COOK FOOD GOOD - Blogging BDL's Cookbook
Cook Food Good - Part V - The Organization is Revealed
Posted 08-20-2008 at 06:39 PM by boar_d_laze
Updated 08-21-2008 at 10:54 PM by boar_d_laze (CapitalizaTioN)
Updated 08-21-2008 at 10:54 PM by boar_d_laze (CapitalizaTioN)
COOK FOOD GOOD
PART V
In case you haven’t been playing the Home Version along with the show, I promised in some of my Chef Talk posts this installment would discuss how Cook Food Good would be organized around technique, and how the recipes would be integrated.
Let me tell you the “how” has been driving me make your forehead bleed by pounding it on the table nuts for some time. There have been lots of great recipe books – some of which have done a good job of building technique. Most of us number a few of these among our favorites. A couple of famous examples are Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Child, Bertholle and Beck; and American Cookery, by Beard. These books, and many other wonderful books like them include wonderful instructions on how to handle food, but they aren’t ordered in a way which reveals how techniques relate to one another, and how the relationship helps the cook improvise, adapt and create – as well as execute. Too much trees, not enough forest.
Even the best books are organized around food types (“beef,” “pork,” “chicken,” and “fish”); or courses (“salads,” “soups,” “entrees,” and “desserts”). That may be the way we order at a restaurant, but it isn’t the way we make food. We chop, slice, saute, roast, and steam. We prep, we cook, we plate. We don’t lamb and we don’t soup.
You need a reason to set out to do something as stupid and futile as write a cookbook when you aren’t a celebrity chef – or even a celebrity. My impetus came from noticing that people who aren’t already good cooks don’t know when something they’re cooking in a pan is ready to turn. And no one, whether on TV, in a cookbook, or in any other way thinks it’s worth telling them. I dunno, man. Call me crazy, but seems like it might be important.
So, I thought to write a little book on the things every good cook knows but no one teaches. As I talked to more and more people who were learning to cook outside of cooking school, it became apparent they learned to cook dishes, rather than learning how to cook. Eventually, they learned enough from cooking the dishes to figure out how to cook. Nice. But gotta be a better way, right?
As far as I’m concerned, no one’s ever done a good job of writing a book that made learning the pieces part of integrating them into a rational whole – at least not in a way that made sense. Not that some very talented people haven’t tried. The best was La Technique by Jacques Pepin. The guy can cook, he can talk, he can teach ... and the best he could do was a series of disconnected instructions on trussing a chicken, breaking a lobster and a bunch of other jumbled together stuff.
So, how? Better men have failed. Who do I think I am? Rachel Ray? Then it hit me. Escoffier. No. I don’t think I’m Escoffier. Escoffier was a hotel chef who came up with the way to organize cuisine and technique when he created the modern kitchen and its brigade around the end of the nineteenth century. I’m usually someone else. Anyway, Escoffier divided the kitchen into stations and each station had a responsibility for a type of cooking, or certain types of foods which required particular techniques. You know. The wheel I told you I was trying to reinvent with a forehead slam.
So, that’s how the technique sections of Cook Food Good is going to be organized – the way a pro kitchen is still organized around stations. In no particular order: Pantry and Cold, Sauces and Sautes; Roasts and Grills; Pastry, Baking and Sweets; Soups; Vegetables;and a right-handed reliever to be named later. Everything starts to make sense. I can put the outdoor Barbecue (smoker) and Grill sections with Roasts and Grills. The Knife section goes with pantry – each section gets its recipes. Each section has a prose spine with some general instruction, a few stories, and what not, plus a few beginner’s recipes spaced through the spine, following detailed descriptions of the required fundamentals.
What about the rest of the recipes? Who would cook them in a big restaurant kitchen? Which station? That’s where they go.
Speaking of “the rest of the recipes:” The list is growing like topsy. I’ve written a few since the last blog installment, about half of which have made it onto Chef Talk. Of the last two, one of them, “Truffled Polenta with Mariscos” is very high-end, eclectic and original. While the other, “Joe’s Special,” is hash, San Francisco as all get out, and simple as can be. In the book, both will go to the saute station with Joe’s near the beginning and the polenta at the end. If you can cook a Joe’s you’re about 75% of the way to executing Truffled Polenta. (Chances are, if you’re reading this, you can make both of them in your sleep.)
It all makes sense. So much so, I slapped my forehead. Ouch.
Hold me darling, I’m frightened.
Your comments are not optional – they are non-negotiable demands,
BDL
Total Comments 13
Comments
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As usual where you have gotten to so far sounds good. I agree with your fifth paragraph "they learned to cook a dish rather then how to cook" I have seen this in so many places and at so many times. The guy makes a great Pate but cant roast a rib medium rare.This is great, if the place only sells Pate.Posted 08-23-2008 at 12:37 PM by ED BUCHANAN
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As an English major who has earned a living through the written word, I can't stand your title. Terrible grammar. Very stilted. It might work commercially, but the grammarian in me wants to fix it.
PhilPosted 08-23-2008 at 12:41 PM by phatch -
Ed -- How many times have you asked yourself, "How could the same person who cooked THIS have possibly cooked THAT?" Too many?
Phil -- Fingernails on the blackboard, eh? It's only a working title, and subject to change. I'm looking for something that reflects a non recipe approach, an orientation to beginners AND intermediates, and has some humor.
Maybe get some boxtops printed and have a contest?
BDLPosted 08-24-2008 at 11:27 AM by boar_d_laze
Updated 08-24-2008 at 11:32 AM by boar_d_laze - YES YES YES. BDL- seems like every time you open your mouth... er, keyboard... I learn something. Frankly, I rather like the title despite being something of a grammar pedant myself. I think it conveys exactly what you said you wanted it to.Quote:So, I thought to write a little book on the things every good cook knows but no one teaches. As I talked to more and more people who were learning to cook outside of cooking school, it became apparent they learned to cook dishes, rather than learning how to cook. Eventually, they learned enough from cooking the dishes to figure out how to cook. Nice. But gotta be a better way, right?Posted 09-05-2008 at 10:07 AM by bluedogz
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BDL-
What an exciting project! I’m one of those people you have referred to that didn’t go to culinary school but has read cookbooks like novels trying desperately to learn *how* to cook, not just how to follow a recipe. La Technique and The Joy of Cooking have been my two best sources to teach me the why’s of cooking but they still are missing so much. I’m excited that I recently found this cooking forum to learn more techinques and to improve my cooking.
I’ll be the first to buy your book when its published!
However, can I agree with the previous poster that the title is a litle odd. . .
Thanks,
EmilyPosted 09-07-2008 at 10:32 PM by Penguin -
I like the title. It's just quirky enough that if I saw it in my Border's newsletter or on display in the airport bookstore I'd do a double take and have to check it out. It'll work for your target audience and set the tone for what's inside - an education in cooking with some humor thrown in for good measure.
Besides, how cool is it going to be to hear Oprah say " COOK FOOD GOOD" !!Posted 09-09-2008 at 09:02 AM by Willie24 -
BDL, I am a home cook who still needs a lot of help. Your book could help me tremendously. Put me down for a first edition SIGNED copy. For home cooks, simple translations are best and pictures too. Great idea!Posted 09-10-2008 at 08:34 AM by mpeirson -
title=concise....like it.
Regan Daley's "in the Sweet Kitchen" is trully educational...
Michael Fields wrote some cookbooks that give lots of variation with recipes ala Beard. Of course Joy of Cooking, the older better versions have how to skin a critter as well as how to make obscure canned products.....the go to book 75% of the time.
Big Budget Book if you wanna TEACH beginners....lots and lots of photos, ala Technique.....color ones too boot....Posted 10-03-2008 at 07:28 PM by shroomgirl - A few remarks on a project I absolutely adore:
1. Pepin did an interesting 2-volume book The Art of Cooking. It's a recipe-based approach to teaching technique. It's not what you're writing, to be sure, but you might take a look. He also did a recent video thing of techniques, which has the same disjointed quality as La technique and La methode, but is fascinating nonetheless.
