Good article

Thanks to my pal James for this article.

I often read Francois Simon's blog, (he translates it in English too, if you're interested) and find his undercover videos quite funny. Though he's not the only one doing such things (another favorite blog of mine, tastingmenu, has a few videos of their own). I like that he challenges the fine dining establishment in France, especially the ludicrous prices of Alain Ducasse's restaurants. If he's a bit too acerbic, he's also extremely entertaining.

However, his failure to cook successfully for a few nights in a restaurant, as described in the article, is revelatory. There are plenty of home cooks (even good home cooks) who imagine they might be the next undiscovered Daniel Boulud. Often, I wonder if those cooks forget that we are far more forgiving of our own creations, and far less forgiving of the food in expensive restaurants, which makes sense. However, it does cloud judgment if trying to compare one's food to restaurant food. I used to think my food was the bomb before I worked in restaurants. What I learned, aside from how little I actually knew, was that the structure of restaurants isn't really replicable at home, no matter how hard one tries. This is why I get annoyed when Rachael Ray makes three course meals for each of her thirty-minute meals. Home cooking gets a lot more from simple dishes that require few components, I think. (Of course, you can make exquisite food in a home kitchen, but it's hard with the time constraints of a real job and the cost of ingredients).

When I was about to head to law school and changed my mind to go work in restaurant kitchens, my parents tried to steer me away from that choice by mentioning a lawyer in Montreal who they knew who is a self-described 'home chef' and has been cooking on the line at a modest bistro once a week (trying to get me to temper my passion). The Montreal Gazette had an article about him (which I sadly can't find right now) and his restaurant exploits, and it was clear that, aside from the rigors of working on the line, he had begun to rethink his skills. The restaurant had allowed him to put one dish on the menu, and he chose his rendition of beef wellington. He said that once he tasted it in juxtaposition with the restaurant's other dishes, he felt quite humbled.

Francois Simon once said he could cook a chicken 200 ways. Does that mean he could cook a chicken well 200 ways every time? To paraphrase Thomas Keller, professional cooking is about repetition. Only by repeating recipes, knife skills, techniques and developing one's palate through repetition can one get to the level of restaurant food. Of course, I'm not saying I couldn't make food better than an Olive Garden...I have to keep the comparisons relevant. However, even in my best efforts at fancy home-cooked meals, I can't replicate the food I make in restaurant kitchens. I guess that's why my favorite food critics are the ones who limit their roles to tasting and evaluating food, like Frank Bruni of the Times. I also like Michael Ruhlman's approach to home cooking: he went through culinary education at the CIA, worked in restaurant kitchens, has been a co-author on the French Laundry and Alinea cookbooks, and yet keeps his home cooking to a minimalist best.

I don't know what inspired this little post, but it's probably because I've found myself recently losing many of the touches I had developed in kitchens. I completely overcooked a steak the other day as I was distracted by something else. I also managed to partially screw up a braise (don't ask...). It's only been a few months since I last set foot in a restaurant kitchen, but the daily routine of mincing shallots, the reflexes of keeping different pots and pans working at the same time, the things that become almost like muscle memory and let you focus on the intangibles have left me a bit, and it's taken me by surprise. I guess these are the things that still make restaurant cooking valuable, and that we should remember before saying "I could do this at home." Cooking at home, we're a lot more forgiving.

More posts from France tomorrow.