THE CHRONICLER OF THE KITCHEN September 2009
Mike Campbell
THE MAIN INGREDIENT
Walk into any professional kitchen before dinner service and you are likely to encounter a multitude of sights and sounds. There will be people talking but the noise level is not loud. You hear a knife repeatedly strike a cutting board and wonder how they work so fast without cutting themselves, vegetables sizzle as they hit a hot pan, and dishes clang as they are being cleaned. Aroma is everywhere; it comes from unseen meats hiding inside ovens, fresh herbs being chopped, vegetables being peeled, and steam slowly rising towards the exhaust fans from large cauldrons bubbling on stovetops.
But have you ever wondered what is the main ingredient present in every kitchen that makes them run? It’s not the building, electricity, management, Chef, farmer, cook, or dishwasher. Heat, steam, sweat, and grease are everywhere, but these are just a sideshow. No, the fuel that powers every kitchen is EGO!
Ego envelops every kitchen like a mushroom cloud!
This is the most important thing to know about any professional kitchen! Every cook has an ego, and it is not small. Some are loud and demonstrative and others are shielded behind a starched white jacket. But do not be fooled, ego is everywhere.
From the Master Chef to the lowliest apprentice, they know the best way to cook anything. It is common to hear a cook say, “that’s not how I make it”. Cooks will grudgingly admit someone else’s skill in preparing a dish but theirs is always better.
Who would order a filet well done? I’m not ruining a good piece of meat and turning it into shoe leather! That’s not how I cook my food! This is heard over and over again in any good kitchen. It is the classic and endless debate.
Who are you cooking for? Are you trying to make the customer happy or the Chef? Both sides can mount a formidable defense for their position. This debate will rage on forever, and ego is in every sentence. Can the owner and “his business” trump the Chef and “his food”?
Ego will even manifest itself in how the cooks interact with their co-workers. Many cooks have been trained “on the job”. It is not uncommon for someone to start washing dishes and then progress through the different stations of a kitchen.
In recent years, culinary schools have produced an abundance of graduates. These graduates, and their diploma’s, cook side by side with many an ex-dishwasher. It is not uncommon for ego to rear its ugly head when these two groups interact.
But there is also tension amongst the culinary school graduates. There is one school that is generally acknowledged as the best in The United States. I shall call it “The Alphabet School”. Most “Alphabet School” grads let it be known that they were taught at “The Alphabet School”, and therefore they know what is best. What is unspoken is the cause of tension. You did not attend “The Alphabet School” and therefore are beneath me.
This feeling is sometimes apparent in what an “Alphabet School” grad must cook. At one place, the cooks prepared meals for the dining room and the bar. The countenance of one “Alphabet School” grad would grow dark every time he had to cook a hamburger or a hot dog. He would grumble that he didn’t go to “The Alphabet School” to cook this crap!
Of course, his misery entertained “the rude and scoffing multitude” of non “Alphabet” staff. And when an “Alphabet School” grad ‘s performance was found to be less than stellar, it was maliciously thrown in the face of every other “Alphabet School” grad that could be found.
This air of superiority went so far as to the proper name of the employee meal. The new chef was an “Alphabet School” man and brought along a few of his boys. Every time a cook would mention “staff meal”, an “Alphabet School” grad would condescendingly say it’s “family meal”. You would think that our time could be better spent.
Ego will also make one try new things, new ingredients, or new combinations of old ingredients. It can set your mind and toque ablaze. It can drive you to create. It may push you to make your “signature dish”. Ego is at the heart of the oft-repeated statement, “just call me the new Escoffier”.
Ego will make you practice until the dish “is perfect”. You are proud to say, “that’s my dish”.
Pride and determination go hand in hand with ego. It is what makes a kitchen rise above the pedestrian bill of fare. It is what makes a cook strut around the kitchen after he has received a compliment. After all, most cooks want others to tell them how good they are! We love to see the satisfaction on faces as they eat our food.
I owe, I owe, its off to work I go.
Into THE CAULDRON!
Is tuisce deoch na sceal
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