1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,040 Hello Chefs, This is Chef's PSA Podcast. 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:04,360 I'm your host, Andre Natera. On today's episode, we're going 3 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,800 to talk about technical skills that you need in the kitchen. 4 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:21,920 Stay tuned. OK, let's get into it. 5 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:25,720 I'll give you a short update. I am currently working on the 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,390 translation of all the culinary. Books that I've written so 7 00:00:29,390 --> 00:00:33,150 Leadership, Fundamentals, Kitchen, Art of War, Bad Sue, 8 00:00:33,150 --> 00:00:35,990 Good Chef, How Not To Be The Biggest Idiot in the Kitchen, 9 00:00:36,630 --> 00:00:41,470 and Line Cook Survival Manual. I've already completed three of 10 00:00:41,470 --> 00:00:44,150 them in the translation process. I'm just having a couple of 11 00:00:44,150 --> 00:00:45,630 friends read them. They're going to go into 12 00:00:45,630 --> 00:00:48,230 Spanish. I'm hoping that I will have all 13 00:00:48,230 --> 00:00:49,990 the books done within a week or two. 14 00:00:50,390 --> 00:00:52,030 Max. They will be available. 15 00:00:52,030 --> 00:00:53,910 I'll announce it on Chef's PSA as soon as. 16 00:00:54,430 --> 00:00:56,870 They are ready to go. And then after that, by request, 17 00:00:56,870 --> 00:01:00,150 I will be translating them into Italian Italiano. 18 00:01:01,110 --> 00:01:03,830 So for those of you that are asking for the book in Spanish, 19 00:01:04,030 --> 00:01:06,630 very close. Almost done actually. 20 00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:09,710 Like I said, three of them are already done, it's just a matter 21 00:01:09,710 --> 00:01:11,310 of getting them out and published. 22 00:01:11,310 --> 00:01:16,230 So thank you all for requesting that ask and ye shall receive. 23 00:01:16,310 --> 00:01:18,190 So that's your gift Moving forward. 24 00:01:18,670 --> 00:01:23,270 I want to get right into skills, so I did a chef's PS:. 25 00:01:23,310 --> 00:01:26,260 A the other day. Where I talked about if I needed 26 00:01:26,260 --> 00:01:28,780 to make a super soldier, a culinary super soldier, what 27 00:01:28,780 --> 00:01:31,260 three skills would I ask from them? 28 00:01:31,740 --> 00:01:35,380 And I said Brunois, cook, fish and learn how to braise. 29 00:01:35,380 --> 00:01:37,780 Those would be my top three skills that every cook should 30 00:01:37,780 --> 00:01:40,860 learn. But then I put up a post a 31 00:01:40,860 --> 00:01:45,820 couple of days ago about taking action in your career and the 32 00:01:45,820 --> 00:01:48,260 only way to get better at cooking is to actually cook. 33 00:01:48,260 --> 00:01:52,230 And I don't know, I did some. Images about, you know, a very 34 00:01:52,230 --> 00:01:55,150 depressed chef saying, oh man, now I got to, I got to cook to 35 00:01:55,150 --> 00:01:58,870 get good at cooking. You know, I'm being a little bit 36 00:01:58,870 --> 00:02:01,790 sarcastic here, but a lot of people always ask me, how do I 37 00:02:01,790 --> 00:02:03,710 get better at this or how do I get better at that? 38 00:02:04,510 --> 00:02:07,030 And there's no magic answer. The only way you get better at 39 00:02:07,030 --> 00:02:08,630 something is by doing it, period. 40 00:02:09,789 --> 00:02:12,150 There's no shortcut to success, unfortunately. 41 00:02:12,150 --> 00:02:13,990 If it was that easy, everyone would do it. 42 00:02:14,430 --> 00:02:17,350 If you want to get proficient at a certain skill in the kitchen, 43 00:02:17,550 --> 00:02:20,570 no exception. You have to practice that skill 44 00:02:21,370 --> 00:02:23,890 repeatedly. So then the question is, how do 45 00:02:23,930 --> 00:02:25,530 I get better at something in the kitchen? 46 00:02:25,530 --> 00:02:28,850 Like I said, the easy answer is do it a lot of times, but you 47 00:02:28,850 --> 00:02:31,530 can't just take that approach and say I want to get better. 48 00:02:31,530 --> 00:02:32,610 So I'm just going to do everything. 