Having just finished up a four-month culinary course, I thought I'd share some of the best kernels of knowledge I've acquired before I forget them myself.
What follows is ten different concepts, tricks or just plain sense that culinary school has taught me so far:
Number Ten: Mis en place. For chefs, this means having an organized kitchen after five hours of non-stop action. For lay people this means finally doing that major cleaning and overhaul of your kitchen's utensils, spices and food so that you know where everything is. The desired results are the same. When a culinary emergency arises, say a pie needs to come out of the oven now!, you're not frantically opening up drawers looking for the one with the oven mitt in it. It's all about making cooking go smoothly.
Number Nine: Ignore meat thermometers. There are better ways to
accurately judge the doneness of meat, without resorting to the amateur
way of cutting into it or trying to use a thermometer. My
teacher at one point said to throw out your meat thermometers because you'll only ruin the meat by using them.
It's all about the touch and how much give
a steak or a chicken has when you touch it. Next time you're grilling,
try it -- you'll notice the meat is firm and doesn't have much give when
done.
Number Eight: Don't be intimidated by fancy names. Almost
everything in cooking has an obscenely fancy title. Just because a recipe calls for carrots bâtonnet
doesn't mean it takes years of training to make. All it means is the
carrots are cut up into sticks like the ones you used to carry in your
school lunches.
Also, don't be impressed with a restaurant just because
it has thousands of French terms on the menu. Beurre just means butter,
fromage just means cheese and if you ever see Saucisse de Francfort on a menu you'll know the place is really trying to pull the wool over your head: that's French for a hot dog.
Number Seven: Buy a knife sharpner or a steel and learn how to use it. You
can have all the kitchen gadgets in the world but if your knife is
dull, cooking is going to be a pain in the arse. It takes less than a
minute for even a beginner to really put a nice edge on a semi-sharp
blade and it will save half an hour and a lot of muscle strength over
the course of prepping for a meal. Also, a real chef can nearly do every single task using only a sharp chef's knife. If you're going to have one knife in the kitchen make it a chef's knife.
Number Six: Salt and pepper are your frenemies. No matter if you're
making pasta or chicken or even a dessert, always taste it and always add salt to bring out the flavor. Doesn't mean you should add a ton of salt, but there should be some. Salt is best used frequently but sparingly. You can add more salt to a dish but you can't take the salt out.
As for pepper, make sure you know the strength of the one you're using. A fine-grade pepper will give the same amount of kick to a food even if it looks to be only half the amount of a medium-grade pepper. Fresh pepper is more potent than pepper that's been on a shelf for a year.
Never be afraid to ask for salt and pepper at a restaurant and don't be offended if someone asks for it at your restaurant. Everybody's taste are different and restaurants that don't have shakers on the tables are just kidding themselves that they are pleasing everyone.
Number Five: Ratios. It's worth committing these to memory: one
pound pasta for one gallon of water. 2-1 ratio of water to rice or 3-1
ratio for brown rice. 3-1 ratio of olive oil to vinegar to make a classic vinaigrette dressing. 1-1 ratio of flour to butter in a classic roux
with 8 ounces of each for a gallon of water. Also a 4-1 mixture of
vegetable oil to olive oil is virtually identical in taste to olive oil
and much cheaper.
Number Four: Always. Unless a recipe specifically calls for salted butter,
always use unsalted butter. Always use chicken base with chicken not salt as the
first ingredient. Always put the presentation side of meat first on the
grill (except for fish). Always put a hotel pan underneath your cutting
board to catch liquid if you're cutting something moist. Always cook
vegetables al dente. Always peel asparagus to make sure it cooks
properly.
Number Three: Never. Never put live oysters in tap water, the chlorine will kill them. Never eat any shellfish in which the shell is open before it's cooked. Never place an alkaline and green vegetables together. Never store sugar and salt right next to each other. Never test whether a fryer is hot by spitting into it.
Number Two: Be an expert on cooking methods above all else. When people ask me what area of cooking I've most improved in because of culinary school, I don't say knife skills or recipes or proper sauce making. Instead I tell them that it's given me the confidence to look at a piece of meat and know whether braising, sauteing, frying or some other method will be best to cook it.
