This, Chef Gusteau’s famous motto, is a quote from the Pixar animated movie Ratatouille.
I took an interest in cooking around the time I got into the restaurant business, twenty years ago. In the vein of many 20somethings, I had dabbled before then, and had even taken an adult ed class on italian cooking, taught by a Long Island woman who showed us how to make fresh pasta, among other things. But, I got a bit more serious once selling food became a career.
While I didn’t need to know much about cooking to run the restaurant (far more important to know what good food tastes like than to actually know how to make it), it nevertheless seemed like a good idea. My interest, however, diverged rather quickly from the menu we offered (the basics of family-style and NY City diner food), and I started learning recipes, techniques and styles that had little relevance to my business. Today, I consider myself a moderately accomplished home cook, and have enough skills to cook up a dinner for eight or for a 75 guest Mardi Gras party. I got this far, and continue to learn, without any formal training and with a late start. There’s no real mystery to cooking. Heck, half the planet knows how to cook. Yet, it amazes me how many people I’ve crossed paths with who dismiss even the possibility of learning to cook, simply because they haven’t.
What’s the worst that can happen if you try to cook something? It might not come out particularly good, or you might burn something or ruin some ingredients. Is that such a big deal? Is failure of this sort so daunting and off-putting that it scares you off from trying? If you’ve never fried an egg, you’re not going to become a master omelette maker in one or two attempts, but you’ll certainly know more than if you didn’t even try, and, just as with anything else, practice improves skill.
It seems that many people reach a point in life where they decide they’re done learning things. But, observing something that someone else did or crafted should not elicit “wow, I could never do that.” Certainly, you’re not going to sing like Pavarotti, play guitar like Clapton, cook like Keller, or paint like da Vinci if you take up any of these pursuits as a hobby for your adult years, but basic competence is not beyond most people’s reach.
So, don’t be afraid to pick up that knife and skillet. You, too, can cook.
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