The Making of a Chef

July 29, 2008

I always had assumed that my first book review on The New Cook would be a cookbook. It makes sense, right? Because I am just starting to cook, however, and therefore haven’t delved deeply into the few cookbooks I own, I thus far have held off on any cookbook reviews.

Since I began blogging, though, I have seen Michael Ruhlman’s books mentioned a few times.  Ruhlman, a writer, has written The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef, which usually are talked about with great praise. A few weeks ago I requested both from the library, and I just finished reading The Making of a Chef last night.

I loved it. It was a fun, enjoyable, and interesting read. Michael Ruhlman, a journalist by trade, asked the Culinary Institute of America if he could attend, participate, and observe different parts of their curriculum in order to see how they teach students to cook. He starts off the book as a student in the CIA’s six week ‘Skills’ classes, learning the basics of cooking. He then moves around to the various kitchens (fish, bread, forcemeat, etc.) observing and participating, before winding up in two of the CIA’s restaurants, both serving and cooking.

My favorite part about the book was his characterizations of the various instructors/chefs. Each one really comes alive in the book. To focus a bit more on cooking, though, I want to discuss some of the observations and thoughts I had while reading it.

Fundamentals

Throughout the book in their conversations with Ruhlman, multiple chefs stressed the importance of fundamentals in cooking. They explained that everything came back to the fundamentals and performing these fundamentals perfectly is what makes a great cook. Ruhlman explained that what made a chef really great was when the fundamentals became so second nature that the green beans are cooked perfectly every time, or the soup is seasoned just right. It isn’t crazy, creative dishes using liquid nitrogen that make a great chef, but rather his or her attention to and perfection of the fundamentals.

I found this stress on fundamentals surprising, but at the same time logical. It doesn’t matter how creative your dish is if the sauce breaks or the french fries are overcooked. By doing my Cooking 101 series, I hope to learn these fundamentals.

Tasting

The second aspect that was stressed, mainly from a memorable scene with Chef Ron DeSantis, is the importance of tasting your food. This is vital to getting it seasoned correctly, tasting good, and preventing bad food from getting served. It is also one area that I want to improve on. I don’t generally taste my food much while cooking because I don’t know when something is properly seasoned or cooked just right. I have trouble telling the good from the not-so-good.  But after reading this, I think the only way to learn is to start tasting my food all the time as it cooks. Then I can see how the taste changes as I alter things and learn what proper seasoning is.

Learning to Cook from Books

I stressed in a previous post that I most cookbooks are not good for learning to cook. I was looking for a textbook on teaching cooking in a logical way. Thankfully, I actually found one (Cooking 101). On the downside, I’ve realized a more general flaw in learning to cook from any book, even the kind I was looking for. It is difficult to tell when things are right. Going back to the green bean example, I could be boiling a pot and taste one every 30 seconds, but how can I know when it is just right? The most effective way must be having someone next to you tasting too, then when he or she says, “That’s a perfectly cooked green bean,” I could taste it and know.

Now, before you jump on me, I realize that when cooking at home for yourself, family and friends, ‘done’ is how you like it! I know I should eat my green beans the way I like them, not the way the CIA tells me to. But still, at least personally, I would like to know what that “objective” “right” is, so at least if I am deviating I will do it on purpose.

Anyway, I realized that there is much about learning to cook that is difficult to convey through the written word. (Ah, the irony! Proclaiming the written word is insufficient for teaching one how to cook while doing that very thing myself!)

Professional vs. Home Cooking

The last observation I took from the book is how different it is to cook at home versus cooking professionally (especially at a place like the CIA). If I want to make veal stock I’ll need to hunt around to find veal bones at a grocery store, while a restaurant or school will have them in bulk, since that’s the way they cook. Reconciling whether its worth it to make your own stock, or bake your own bread, or even make your own tomato sauce is a difficult task for the home cook when juggling time, money, and space constraints. I haven’t had much experience with these tradeoffs and they are something that I intend to explore in the future.

Summary

Overall, The Making of a Chef is a fun and interesting read. I highly recommend that you pick it up and give it a shot if you’ve never read it before.

Has anyone read it? Any thoughts?

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