, especially as it changed with whatever we had. I also remember the initial tedium of peeling favas, and the accomplishment I felt as I got better and faster at it. Tomorrow morning, I'll be at the market, looking for some asparagus, broad beans (what they call favas here) and spring peas.

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