3-Star Chef in Your Own Home

[ngatti]

A very intersting thread.  My own natural arrogance has always come down on the side of: "it's cooking dummy, it ain't rocket science!"

But that is indeed an arrogant, and perhaps insensitive view.  I suppose that some recipes, chefs, and cookbooks can be quite daunting and intimidating to a home cook. Particularly to one who doesen't venture into the kitchen often. Even to an experienced amateur who does.  Yet from my dim experience as one who was once a home cook who took to the stoves as  part of a serious avocation and who now cooks  professionally (alas nowadays not actually cooking nearly as much as I would like),  I must say that I agree with Steve Klc and many others (if I read you all correctly) and come down on the side of 'sourcing'.  It is indeed the quality of your ingredients that will most importantly determine your success or failure.  Fundamentally, cooking is quite the algorithmic process and indeed, the quality or type of your equipment will play its part in determining your result.  However it is also a dynamic process and my experience has taught me that an equipment work around has always been easier than attempting one because of bad ingredients.

You may not have an expensive duct system or a Bonnet equipped kitchen.  But with a little effort you can have access to exceptional ingredients (especially here in NYC).  By working with those ingredients and using them within the 'context' of your physical work space one should be able to produce some exceptional results.  Exact reproduction may be something else.  But does one need exact reproduction? Or will an outstanding dish that shows good thought, planning and cooking skills within an existing kitchen framework (whatever that may be) suffice?

Thanx for listening

Nick

[John Whiting]

I'd be interested to know Shaun Hill's reaction to this article -- a Michelin-starred chef who cooks unassisted in a small domestic-sized kitchen with very little special equipment. For instance, he doesn't cook woodcock ungutted because the stink would go straight out into the dining room.