Horrific habits from excellent cooks

[Shalmanese]

Over in the Marks of a bad cook thread, several posters noted that some of the best cooks they've ever known have horrifically bad cooking habits (for example: "My grandmother cut every single thing holding it in her hand using a paring knife. Again, a phenomenal cook." - Kim Shook). What are some other cooks you know who manage to produce excellent food despite managing to cook massively "incorrectly"?

I'll start: My mother is a pretty great cook but, to her, all beef was just beef, and all pork was just pork. She didn't understand that a ribeye would have a different taste and texture from a bottom round and always bought whatever cut was cheapest at the market that day (chickens were small enough that she understood how each part worked).

[gfweb]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

[Darienne]

I found the one reference (Item #33) to cutting everything in one's hand in the other topic. I don't do it and can't do it, but don't consider it a horrific habit.

Our daughter's BF is from a Caribbean island, from a small village...they probably didn't have cutting boards...and he learned to cook from his Grandmother and she cut everything in her hand with a paring knife. He is one amazing cook. He cooks every day for the homeless and down and out islanders in Toronto. In fact, he's downright awesome to watch. I sous-chef for him when they visit and he does most of the cooking for us. I think he lives to cook.

Horrific habit? Never!!!

[weinoo]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

This is my issue as well. And it goes to cooks who constantly touch their face and/or hair.

[jrshaul]

It is a commonly held belief amongst anyone over the age of 60 that pork cooked to anything less than 165F spells certain and unquestionable doom. Combine with the absence of fat in today's supermarket pigs, and you have a recipe for the dessicated food-like substance I call "porkboard".

Of course, if you're of the generation old enough to have personally met Upton Sinclair, the fear is likely warranted.

[pep.]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

[ScoopKW]

Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

Is there a way to cook exclusively for Victoria's Secret models, then?

[teapot]

I see chefs on TV dripping copious amount of sweat into their food (in the pot and on the plate). Creeps me out.

[Darienne]

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

It seems to me that part of good cooking habits is to make the procedures into 'habits'. Never, ever taste from the spoon you are cooking with. Then you don't have to keep track of who is going to eat your food.

An easy answer to the problem is a container full of teaspoons designated for tasting only sitting near where the cook is working. One taste and into the sink they go. And make sure the spoon bowl is down and the handle up. I took some cooking classes recently and was stunned to see the spoon container with the bowl pointed up.

I think this is particularly important for folks who work with chocolate. It's so tempting to lick the spoon, lick your fingers, etc. You must be ruthless about NEVER doing this. (Well, IMH (or not so H)O.)

[David A. Goldfarb]

I kind of doubt that Mario Batali actually uses the 11-inch tasting spoon that bears his name, but it strikes me as an amusing non-solution to the problem of avoiding the temptation to taste with the cooking spoon. It reminds me of a plastic spork that our elementary school cafeteria tried in the 1970s, where the handle was serrated to be used as a knife.

[pep.]

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

It seems to me that part of good cooking habits is to make the procedures into 'habits'. Never, ever taste from the spoon you are cooking with. Then you don't have to keep track of who is going to eat your food.

Oh, I agree that using a fresh spoon everytime is better, but that doesn't make the re-use horrific. And notice that I said "at home". When I'm cooking at home, you know exactly who is going to eat your food. If you are cooking for someone who is immune-compromised (or pregnant), you have to keep track of them anyway. No raw eggs, for starters (i.e. no tiramisu, mayonnaise etc.). Hell, probably no raw food at all. So that's a special case regardless of what your tasting-spoon habits are.

I think this is particularly important for folks who work with chocolate. It's so tempting to lick the spoon, lick your fingers, etc. You must be ruthless about NEVER doing this. (Well, IMH (or not so H)O.)

Why, unless it somehow messes up the tempering or something due to the moisture? Again, I wouldn't necessarily do it myself, but I'm also not freaked out by it. Again, I'm talking a bout home cooking, not a professional environment.

Edited for clarity.

Edited July 25, 2011 by pep. (log)

[Jose Nieves]

I give my cooks the option of using one spoon (they have a second container for the "dirties" where the spoon goes in handle-first) or using the 2-spoon method (use the stirring spoon/spatula to spoon into their tasting spoon, which they carry with them)

[annabelle]

I kind of doubt that Mario Batali actually uses the 11-inch tasting spoon that bears his name, but it strikes me as an amusing non-solution to the problem of avoiding the temptation to taste with the cooking spoon. It reminds me of a plastic spork that our elementary school cafeteria tried in the 1970s, where the handle was serrated to be used as a knife.

I've watched Mario cut his hand and bleed like a stuck pig into a bowl of tomatoes he was tossing with his bloody hands on an old show of his. I don't taste things with spoons since I hate using up all of my spoons and don't like burning my tongue. I learned to spoon out the sauce onto a saucer and give it shake to spread it out and then taste it. It cools enought to taste without burning and you get a chance to check the consistancy/spreading on the plate before service. Rinse the saucer off and use it again or grab a new saucer if you love to do dishes.

[ScottyBoy]

I'll agree with all the unsanitary things. I've worked with too many people that don't cough into their sleeve, drip sweat and touch their hair and face. I'll always point it out to them, a huge pet pieve.

nothing to do with cooking for other people but. I actually feed myself horribly. A lot of take out or comfort food, trying to eat better but...

[gfweb]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

Its a bad habit if you then don't refrigerate properly. Food poisoning and all that.

[pep.]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

Its a bad habit if you then don't refrigerate properly. Food poisoning and all that.

I'm not really seeing that in a home setting, sorry. If you are tasting soup/sauce/whatever, I would assume it is at least simmering. Pasteurization time at 80° C is below one second, so I doubt that dipping that spoon leaves behind a lot of germs (some spores, maybe). Lack of refrigeration is a whole other matter, of course.