The way you cook something is just as important as the food itself and unfortunately there are no hard or fast rules. Take something like a chicken breast. Depending on the size, age and desired taste of the breast, it requires different ways of cooking. The first step to really master cooking is learning the ins and outs of moist heat and dry heat.
Number One: Don't pay too much for culinary school! No matter what your
degree says, if you're new to the industry, you're going to start out on
the bottom rung at a restaurant, making bottom rung prices. My class at
Johnson County Community College was less than $200 and the entire
two-year chef accreditation program at JCCC costs a fraction of what
one semester would cost at The Culinary Institute of America or The
French Culinary Institute. (The FCI recently cut the price of its nine-month-course price by $5,000 but it's still $29,000 a year.)
If you're interested in cooking, don't spend money on classes to decide whether to make it your career -- get experience. I'd rather have a
week doing dishes at a four-star restaurant on my resume than most culinary degrees. The real money doesn't come until you start your own restaurant and every restaurateur I've ever talked to says there's no class or experience that can prepare you for owning
your own restaurant -- except to do it.
— Owen Morris
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I really liked your article!Im a sophmore studying Culinary arts in the Academy of Irving in Texas! while I was reading your article I came across words we have learned in our class like mis en place but we learned all these strange methods like creaming and muffin method. one day while we were cooking he told us that we should "Never trust our ovens" and that we should always check the food constently. I understand how you said that we shouldent pay alot of money for culinary schools but I think if a person really wants to go there then they should follow what they believe. I might be a teenager still but im planing on moving out of Highschool and going to Le Cordon bleu or maybe the Culinary institute of America I want to learn everything about Culinary Arts so I can be a Great chef.
Good points Frank! I agree with you on them but I think we're getting into upper culinary levels. I just wanted people to know they don't need fourteen fancy knives to start cooking, really only one and maybe two. Oh and yes, I meant a hotel pan but I don't think most people have hotel pans at home and thus tried to compensate with the smaller equipment.
Owen, I agree with most of what you say here with a couple of exceptions. Number one, a real chef should know and understand that not every job can be done with just a single knife, i.e a chef's knife. That's the reason they also make paring knives, boning knives, breads knives, etc. When I was in culinary school,(Yes I went & paid a pretty penny too.) I had an instructor who was, oh, what's the word, arrogant enough to think he could break down some ducks with his trusty chef's knife and ended up slicing his finger pretty good. I work with a real arrogant bastard sous chef who uses just a chef's knife (a really crappy Henkel's) to do everything. Yet, his knife skills SUCK! He seems to think that because our chef uses his chef's knife for almost everythin he can as well. If you were to watch him clean racks of lamb or clean & portion the fish, you would undertstan why I say he gives new meaning to the word "butchering." It's no wonder that when we do a special with the lamb, the chef will usually ask me (the Pastry chef) to clean the racks! Hmmm, interesting don't you think?
Now second thing is you should buy a steel and a sharpener as the steel is used for honing the edge while the sharpener is used to sharpen it, especially if you use one of those crappy henkel's or wustof knives.
The last thing is do you mean using a sheet pan under the cutting board? It would seem that a hotel pan would be too small to properly fit under the cutting board.
The thing I agree with the most is cooking the veg to al dente, my chef insists on ccoking them almost to mush! We're not cooking for the geriatrics
Well, that's my two cents.
Great blog, by the way.
As an enthusiastic home cook who attends every cooking class (not demos) he can, I have learned the vital importance of 'mis en place', especially when you are trying to put together a big meal. To me it means separating, as far as possible, the task of preparation from that of cooking, so that you can give your full attention to both. Also, getting every ingredient for a dish measured and prepared well ahead of time, and memorizing the method, so that you can be interrupted (as you surely will be), without losing your place.
One good reason to have a thermometer at all times is that the health inspector requires it. Also, can you really tell if a super thick steak or roast is done to the correct temp by pressing on it?
I agree Chris that I don't know everything but from just the four months of class (and the four months of culinary classes before that and the eight years in kitchens before that) I do know more than 98 percent of the population and it's that 98 percent I write for, not the other two percent.
As for that other two percent, I've met chefs that are amazingly skilled and love helping out lay folk or less experienced chefs and I've met amazingly skilled chefs who believe they're god's gift to cooking and they don't owe anyone jack squat. I hope you're in the former category and I hope if you do open your own restaurant you make it as fucking awesome as you can, people and their KC palates can surprise you with what they want.
I'm not gonna nitpick at every erroneous statement in this article (or series of articles). Owen, i'm very pleased that you decided to further your knowledge by enrolling in some culinary classes. I, however must point out that you still, after these four months of school, are the equivalent of a culinary newborn. In a nut shell... you still dont know squat. Nothing personal... just the way of things. Even a student who graduates the JuCo program (hell, ANY program, even CIA) is not yet a chef, and, mostlikely, has no business thinking that they could run a restaurant. It takes years and years of Serious dedication and hard work to become a good chef. Not great... good. Too many "chefs" are put into positions they are not truly ready for, especially in KC, and that is why we have so many crap restaurants. Lucky for those underachieving cooks, the KC palate is still pretty weak.
Sign up for the free 30 day trial Owen. Check out the cooking school tab then go back to JCCC and be the rock star you were born to be!
www.rouxbe.com
I've enjoyed this series of posts so much."Never test whether a fryer is hot by spitting into it." Ok, now that's funny! :-)
I am sticking with my meat thermometer where clients are concerned though.
Thanks for the great post Owen. Happy Holidays!
Owen,
People pay a lot more than 30k to become teachers etc. and many other professions that dont make more than chefs. You also have to consider the fact that a culinary program that takes 6 or 9 months puts a person more than 3 years faster than someone getting an undergrad degree. When you number crunch, I think you'd be surprised at how economically efficient it is to go to a good culinary school.
As for Bourdain, he has had high level jobs but his prominence is really from his writing. He hasnt stayed in a single kitchen for years. He is literary god to me but in reading his works, he hasnt cooked anything which has influenced me but he has from his works.
CA Chef
I am sorry, but a good chefs fingers are better than any thermometer. I dont know what kitchen you are in, but in my experience, oven temp gauges suck and thermometers suck. Also, even the best gauge is subject to the spot in which it is inserted to the meat. If the spot is wrong, its all screwed up. And please, stop poppin holes in my strip steak!!!
"There are better ways to accurately judge the doneness of meat, without resorting to the amateur way of cutting into it or trying to use a thermometer."
There is actually no better way to find out the "doneness" (ie. temperature) of a cut of meat than using a calibrated thermometer. Your touch/feel method is simply too subjective. Call me an amateur, but I won't risk my business by getting my customers sick on undercooked food.
I can also think of many, many occasions where you would not want to automatically salt a dish after it's been cooked.
Ton Ton, you may be right for New York restaurants but anywhere else I can't see justifying the 30,000 per semester price tag. Even Bourdain, who was an executive chef in NYC for a number of years, said he never hit 100,000 in salary. Culinary school is very pricey for the return on money but then again, I wish someone had told me the same thing about journalism school.
"I'd rather have a week doing dishes at a four-star restaurant on my resume than most culinary degrees."
If you go to FCI you are quite often being taught by chefs who have run 4 star restaurants, and chefs who have taught the more recent crop of chefs running 4 star restaurants. There is a reason the Bobby Flays, Wylie Dufresnes, Donatella Arpaias, Marcus Samuelssons and David Changs come out of FCI - they get part of their classical training from the Jacques Pepins and Andre Soltners and their modern training from chefs like Dave Arnold and Nils Noren.
Plus studying the culinary arts in NYC is like studying candy in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory - it just doesnt get any better.
You seem to have taken a great deal from your culinary studies, and I wish you the best, but I think you are woefully mistaken in your assessment of what an institute like the FCI, provides.
Can you tell I went there?
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