**Trunk ** - I realise what the thread was about - that’s why I answered the OP’s question in the first part of my post. I admit I went off on a tangent, but at least I answered the question before doing so.
As for timing, there’s a world of difference between cooking for a family at home and cooking for a restaurant full of demanding and finicky customers while working in the steaming, chaotic hell of a fast-paced modern commercial kitchen. How hard is that, you ask? Pretty damn hard. Just ask any guy at any sautee station at any resonably successful restaurant and they’ll tell you. The kind of coordination required to slam out 100, 200, 300 or even 400 meals a night to a consistently high standard and at the right time and at the right temperature is a specialised skill. If it was that easy, anybody could do it. Try reading *Kitchen Confidential * by Anthony Bourdain sometime for an idea of the sheer dedication required to really make it as a chef.
As for what food “should” be, I admit that I have no right to tell anyone what food should be, I just have a bit of a bug up my ass about Blumenthal’s approach because I really believe people should be encouraged to enjoy their kitchens, not scared away from them.
And by way of apology for my total hijack, here are a few more of my nominations for simple foods that only the best can really master:
Really Good Bread
Perfect Scrambled Eggs
Handmade Fresh Pasta
Perfect Puff Pastry
I think all of these are relatively easy to do relatively well, but deceptively difficult to do perfectly. (try saying that three times fast! )
Trunk, I was going by the title of the thread more than the OP when I brought up the timing issue, won’t happen again, endless apologies. I didn’t realize you were the sherrif of this thread.
Sapo, mentioned a good chef, not doofuses, the reason I broached the topic of timing is that I am a chef, not a great one but, I think, a good one. So what if someone can cook green bean casarole and keep it warm for a hour or two, have you tried that with an omlette? It’s a simple dish, yet Not at all the same 2 hours after it’s cooked.
Anyway, in the spirit of the OP, a mark of a good chef involving a simple food: being able to cook pasta to that al dente’ state of perfection everytime.
The mark of a good chef is when you start to dread going out because there’s a better than even chance you’ll be throwing your money away on garbage, and spend the next two days pissed off that you didn’t call the chef out of his kitchen and offer him a free lesson on the seasoning of the food.
I only eat out now for social reasons, or for good steak, good seafood or ethnic cuisines that I can’t do myself. Most every other time I find myself regretting that I didn’t just do it myself at home. Other aspects such as a good sense of timing, a sensitive palate and studied technique are implicit in this definition, so it’s the one that works for me.
I would add, “working with chilis and ‘hot’ spices.” There’s a huge difference between earwax-melting nuclear hot and adding some chili flavor to heat up the dish a bit. (heat with spice) I learned from Harold McGee’s book (On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of Cooking, or something like that) that capsaisin (spelling dubious) does not register to the tastebuds as one of the four flavors: sweet, savory, sour, salty. It registers in the brain as pain, which then causes the brain to flood itself with endorphins, which is why people will eat hot, spicy dishes until tears stream down their faces, unable to bring themselves to stop. Chilis are actually addictive. My bf claims that I possess excellent control with chilis and manage to make my dishes hot, spicy and tasty, without burning his taste buds off or causing him to enroll in a methadone program. Of course, some people consider ketchup to be “hot and spicy” (yes, I’ve heard this), so there’s no accounting for taste… in terms of the line between “earwax-melting” and “yummy good spicy.”
I think the mark of a good chef is to hit that line somewhere in the middle so that the food is hot enough for the chili lovers, but tolerable and still tasty to the wimps. YMMV.
Gigi, you beat me to it! I’ve always thought pie crust was the real hallmark of a baker because it’s part ‘touch’ and a bigger part of hard won skill. My dad decided he really loved a good crust so he dedicated himself (and prolly a year) to perfecting it. It was a work of art!
Me? I am a baker-type and I can manage croissants, any sort of bread or cake but cannot manage a pie crust. So I revere the Pie Crust Makers!
aye aye! for pasta. Bad pasta is one of those things that make you think “life is too short for me to be eating this”
Corn on the cob is another of those deceptively simple dishes but the quality of the ingredient makes so much of a difference that it might outdo the chef’s input.
)
Of course, some people consider ketchup to be “hot and spicy” (yes, I’ve heard this), so there’s no accounting for taste… in terms of the line between “earwax-melting” and “yummy good spicy.”