2. If you're breaking things down by station, which I think is brilliant, can I suggest that you draw on your (and others') knowledge of professional kitchens to explain a bit, clearly and accurately, how professionals divide prep from final execution? That is, how you cook something X%, hold it until the order, and then complete and finish? This would be an immense help to the home cook reading a restaurant cookbook, which is often poorly "translated" as it were.
3. Shroomgirl is dead right: I think this is going to be a pricey book if it's really going to work, because of all the pictures needed. Me, I'd rather read it in very extensive and dense prose, but then, I'm an academic and thus a freak.
4. Any thoughts about how to avoid repetition? I mean, so many techniques are so fundamental, so basic, that you will use them in just about every recipe. So will you repeat the whole text, or just give a cross-reference? If the latter, it's going to make cooking a recipe out of order much more difficult; this is why, I think, Julia Child took the line she did.
Anyway, I love this book project. It's exactly the cookbook I wish every home cook had read and studied carefully.Posted 10-12-2008 at 10:41 AM by ChrisLehrer
Updated 10-12-2008 at 10:43 AM by ChrisLehrer (damn html code again!) -
hows the book coming?
I only just now stumbled on to your blog, and I'm very interested in how the endeavor is going? I keep trying to dabble in some food related writing but I've found it's a lot harder than it sounds. I like your ideas for your book so far, it is a book that needs to be written.
I used to practically demand that my line cooks/budding "chefs-to-be" go out and buy "on food and cooking" and the "Escoffier" if they were serious about cooking -but I soon realized that most young cooks are not ready to absorb that information just yet, they need to be "tempered" with a book that can prepare them for serious learning with solid technique. -its amazing how many line cooks really don't know the difference between searing and sauteing.
I hope you havn't given up on this blog yet, you may just be too busy actually writing, -but I look forward to your next post.
-and I like the title, it will look good in print. lots of OO's.Posted 05-06-2009 at 10:53 AM by buonaboy -
Keep your momentum, when reading your blog you manage to make the reader feel as if he is standing right in front of you , gazed , amazed , having a great rapport . This is a sign of a good teacher, a great writer.
Your layout is well planned as should be. Loved this,
" Of the last two, one of them, “Truffled Polenta with Mariscos” is very high-end, eclectic and original. While the other, “Joe’s Special,” is hash, San Francisco as all get out, and simple as can be. In the book, both will go to the saute station with Joe’s near the beginning and the polenta at the end. If you can cook a Joe’s you’re about 75% of the way to executing Truffled Polenta."
That is what a cook wants to know, that they can in fact make anything if they are taught right, to "Cook Food Good".
MerveilleuxPosted 10-01-2009 at 09:31 PM by petalsandcoco -
The title is good. Catchy too. One of my most used and favourite books is by an Australian chef, Gabrielle Gate, called "Good Food Fast". He has a note before each recipe, a personal input as to why he's put the recipe in, if he has "borrowed" it (with permission) and why he included it. A very good personal touch. His recipes are based pretty much on healthy eating, but the reason I bring it up is that he also has easy to follow recipes which he adds tips to tweaking, if one wants to.
There are too many recipe books out there which are categorised by soup, salad, fish, etc etc. Just plonking recipes, as good as the may be (or sometimes, not), on paper with a pretty picture. Pictures are good, but if the recipe is sloppy - forget it.
Your methodology is certainly very very good, and your knowledge of food and cooking is ...ok...simply amazing.
P.S. Glad the title is not Good Food Cooking...GFC...Global Financial CrisisPosted 11-02-2009 at 05:55 AM by DC Sunshine - Thanks for the notes everyone. You've given a lot of valuable input as well as some very pleasant compliments.
One of the valuable things about a blog is the way it archives comments like these. I'll be rereading them all because they're worth it.
Don't stop,
BDLPosted 11-03-2009 at 10:33 AM by boar_d_laze
Updated 11-03-2009 at 10:37 AM by boar_d_laze
