Cook Before You Leap?
A Culinary Jump to an Artistically Tasty Dish
O
ne of my favorite cooking idioms is “you eat first with your
eyes first” and I always want my food to be as beautiful as
it is delectable. My background is in culinary education at Metro’s
Institute for the Culinary Arts and my favorite class ever was a sauce
class with a large tome of several hundred pages devoted almost
exclusively to hundreds of variations derived from the five classical
French mother sauces. In other words, somewhat technical stuff.
My friend Dave, on the other hand, is always pushing the
envelope in everything he does; he lives life on the edge and is often
taking a leap of faith trusting there will be a place to land. This
philosophy extends to his cooking style as well. Dave’s education is
as an art major, his culinary schooling was a question of ‘here and
there’ as he waited tables at some wonderful restaurants, quizzing
the chefs between delivering courses to his diners.
“Not all jumps turn out so well, but
this one ended with a safe landing
and a sublimely tasty recipe.”
I often get a call from Florida as he excitedly starts telling me
about a new dish he is inventing to try out on his family. As I listen
I’m thinking “nooooo, you can’t do that, it’s not a proper culinary
technique, it’ll never work.” But, as often as not, as he continues to
describe the dish, it not only works, but is often intuitively brilliant,
often to my surprise. He tends to jump first and ask questions later,
while I prefer the tried and