3-Star Chef in Your Own Home

[Jinmyo]

Mark Bittman has a nice article online about what's involved in preparing "honest, relatively simple restaurant cooking."

Here it is.

[Liza]

Thanks, Jinmyo, for posting the link.

I've had the potato gratin and sirloin at Montrachet within the last month, and think even Bittman skimped on the cream. It was divine.

[Jinmyo]

Liza, sounds fabulous. Always more cream. Always more butter. Just a smaller serving.  

[Sandra Levine]

It's refreshing to read about the differences between home and restaurant cooking without seeing the condescending expression, "dumbed-down."

[Bux]

In it's own way, although the premise is that you can't reproduce restaurant food at home, the article almost echo's what I believe were Shaw's comments that you could. It's mostly a matter of time and scale and the real answer is that you might have to make some concessions, but neither the recipe nor the dish has to be "dumbed-down." Some restaurant dishes are just less practical at home. Harold Moore noted that his wife doesn't want the smoke at home. I've know other chefs who prefer the leave the cooking fumes in their job kitchen. With an inadequate hood and exhaust sytem via a duct that goes as far north and south as it does up, even a high ceiling will not mitigate the fumes. If you don't like going to bed with the aroma of fried fish, you learn to make a concession in what you cook, or what you smell.

[Liza]

We've developed a new credo at home: If you don't set off the fire alarm, the pan's not hot enough.

[Jinmyo]

Heh. I've got smoke detectors. But no batteries in them.

[Steve Klc]

Now we're starting to get somewhere.  I hesitated weighing in first on this because my reactions were--when did this guy get three stars? what's so tough about this? and what am I missing?

I use dumbed-down all the time, sorry it offends Sandra.  I also feel I've used it correctly--if you ever catch me being condescending without merit, please alert me.

There's a big difference in my book between a concession and dumbing down.  This article speaks to those concessions, albeit in a simplistic way.  Oh, more staff. Oh, done ahead.  Where's the meat to this article that even a moderately aware person wouldn't already be aware of--and where's the meat to this dish in terms of technique, inspiration, access to ingredients or creativity?

Writers and editors responsible for dumbing down--this lack of respect shown to home cooks--would not use the term to describe themselves or what they're doing.  They may not even realize it, it is so ingrained in mainstream food writing that it must be in a code or guideline somewhere, perhaps in Louisville at the IACP headquarters.

This article isn't an example of dumbing down--it is very well written and speaks to differences and concessions--but it is a good idea not really executed well in my mind.

I read it and said "what's the big deal?"

[Jinmyo]

I read it and said "what's the big deal?"

No big deal, Steve. But a nice descrition of what happens with a brigade and what is required if you want to get all 3-Starry eyed at home and how to actually do something reasonable.

All common sense stuff, really. But some folk do slap a cold steak into a cold pan. And others are mincing the herbs while the steak burns.

Sure, the article could have said something new. The dishes could have been more interesting. But Bittman said the magic word and said it loud:

Butter.

[Malawry]

Buttah's it, baybee.

On a totally frivolous note: the image of the guy with his head in the oven...is that Bittman himself? And is that his home kitchen?

On a more serious note, I didn't learn much from the article, but then I know enough about the differences between restaurant and home cooking that I'd already gotten most of what he conveyed. I don't take many shortcuts when I try to do a good meal at home. I don't shy away from multiple shopping visits or spending several days preparing a single meal. (I don't do it every week either, but I do it at least once a month.) I did enjoy reading the article (it was the first thing I read on Metro this morning) but I didn't learn that much from it.

What I'd be interested in learning is how a home cook like me could get her mitts on stuff like micro beet greens. I can't seem to find those, or duck eggs, or lots of other funky and cool ingredients like that around these parts. I like working with some of the great things I can pick up from the farm market and Fresh Fields but I'm always wishing I had access to more. The most frustrating thing about trailing in a restaurant kitchen was tasting all kinds of lovely things that I won't be able to buy and play with myself.

I'd also be interested in learning more about what you can and can't make in advance and why. I've learned a lot of that stuff by experimenting but imo that's one of the huge things that separates home cookin' and restaurant cookin': restaurant cooks know exactly how much they can do before service, and how long they can stay fresh and tasty in that state. Home cook unfamiliarity with the ins and outs of food storage lead to the Thanksgiving catastrophes Bittman references.

[Steve Klc]

Really no disagreement here, Jinmyo.  That fat is used in abundance professionally should not be a secret anymore and if this article drives that point home to anyone, great.  We're swimming in it when we dine out at the high end, which always used to amuse me when a customer worried about the fat content of a yogurt or fromage blanc ice cream or sorbet in a fruit soup.

Still, for me, it did take up alot of column inches for the few revelations. I'm with Bux channeling Shaw when I read "But without a lot of help, you can't. It is, in fact, virtually impossible for any home cook to cook like a chef."  Nothing could be farther from the truth, in fact.