[SobaAddict70]

It would be unsanitary habits. Tasting spoons...dirty cutting boards...keeping food at room temp for too long.

Dirty cutting boards and lack of refrigeration, OK. But at least at home, I wouldn't consider re-using a tasting spoon a "horrific habit" (unless someone is immune-compromised or you know that you yourself are sick). Chances are, you have previously exchanged bodily fluids of one kind or another with at least half of the people you're cooking for.

You cannot receive HIV from someone who is "immune-compromised" who uses the same dinner fork as you do, or who touches a doorknob as you do. Cannot happen.

That this is 2011 and people still have the same misconceptions as when GRID first came onto the scene (what would later be known as AIDS) is simply mind-boggling to me.

In fact, it's patently offensive.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

OK, I read that as "don't re-use your tasting spoon if you're cooking for somebody immune-compromised," and not as "don't let immune-compromised people use testing spoons in your kitchen." HIV/AIDS/GRID isn't the only reason people are immune-deficient - it can be a result of chemotherapy as well, for one fairly well-known example.

This said, I'd say that the most atrocious habit I've ever seen in the kitchen of a really excellent cook was not washing ANYTHING - not potatoes, not carrots, not meat - before it went into the pot. Bleeee. It still makes me cringe thinking about it.

[pep.]

OK, I read that as "don't re-use your tasting spoon if you're cooking for somebody immune-compromised," and not as "don't let immune-compromised people use testing spoons in your kitchen." HIV/AIDS/GRID isn't the only reason people are immune-deficient - it can be a result of chemotherapy as well, for one fairly well-known example.

Indeed, that was my intended meaning. People can have (practically) non-functioning immune systems for a variety of reasons (AIDS, but not the HIV infection itself, being one of them). Also pregnant women, while not immune-compromised per se, need to be very careful regarding possible infections. When cooking for someone who falls into one of these groups, special rules apply.

Edited July 25, 2011 by pep. (log)

[Badiane]

I cringe every time I see someone scrape ingredients off the cutting board with the cutting edge of a knife. It's soooo bad for the knife! Flip it over and use the non cutting side! Drives me insane. When I was in cooking school, if you wanted to incur the wrath of Olivier Andreini, all you had to do was scrape that blade on the board and he'd be on you like a dog on a pork chop.

Also, as soon as you finish cutting something acidic, rinse your knife. Acid dulls the blade.

[pep.]

I cringe every time I see someone scrape ingredients off the cutting board with the cutting edge of a knife. It's soooo bad for the knife! Flip it over and use the non cutting side! Drives me insane. When I was in cooking school, if you wanted to incur the wrath of Olivier Andreini, all you had to do was scrape that blade on the board and he'd be on you like a dog on a pork chop.

I fully agree. I can't even watch someone do this without telling them to do it the right way. Also, bad/inefficient knife technique in general (e.g. slow, being afraid of the knife).

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Oh, I just got into my kitchen.... I have another one! My father is a fabulous cook and saucier, but he's probably also the messiest person in existence. He doesn't wipe up. Ever. And he likes to bang his whisk/spoon/mixing implement on the edge of the pot he's working in, which sends little droplets of food flying for rather astonishing distances to goonk themselves onto my cupboards and countertops.

It makes me cringe every time I get the kitchen after he's cooked - I'm not fanatic or OCD about countertop cleanliness, but it irks me beyond reason to have to scrub little scunges of dried-on sauces off of every surface before I can start working. I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to get atomized gravy into the bowl of my Kitchenaid.....

[cbread]

... I'd say that the most atrocious habit I've ever seen in the kitchen of a really excellent cook was not washing ANYTHING - not potatoes, not carrots, not meat - before it went into the pot...

I'm more worried about the washing of things that will not get heated, salad items, cold veggies, fruit etc. I can't help but suspect much washing of things that will get heated to pasteurization functions only to mitigate an unreasoning fear of microbes. I do believe in washing off surface grit and such, but I have my doubts that washing is anywhere near as effective as heat to protect against microbial issues.

On that note, I always feel like my rinsing of foods for cold salads etc is a half measure at best and feel like salads are essentially an act of faith. Am I too pessimistic about the efficacy of a rinse?

[BarbaraY]

It's not so common now but smoking while cooking is one of the worst offenses. I used to work with a chef who always had a cigarette stuck in the corner of his mouth. Loved him but hated his habit.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

... I'd say that the most atrocious habit I've ever seen in the kitchen of a really excellent cook was not washing ANYTHING - not potatoes, not carrots, not meat - before it went into the pot...

I'm more worried about the washing of things that will not get heated, salad items, cold veggies, fruit etc. I can't help but suspect much washing of things that will get heated to pasteurization functions only to mitigate an unreasoning fear of microbes. I do believe in washing off surface grit and such, but I have my doubts that washing is anywhere near as effective as heat to protect against microbial issues.

On that note, I always feel like my rinsing of foods for cold salads etc is a half measure at best and feel like salads are essentially an act of faith. Am I too pessimistic about the efficacy of a rinse?

I was more alarmed by the quantites of dirt that made it into the food. I'm not a fan of sandy soups.

On the washing cold salads front, I do that mostly to remove grit and wanton aphids and whatnot. I'm not concerned about microbial issues when preparing my own salads (as I have mentioned in other threads, I use 5% food-grade hydrogen peroxide in distilled water when I wash fruits and veg), and I'm fairly well immune to the things that cause traveller's tummy so I'm not concerned about them in restaurants here either. Particularly as most restaurants here wash their cold salads in lemon or lime water.