As I've mentioned several times before on this blog, I have an interesting relationship with cooking. I enjoy doing it, but, frankly, the Mild Wife is better at it. There's no shame in that, that's just how it is. It's also something that's evolving, because there are certain dishes/items that I'm getting halfway decent at (see: the infamous cheesecake). Still, in terms of general skill level, I'd trust the Mild Wife to put out a delicious meal before I'd trust myself.
Now, that doesn't mean that I am completely useless in the kitchen. Generally, I try to contribute to the process in different ways. It's not uncommon for me to do a lot of the chopping and prep work, so that I still help with the preparation process. And, as that previous blog post pointed out, that particular work is often considered the hard part. So, I don't feel like I'm slacking in my contributions.
Still, I feel like there is a sense that comes with having done it several times. I remember watching the "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" documentary, and there was a segment where one of the apprentice chefs said he spent years working on cooking the rice just right. Sure, it's a shop that prides itself on supreme quality, but he was cooking rice, for crying out loud. He had to work on his craft, to make sure he knew the intricacies of how to cook the item just right. It's an extreme example, but it's what comes to mind when I think of honing your cooking sense. There is a certain innate knack for adding just the right spice, adding just the right amount, or knowing when to move something around in a pan and when to leave it alone. You grind and you grind until you sort of naturally know the right thing to do to a particular dish.
Like I said earlier, my cooking sense is not as developed as the Mild Wife's. Better yet, I once described this notion, out loud, to the Mild Wife. That immediately resulted in two hilarious things. One, she said that I should get more reps in the kitchen in order to develop that sense. I feel like that's a fairly common-sense reply; I don't have the experience, so I should get more in order to be more useful in the kitchen. The second thing, however, was what really made laugh out loud. My observation posited a progression from onion chopper to pan stirrer, so we then came up with the tag line, "I started at the bottom, now I'm at the stove." It's a nod to a certain song's lyrics, but it cracked both of us up. It took a while before either of got any cooking done in the aftermath.
Just so you know, though, that is now my official motto in the kitchen. I'm starting at the bottom, but I'm gunning for that stove, y'all.
Now, that doesn't mean that I am completely useless in the kitchen. Generally, I try to contribute to the process in different ways. It's not uncommon for me to do a lot of the chopping and prep work, so that I still help with the preparation process. And, as that previous blog post pointed out, that particular work is often considered the hard part. So, I don't feel like I'm slacking in my contributions.
Still, I feel like there is a sense that comes with having done it several times. I remember watching the "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" documentary, and there was a segment where one of the apprentice chefs said he spent years working on cooking the rice just right. Sure, it's a shop that prides itself on supreme quality, but he was cooking rice, for crying out loud. He had to work on his craft, to make sure he knew the intricacies of how to cook the item just right. It's an extreme example, but it's what comes to mind when I think of honing your cooking sense. There is a certain innate knack for adding just the right spice, adding just the right amount, or knowing when to move something around in a pan and when to leave it alone. You grind and you grind until you sort of naturally know the right thing to do to a particular dish.
Like I said earlier, my cooking sense is not as developed as the Mild Wife's. Better yet, I once described this notion, out loud, to the Mild Wife. That immediately resulted in two hilarious things. One, she said that I should get more reps in the kitchen in order to develop that sense. I feel like that's a fairly common-sense reply; I don't have the experience, so I should get more in order to be more useful in the kitchen. The second thing, however, was what really made laugh out loud. My observation posited a progression from onion chopper to pan stirrer, so we then came up with the tag line, "I started at the bottom, now I'm at the stove." It's a nod to a certain song's lyrics, but it cracked both of us up. It took a while before either of got any cooking done in the aftermath.
Just so you know, though, that is now my official motto in the kitchen. I'm starting at the bottom, but I'm gunning for that stove, y'all.
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