I’ve read the French Laundry cookbook, and I have actually made the cornets about 5 or 6 times (both with Ahi and with salmon) depending on what looked good that day. The cornet molds are hard to find, but they are available as mentioned in the book (from the CIA bookstore).

I wouldn’t call the recipes fussy at all, complex, y perhaps, challenging for the home cook who might not have easy access to all the ingredients, tools and such, perhaps.

To me, fussy implies _unnecessarily_ complex preparation not needed to achieve the desired result, and the recipes in the French Laundry cookbook have an honesty about them —challenging, yes, but they are the work of a talented artist in the field who added the complexity layer by layer to get the result.

I would incidentally love to see an cookbook featuring Keller’s Ad Hoc restaurant’s greatest hits (including the fried chicken, which is amazing).

Kind regards.

I know what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s the same thing I was trying to get at…for me it’s not so much about comprehension and technical skill (a lot of people commenting on here could probably give us a run for our money), it’s about doing it day in and day out for rooms full of people we don’t know or love and are not obligated to nurture and STILL loving the act of cooking itself – fast and hot and precise and delicious.It’s about knowing that we could have made another choice for work that would have paid better or given us more time with family, but that we would have been unfulfilled, hating to go to work each 9-5, air-conditioned office day. It’s about belonging to a weird sort of cult that celebrates Mothers Day on Monday and speaks a twisted three language slang. It’s about digging “Kitchen Confidential” because it’s true, not because it’s shocking or outrageous.It’s about sitting through “Ratatouille” with my nine year old and having her whisper in my ear “Daddy, did you notice that we’re the only ones laughing at the REALLY funny parts?”

It’s about identifying yourself as a cook, without qualifying it, and having your brother and sister cooks smile slyly, knowing the rest of the world doesn’t understand what you mean.

OK – this time I mean it….this thread is dead.

Chef P – what ever happened to Scooby?

SIMSBURY, Conn. – Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside.

Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the chicken Friday morning. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off. (http://tinyurl.com/5ny5yh)

Anytime I see a recipe that calls for a pipe bomb or any type of weapon to be added, I walk away. I don’t know, maybe I’m not a real cook,
but I’d rather order in a pizza than have to wear percussion protection gear over my chef’s whites.

Much of the dialog is prompted by the modern mindset. The fast-food theory on life. Many haven’t been taught in their own homes of the need and joy to cook. Putting time and effort into food preparation; reading a cookbook and it’s complications is not only fussy but for many, purposeless. Being a serious cook could result in a big block on the daytimer. If it isn’t done in 30 minutes it’s too much out of my life.

Rachel Ray has built an empire on that notion. She still calls herself a “cook”.

Professionals have cultivated their passion and made it their life’s work. That’s why some write cookbooks. Not only to share the passion but in some cases just show off. The rest of us just want to feed ourselves or those we love. And sometimes we just want to be better at why we do it. That’s why we buy cookbooks for the same reasons stated above.

The need/desire to feed ones family was instilled in me by the women in my family. My grandmother, mother. Great cooks. It was their pride in making the BEST meal at home. Whether the ingredients were simple, cheap or Sunday best. There was no discussion on technique, hell most of the time there wasn’t even a recipe. Many of them went to the grave with my grandmother. There was however the right way to do things and you did it because that was the way it was done.

As I have sought to increase my knowledge of cooking – my personal passion, I find that many of the basic techniques were the ones taught in my mother’s kitchen.

Never knew we were all so smart.

Whether it is the challenge of a new recipe technique or food of a different culture, it always comes back to the basics. (Shameless unpaid plug for Michael’s book.)

Many of today’s chefs – the ones with the fussy books (I just love that word!) will tell you that they found their interest by spending time with a family member in the kitchen.

I’m so glad to see such spirited conversation by persons who may not have much history with cooking, finding their way into the kitchen and making it personal. That is the point.

As home cooks we just want to do something a little better. Push the boundary for ourselves and maybe for those will eat it.

Example: This past weekend was a chili cook-off where I live. My approach had to start several days in advance. I had to research winning recipes from CASI and other ‘real’ chili masters. Comparing similar styles and ingredience lists. Then I had to consult my local butcher and spice merchant. Very early on the morning of the event, cooking began.