I'd rather more time been devoted to access to ingredients--appreciation of why those ingredients are superior--and technique/skill differences rather than equipment differences--but then newspaper Food sections around the country don't want their locals to even sense that the quality of, for instance, fresh seafood they're getting locally is not as good as that of New York, Vancouver, wherever--because then the local seafood suppliers (read: local advertisers) would get upset with them.  Part of this equation is not talking about it--these kind of stories don't get approved by the editors on the local level.  Writers--even those slotted in secure positions-- know not even to pitch the story because a local advertiser would get upset. Malawry speaks a bit to this, well I think, and when she states "I'd also be interested in learning more about what you can and can't make in advance and why" I guess she crystallizes my sense that a different dish could have revealed more.

[Liza]

Reading the article, where Bittman mentions one helper does this, one helper does that, I read it as, "I do this, I do that". I think it's disingenuous to submit that a meal whipped up in 20-30 minutes is going to have the complexity of one that takes time and forthought. I'm a big fan of taking fresh ingredients and cooking them simply, but I don't think of this as high-end dining. (Delicious, yes).

[Liza]

Interesting, just got an email from Wine.com featuring recipes from Charlie Trotter. I have all the Trotter books and thought maybe here's a new one.

Check out the link here:http://www.wine.com/aboutwine/food/recipes/article.asp?ArticleID=19&s=evm488n&Population_ID=65841053&State=NY&Mode=go

And tell me: is that dumbed down or just not Trotter?

[Sandra Levine]

I'm a big fan of taking fresh ingredients and cooking them simply, but I don't think of this as high-end dining. (Delicious, yes).

Neither is this approach  "dumbed-down."

[Priscilla]

I read it and said "what's the big deal?"

Sure, the article could have said something new. The dishes could have been more interesting. But Bittman said the magic word and said it loud:

Butter.

Teehee wanted to see what happened if I quoted Jinmyo's latest art installation.

A. Bourdain in his inimitable way discussed the incredibly copious amounts of butter used in restaurant cooking way back in Kitchen Confidential, in a section dealing explicitly with differences between professional and home cookery, or how to make home cookery taste more like restaurant.  Implied, I think, was the idea that Steve Klc addresses, that some diners do not consider the amount of butter used to prepare their meals.

(And not just butter, I would submit; people who don't cook, and I further submit that our own extraordinary Cabrales is very much the exception that proves the rule, often don't know what's in their food, sometimes through sheer disinterest, sometimes through assumption.  Not a crime, necessarily, but creates a problematically underinformed populace, I think.  A topic all its own.)

And I too sorta say what's the big deal.  (Course I am down in solidarity with the not missing a chance to talk about butter.)  One doesn't need helpers to peel and slice potatoes, and store them refrigerated in cream, and then later re-refrigerate the gratin itself.  If these are more than pre-prep steps that any home cook could take I am missing something and would like to have the more part pointed out to me.  I do not like to refrigerate potato dishes because of the sweet taste that develops, one of our scientists can probably explain why this happens, but I'm thinking if it's good enough for Liza and good enough for Montrachet I shall reexamine.  Cream in critical mass can cover a thousand sins.

Priscilla

[Jim Dixon]

Malawry...

The local growers who sell to Portland's best restaurants tell me that the chefs get the very best stuff, and the leftovers go to the Farmers Market. They need to keep their best customers happy, and most know that a box of expensive micro beet greens (and I'm not really sure exactly what he means by that...the photos look pretty red, so I'm guessing these are the very first stem-and-leaf coming up from the beet seed) won't be a huge seller at the Market.

One grower (and he's one of the best and smartest) says he never puts anything in the ground that he hasn't already sold. If he speculates on a crop, he may be able to pay his mortgage.

Jim

[wingding]

Re Jim Dixon;It's true in N.Y. also-there's local stuff that's almost impossible to find retail in N.Y.A lot of the best fruits and vegetables are held for chefs,and local farmers will tell you that a lot of salsify and greens.etc. will rot at the market because there aren't that many people who cook at home,and a lot of them will be happier buying flowers.Once you've tasted the incredibly fresh wonderful fish that top end restaurants buy,retail stuff will be unacceptable for the most part.A large part of good cooking is about good shopping,and knowing what to do with the food once you've sourced it...

[Rachel Perlow]

Quoting the article in question:

And though it does not matter as much as people believe, restaurant equipment is often on a different level from what is available to all but the wealthiest home cooks....exhaust vents that can handle real smoke....all but the most inadequate equipment can be worked around (I have done most of my cooking on electric stoves since 1994, and have come to like them). The key lesson to remember here is not that you need a stove that produces ultra-high heat but that you should use the high heat that your stove produces....the most beneficial adjustment home cooks could make would be to preheat skillets before beginning to cook in them.

