Books I’m Reading (file under Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge)

Care of my weekend I haven’t read more than a paragraph since Friday. But I have been reading, as I alluded to, in one of my weekend update posts, I have been reading a few books at the same time.

Of course, care of Ruhlman’s; “The Soul of a Chef” I decided to pick up his “The Making of a Chef.” In it Ruhlman is going through the first year of classes at the Culinary Institute of America. It follows him as he goes through his classes and the subtle transformation from Writer to Cook. I say subtle though I don’t think that anyone else would say that it was subtle.

Over the weekend I alluded to the fact that there are those of us that get it done and those that don’t. For cooks, all the world over, failure is not an option. Hung over, we show up. Sick, we show up. Short of dead, we show up. In his exploration, Ruhlman tells a story about a vicious snowstorm that threatened to keep him from school for a test. When he called the examining Chef Instructor, Ruhlman became stung when the Chef alluded to the fact that it was okay because he was not a real cook or chef. Subtly the Chef made the point that it didn’t matter the circumstance, cooks showed up. With his pride stung, Ruhlman too showed up and by doing so learned a very valuable lesson. One that will stay with him for life.

I’m not done “The Making of a Chef” yet. In fact it is currently in my locker at work as I was too tired to be bothered to bring it home on Sunday. Next week I will write some more about it.

I have also been reading “How I Learned to Cook; Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs,” edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan. Reading how the likes of Ferran Adria, Mario Batali, Raymond Blanc, Heston Blumenthal, Daniel Boulud and others came to learn to cook is as illuminating for a young cook (i.e. me) as reading Aristotle’s; “The Politics” is for Political Science students.

What I gleaned from all these different Chefs is that there is no true set course that leads one to the kitchen. As I’m pounding out this entry before I have to go to work I will regal you with more next week when I have some time.

I came to this book through another that I picked up entitled; “ If You Can Stand the Heat; Tales from Chefs and Restaurateurs.”

And of course I’m still reading Bourdain’s; “A Cook’s Tour.” All of these will be covered next week when I have some more time.

Anton Chekhov once said; “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.”

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM