We always tell our students that graduation from culinary or pastry school marks the beginning of their food education, not the end.
This point was reiterated last week during one of our alumni events where masters of food art and science, Chef Daniel Patterson and Harold McGee, inspired us with lessons from a lifetime of food learning.
Salt is a Very Difficult Ingredient. Salt isn’t just about making food taste good. It has a unique power to totally transform a dish. If you know how to use salt properly, you’re in the top 1% of the pros. The rest of us are in the 99% who are still exploring a full understanding of salt.
Pursue the “How” and “Why”, Not Just the “What”. Following recipes involves the “what” but a curious cook seeks to understand the “how” and the “why”. Reputable culinary and pastry schools invest in teaching the “hows” and “whys” of food. The best chef mentors will impart this knowledge to young cooks in their kitchens. So the next time something tastes good, pursue an understanding of “how” and “why” it tastes good and see where that takes you.
Intuition Derives from Experience. For cooks, repetition in the kitchen isn’t about “paying your dues”, it’s about getting the experience required to develop intuition. Bruce Lee said he didn’t fear the man who practiced 10,000 kicks once, but feared the man who practiced one kick 10,000 times. Same concept.
In Culinary School You’re Learning How to Learn. Paying attention is everything in cooking. As a culinary student, you’re learning how to take in information. It doesn’t replace experience but it does let you know how to process the experience you’re getting. It’s the difference between practicing those 10,000 kicks in your living room or with a professional trainer.
Play with Your Food. The insatiable curiosity of cooks must be fed with a healthy portion of experiment. This is different from recipe testing. Rather it’s a willingness to try things with no guarantee that they’re going to succeed. We scoured volumes of French culinary texts dating back to the 18th century and couldn’t find a single reference to the Cronut….
The Magic Happens at the Finish Line. With tools like gram scales you have the precision to get yourself to the 95th percentile of where your dish needs to be (because why make a mistake if you don’t have to?). But that last 5% is where it’s at — that’s what a cook is for. No tool can replicate the ability to correct, season, and correct again. The finish line is the difference between a great dish and one that’s just okay.