This seems to sum up the article to me. You can use a crappy electric stove as long as you pre-heat the pan and use an exhaust fan that sucks all the smells outside!

[CathyL]

I'm paraphrasing, because I don't have the book here, but in 'Simple French Food' Richard Olney dismissed  the notion that high-end cooking requires high-end batterie de cuisine: when one's stove is an old friend, ambrosia can be concocted in tin cans.

[Malawry]

The local growers who sell to Portland's best restaurants tell me that the chefs get the very best stuff, and the leftovers go to the Farmers Market. They need to keep their best customers happy, and most know that a box of expensive micro beet greens (and I'm not really sure exactly what he means by that...the photos look pretty red, so I'm guessing these are the very first stem-and-leaf coming up from the beet seed) won't be a huge seller at the Market.

I've heard this many times and from many sources. Perhaps I'm a naive optomist about these things, but sometimes I wish farm market vendors would take a chance on their clients. I tend to go out of my way to buy strange and interesting products that appear at my market, because I want those items to keep appearing and because I like to try new things.

I understand it's a financial equation, and that the margins are frighteningly narrow for farmers. But that doesn't mean I don't want access to the same products a restaurateur can obtain.

[Bruce Cole]

Just to throw little water on the fire in this thread...but I think pan-frying steaks at home over blast furnace temperatures, is the wrong way to go about it. Ok, so it's fun - and smoky - even smells great. But the same exact results can be achieved cooking a steak on the stove top over medium heat. No mess, no fires, and superb results.

Rather than posting a long explanation of this method on this board, I've posted it on my site at SauteWednesday.

I'd be interested if anyone has tried the methods detailed in my post. I've always achieved perfectly crusted/carmelized and juicy steaks.

[Priscilla]

Bruce Cole, coincidentally, if one believes in coincidence, haven't decided whether I do, or not, just this very evening I employed the Alain Ducasse method detailed in the recent NYT on a coupla very nice Niman Ranch thick-cut rib-eyes and it was, if I can speak for those at my table and I think I can, very good.

Too-high heat is just plain old too-high heat, for so many things.  You know how Emeril WILL remove the control knob from his appliance and brandish it about.  But, is it the Niman Ranch thick-cut rib-eye or is it the method?  

Priscilla

[Toby]

I work at a farmers' market stand.  We do a large part of our business with restaurants, but we sell the same quality of our main crops to individuals as we do to the restaurants and stores.  But for specialty produce, restaurants tend to buy in quantity and also get to the market early.  An example was some wonderful organically grown heirloom beets we had at the end of last summer, beautiful greens attached.  I put an armful out in a basket and tried to keep it in the shade, but the greens started wilting pretty fast.  (Since greens aren't our main crop, we just don't have coolers and ice for display purposes.)  Even though the beets were very reasonably priced, no one was buying them.  I finally mentioned them to a chef/restaurant owner and she grabbed them all up and came back the next week for more.  Another example was chestnuts -- we have a few trees and a small crop each fall.  An individual might buy a pound; a restaurant would buy all ten pounds at once.  We will hold things aside for customers who make requests in advance and we'll bring, if requested, produce we grow but don't display on the stand.  Some farmers will grow specialty crops upon request.  Also, get to the market in your area as early as you can.  Some farmers take orders or have e-mail sites where you can make ahead-of-time orders.  I shop at my market year round and it's frustrating to see large quantities of produce being trundled off to the restaurants and none for me.

[fredchef]

Being a chef and living far away from any coast I appreciate the seafood dilemma. I do demonstarations and classes at a local grocery. The Demonstration kitchen is across the aisle from the fish market and I hear customers Insisting on the fish that has never been frozen even though I know that the fish that is frozen upon catching will certainly taste fresher. Any fish we get through regular delivery is at least 3 days old.Any thing fresher requires negotiations with A supplier on a coast, the airlines and trips to the airport at odd hours. Oh you lucky coasties! Other items not near as bad  although locally grown produce is pretty slim. On the home cook vs. chef I come down the simple preparation for most people.but wow em with presentation.

[ngatti]

Just to throw little water on the fire in this thread...but I think pan-frying steaks at home over blast furnace temperatures, is the wrong way to go about it. Ok, so it's fun - and smoky - even smells great. But the same exact results can be achieved cooking a steak on the stove top over medium heat. No mess, no fires, and superb results.

Wrong.  If you think you can 'Pittsburgh' a steak on a medium flame etc.  Well that water you threw on the fire splashed back at ya, making you all wet.

Whoa now.  A thick enough steak on a medium heat in a properly conductive pan on a home stove top will no doubt achieve a pretty respectable result.  Butter it up and the 'noir' may sub for the natural charring.  But "B & B' ain't gonna happen.   Black and rare won't happen either.

On the other hand our definitions of what constitutes a superb result may differ

Nick