When is letting go, not letting go?

When is letting go, not letting go?

As a cook, I was lucky enough to have a chef that was a mentor in life as well in the kitchen.  Chef David Lawson, when I was at Aubergine in Hillsdale, NY gave me some invaluable piece of advice.  At the time he was talking about his children, saying that basically from the day they are born you need to start to let go.  Of course this is to be a long gradual course, but I have been able to relate this lesson to many facets of life including, the development of how I manage, not only my kitchens organization and direct reports, but cooking methods and style as well; such as using an older method of brining and combing that with the immersion circulator.  Not that the immersion circulator is cutting edge, but having budget issues along with a little apprehension embracing new methods.

In food and cooking there is the case for keeping controls in place to ensure the highest quality product.    Whether it is cooking a scallop or shrimp ala minute or cooking individual chicken breasts or beef to make sure the chicken stays moist or to control the cooking temperature of the beef.  Trying to adhere to principle all the time may actually be detrimental, if the end goal is successful execution.

In cooking you sometimes need to abandon the perceived “right” way of cooking to make sure that every person’s expectations are exceeded.  Not all cooks agree on how to maintain controls over food to ensure the sweetest victory.  Letting go of the old and embracing new methods may actually give you more control.  It doesn’t matter which school of thought you believe in, you cannot argue with success in either situation.  Therefore the skills of those who are able to meet that success with large functions in the banquet section of a hotel are not subpar to those in who cook in the fine dining restaurant of the same hotel.

I am not speaking or limiting this to hotels, but both function and restaurant cooking are specialties that all chefs should learn to embrace and learn how to do if they haven’t already.  Cooking a scallop dish as an appetizer perfectly on a four top, multiple times during the course of an evening is great.  On equal, knowing how to incorporate first principles of cooking to cook a filet of beef for 600 to a perfect medium rare served at once is triumphant.

Chef David W Baker                          

God Bless the USA!

                        Join the Team!