Then I happened to catch a show called "Iron Chef", which you've probably heard about. Besides being fascinating in its own right, I was really amazed with how the chefs could take any random ingredient and prepare it without a recipe. I was also fascinated with the techniques, tools and knowledge they possessed. As I watched more of the show, I became more interested in cooking, but assumed that you'd have to have a lot of training and field practice to pull off those sorts of moves.
On the same channel I started to watch one of Jaime Oliver's shows. He presented food that wasn't carefully measured or accurately timed. He talked about tasting the food, about watching for this sign or that to know when it was ready. Although it should have always been obvious, I had never really devoted much thought to cooking, feeling that it was just someone else's domain and not mine. But here were practical, useful tips to cook things that looked far better than what I'd been eating or ever attempting to make.
Add now to this Alton Brown's "Good Eats", which dove into the science of cooking. He didn't just explain recipes, he explained techniques and the reasoning behind things.
All of this finally got me to cook. I've always been a technique freak, so learning to use a knife properly was fun. Tearing through Sur La Table to stock my meager kitchen with new pots and pans and gadgets was also no great battle. I couldn't cook very well (and still don't) but suddenly it was something attainable and interesting.
Although I love to cook, I wasn't particularly fond of shopping for ingredients, writing lists, or cleaning up. Luckily for me, my wife had great knowledge of how to pick the best ingredients and she slowly taught me what a good orange looks and feels like, or when a tomato is actually ripe. Over time, she infected me with the same picky eye when strolling the aisles.
There's so much to learn, but what other hobby can you not only sustain yourself with, but in good fashion as well?
Well said. Cooking something always seemed so impossible. A lot of this was down to early cookbooks. They didn't give any information on how to tell when things were cooked properly, or signs to look out for during the cooking process.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Jamie and Alton have really changed this, both in completely different ways.
Jamie has managed to inject a huge amount of enthusiasm into cooking, and has made the whole thing cool again. He gets a lot of trash thrown at him from other chefs (cough.. Bourdain.. cough), but he has done more to get people off their arses and into the kitchen than anyone.
Alton is a technique freak, and really helps you become a better cook. If you have an understanding as to why something is happening, it is not only far more interesting, but it gives a base for you to adapt from.
Iron Chef is fun, but the sudden camera changes can make you pukey.