Technique was guided by all who cooked chili before me. Results were determined by the ‘right’ combination of spice and meat.

Anyway, long story short- the chili was a masterpiece! Best I ever made. WORTH THE EFFORT.

Now the other view… my spouse claimed, after tasting it, that her crock pot, canned bean and chop meat concoction was just as good. You see, in her opinion Chili was not worth the effort regardless of the outcome. The food was too lowly to justify such effort (and expense).

So are there different classes of food worthy of the effort… cooking an egg is not cooking unless you fuss over it with sauce or technique? Is chili so low on the pecking order that a real chef won’t debase themselves making it… or if anybody can ‘cook it’ is it held to distain for not being ‘hard’ to make?

I say nuts to those that are repulsed by Fuss. Its the road traveled that makes the journey worth taking. Taking a short-cut is acceptable (using commercial prepared chili powder would have been easier than making my own) but to me, not as enjoyable.

I think Pardus pretty well wrapped it up with his last comment – he would be glad to cook with anyone of us (in a home kitchen). That includes your mom – a good HOME cook, anchovies notwithstanding. Just like the rest of us non-pros on the board. (Anchovies notwithstanding!)

And thank you, Chef. I’d be glad to swelter, stoveside, with you in any kitchen any day. (Hope Skawt is still going to see you up in New Paltz/Poughkeepsie this month, like he threatened!)

Try cooking a dish that can provide nutrition to your family of four when the store shelves are empty and the only food you have is some cornmeal, a few pieces of chicken you smuggled from the chicken processing plant where you work 12 hours a day/6 days per week, and the few vegetables you preserved yourself from Grandpa’s garden which provides vegetables for the entire extended family. That’s a real cook.

It’s 91 degrees in my “classroom” right now, class was 6 hours long and we just finished lunch service for about 50 (in 30 mimutes). The students are taking a break before they come back, clean up (wash pots and pans,scrub out the woks sweep and mop, take inventory) and have a lecture on SE Asian flavor profiles – in a 91 degree kitchen. We’ll sweat, but we’ll drink Tamarind juice sweetened with palm sugar and NOT ONE OF THEM will complain about the heat.

I want that to be understood and respected – not for me, particularly, but for everyone who does this and trains for this and lives the life of “a cook”.

I think your comment is a good note on which to drop this thread and pick up another….

Thanks again for getting directly to the heart of it.

I did marvel at people’s unwillingness to think about things, however. There’s a ton of equipment I don’t have in my kitchen, but I don’t let that stop me from attempting things. Perhaps my slices won’t be quite as thin, but the ingredients are still there. People should stop thinking about ways to escape recipes and think hard about different ways to enter them.

OK, like I said – “a good HOME cook”, “home” being the qualifier. A MAJOR qualifier. Thanks, Chef Pardus. I wasn’t in anyway trying to imply that home cooks should consider themselves in your league of professional cooks, merely that a good number of us certainly cook well above Rachael Ray/Sandra Lee level – if not anywhere near Keller’s (!) And your post is not inflammatory – I think it merely provokes discussion (not ire).

PS: And being “elitist” is your right, too – you should be more than OK with it. You put in the time and training to learn your craft, and I’d be equally annoyed at any amateur trying to claim the same level of expertise as myself if I were you. But I think your true annoyance is really with Severson, who SHOULD be mildly annoying to a professional such as yourself, because – however humorously,self-depreciatingly and (I HOPE) satirically – she has gone on record as saying she won’t do the simplest of techniques – fry, lard, truss, etc. Won’t use a whisk? Refuses to mince? Come ON! Those AREN’T “recipe breakers” – merely a refusal to employ the most basic of techniques – and for the person for whom they are “breakers”, then, no – they aren’t even a decent home cook. Open a can and “cook” with Sandra Lee, I say.

But for the rest of us who do wrestle with mandolines, make our own demi-glace, dig pits for our own BBQ (okay, that didn’t happen – not fully. But the near-divorce did!) and only blanch when faced with sous vide-ing because an immersion circulator WOULD mean a divorce? Hey, we’re in there trying. We may lack the professional training (and certainly experience) but we care, passionately, and work on technique and read up and push our limits every day. And a box of Hamburger Helper has never graced our pantries.

OK, that’s my “ruhlmanation” of the day . . .