Chris Berry On The Net

For the most part, I am a self-taught cook, but I also had the unique opportunity to learn from a number of very talented people who worked for me as guest instructors at Foodies. One of those people was Nancy Maurelli, who is one of the most imaginative cooks I’ve ever met. What sets her apart from the crowd is her incredible knowledge of unusual ingredients and flavors, and her willingness to experiment with flavor combinations that would never occur to most people.

Nancy was always fond of telling students that there are no recipes, only ingredients. That is the single best piece of advice I could give to any aspiring cook. In our classes, we always encouraged students to focus on techniques and ingredients, and not to agonize over precise times, temperatures and measurements. The fact is, most good cooks don’t rely on measurements. Like Nancy, they draw on their understanding of ingredients and flavors.

In spite of our best efforts, most students insisted on knowing the precise amounts of every ingredient in every recipe we prepared, and they were often frustrated when we didn’t give an exact answer. If cooking were as simple as measuring ingredients precisely, we could all be great cooks. Unfortunately, there is usually no single right answer. When it comes to how much cumin goes into a pot of chili, or how much tarragon goes into a béarnaise sauce, the answer depends on how much you like cumin or tarragon. It also depends on how long your jar of cumin has been in the spice cabinet, or whether your tarragon was cut in the morning or evening. Watch a great cook in action sometime, and you will notice they sample everything as they work. The only way to know the right answer is by taste.

While some cooks do seem to have a natural gift, no one is born with the knowledge of flavors and ingredients that set great cooks apart from everyone else. The only way to develop that knowledge is by constantly seeking out new flavors, and trying everything available to you at least once. I’m not suggesting that you run out and spend a small fortune to sample luxury items like truffles, foie gras, or Kobe beef. Even if you can afford them, these are items that will rarely be called for in recipes geared to the home cook. Focus instead on ingredients that are readily available and within your budget. You don’t have to spend big money to achieve big flavor in your cooking.

Make it a point to buy one new item from the produce department every time you go to the grocery store. If you never tasted fresh Jicama, toss some julienned strips into your next salad or stir-fry. It has a wonderful fresh flavor similar to a water chestnut, and remains crisp when cooked. You’ll be amazed at the variety of new flavors that will be at your disposal after a little experimentation.

An added benefit of experimenting with new foods is that you may find something you thought you hated isn’t so bad after all. Like many of you, I grew up in an era when people thought canned vegetables were actually good and good for you. As a child, my only experience with asparagus was the slimy stuff in the silver can. My childhood recollections were so horrible that I refused to eat asparagus well into my adult years. When I finally got up the nerve to sample some fresh from the garden, it was a moment of epiphany.

As you expand your horizons, you will begin to develop a deeper understanding of how flavors work together. Everyone knows that certain flavors, like salmon & dill, just work naturally. Other combinations, however, are less obvious. Until you’ve tried blue cheese with pears, or strawberries with balsamic vinegar, it might never occur to you that these are among the tastiest pairings on the planet. Someone had to have the imagination and courage to try these things together for the first time, and in my mind, those folks are culinary heroes.

The moral of the story is to try new flavors, and don’t be afraid to get creative. If a new recipe doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. Feed it to the dog, and call Dominoes. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes, and don’t be afraid to get right back on the horse when you fall off. Even the most experienced cooks suffer the occasional disaster, but they wouldn’t be great cooks if they hadn’t been willing to take a few chances.

In addition to understanding ingredients and flavors, the other essential element to good cooking is technique. It is simply not possible to write a recipe that doesn’t require at least a minimal understanding of the language of cooking. Words like sauté, blanch, and poach have very specific meanings, and you must understand those meanings in order to achieve the desired result.

Adding precisely detailed instructions to a recipe only tends to make things worse. Telling someone to sauté mushrooms for exactly 2 minutes simply doesn’t make sense. Depending on how well your pan retains heat, or how much water your mushrooms contain, they might take anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes to cook properly. The point is that you have to know what a properly sautéed mushroom is supposed to look and smell and taste like. If you follow the instructions blindly and sauté for exactly 2 minutes, the result is likely to be disappointing.

One of the best ways to learn proper techniques is by reading cookbooks. I’m not talking about scanning for recipes that sound good, but finding a book that focuses on essential techniques and reading it cover to cover. One of my favorites is The New Making of a Cook by Madeline Kamman. At over 1200 pages, it requires a certain commitment to get through, but it’s well worth the effort.

The original Making of a Cook was published in 1971, and the new edition was completely re-written in 1997. Based on her four decades of experience as a cooking teacher, the book explains proper techniques for everything from whipping egg whites to poaching fish, in language that anyone can understand. What I especially like is that she goes beyond describing the required techniques, and explains how and why they work.

If you don’t have the energy for 1200 pages of technique, there is always TV. I admit, I am a recovering cooking show addict, and my addiction was one of my primary inspirations for opening a cooking school. I believe the Food Network is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the problem is that too many people are only watching. You can spend the rest of your life in front of the tube, and it’s not going to make you a better cook. That can only happen in the kitchen.

We practice everything else that we aspire to be good at, and cooking should be no different. No one becomes an accomplished athlete or musician without endless hours of practice, yet it never occurs to most folks that cooking also requires practice. I am fortunate that cooking comes rather naturally to me. Golf, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I’ve spent countless hours on the practice range, hitting untold thousands of balls. Improvement, when it comes at all, is measured in fractional increments over a period of years. In spite of the frustration, I keep going back for more. The feeling of satisfaction is simply indescribable when you finally get it right. Fortunately, cooking is a lot easier than golf, but the satisfaction when you get it right is just as great.

Next time you’re tempted to spend an afternoon at the driving range, consider spending that time in the kitchen instead. For the price of a large bucket of range balls, you could buy six dozen eggs. You might never master the high fading 3 wood that lands softly on the green from 250 yards, but you can learn to make a perfect omelet in an afternoon.

There is one other requirement for great cooking, and it is not something that can be taught. It is often said that dogs can smell fear. I don’t know about dogs, but I’m absolutely convinced that food can smell fear. Great cooking requires confidence. Any project that you approach with trepidation is likely to have an unhappy ending, and cooking is no different.

During my years as a teacher, I saw students everyday with an irrational fear of cooking. There is simply no reason in the world to be fearful in the kitchen. No one is going to die if your meal doesn’t turn out exactly as you envisioned it, and the worst thing that can happen is that you will spoil some ingredients. The nice thing about cooking is that virtually every essential technique can be mastered using inexpensive products. If you’re not comfortable roasting a $90.00 tenderloin of beef, practice on a $15.00 pork loin instead. As your mastery of the basic techniques improves, so will your confidence level. Once you’ve got it all figured out, your newfound confidence may just help on the golf course too.