49 00:02:32,610 --> 00:02:35,570 I think you need to be sniper specific on what it is that 50 00:02:35,570 --> 00:02:37,090 you're trying to accomplish. Now. 51 00:02:37,090 --> 00:02:40,610 I don't know you particularly, I don't know what your particular 52 00:02:40,610 --> 00:02:42,370 goals are in the kitchen. I don't know what your 53 00:02:42,370 --> 00:02:46,410 particular improvements are that you need to become a better cook 54 00:02:46,410 --> 00:02:48,880 and chef. So the advice I'm going to give 55 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,560 right now is very general and I think this is going to apply to 56 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,640 most chefs in most situations. Obviously if you have a pizza 57 00:02:55,640 --> 00:02:58,640 restaurant, maybe what I say might not apply to you, or if 58 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:03,040 you have a BBQ restaurant or you work on the walk station, maybe 59 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,520 this might not apply. However, for 90% of the jobs out 60 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:08,200 there, this will definitely apply to you. 61 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:11,280 When I set the three skills that I think people could improve on, 62 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,160 I want to start there, like if I had to create a super soldier 63 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:15,850 and so that is. You know, a lot of people are 64 00:03:15,850 --> 00:03:17,490 saying no, teach them organization and time 65 00:03:17,490 --> 00:03:18,930 management. I'm not talking about that right 66 00:03:18,930 --> 00:03:21,570 now. I am talking specifically about 67 00:03:21,730 --> 00:03:25,090 the technical skills, the relationship that a chef has 68 00:03:25,450 --> 00:03:29,730 between themselves, the product, and getting it out on the table 69 00:03:29,930 --> 00:03:33,410 through cooking. So knives, saute, pans, fire, 70 00:03:33,450 --> 00:03:36,010 whatever the case may be, that's the relationship I'm talking 71 00:03:36,010 --> 00:03:36,770 about. I'm not talking about 72 00:03:36,770 --> 00:03:39,010 organization or writing the schedule or any of that other 73 00:03:39,010 --> 00:03:41,290 shit. I'm specifically talking about 74 00:03:41,290 --> 00:03:44,080 culinary skills. So let me expand on why I think 75 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:46,280 those three skills would teach you the most. 76 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:52,120 Let's start with cooking fish. When it comes to cooking fish, I 77 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,000 think the most amount of temperature control is needed on 78 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,680 a pan. So I'm just assuming that you 79 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,200 are cooking fish in a pan. You can't be too hot, You can't 80 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,600 be too cold. The pan has to have a certain 81 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:04,120 temperature. You got to know when to put the 82 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:06,200 fish in. You got to know when to turn the 83 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,080 fish. You got to know when to not mess 84 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:09,640 with the fish because it's going to get stuck. 85 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:12,750 Do you oil the fish? Or do you oil the pan? 86 00:04:12,830 --> 00:04:15,590 Do you put the fish skin side down and get it crispy? 87 00:04:17,390 --> 00:04:20,110 Do you put a press on top so you could make sure it stays flat if 88 00:04:20,110 --> 00:04:23,830 there is skin so it gets crisp? Do you cook it halfway and never 89 00:04:23,830 --> 00:04:25,110 turn it? Do you turn it? 90 00:04:25,110 --> 00:04:29,670 A lot of chefs will sear their fish only on one side and then 91 00:04:29,670 --> 00:04:32,190 just kind of flash it in the salamander or an oven really 92 00:04:32,190 --> 00:04:34,550 quick just to get it to where it needs to be. 93 00:04:35,150 --> 00:04:37,430 But understanding how to cook fish is a critical skill for a 94 00:04:37,430 --> 00:04:39,260 chef because. You know, I'm going to use 95 00:04:39,260 --> 00:04:41,540 salmon as an example. Like, you want your salmon meat 96 00:04:41,540 --> 00:04:44,300 and rare, you don't want it well done. 97 00:04:44,500 --> 00:04:48,300 You don't want it raw. But there's a certain sweet spot 98 00:04:48,300 --> 00:04:50,780 when you're cooking fish that it's like the perfect texture. 99 00:04:50,780 --> 00:04:54,940 It's moist, it's juicy, and it doesn't require much effort for 100 00:04:54,940 --> 00:04:56,420 the knife and fork to break apart. 101 00:04:56,780 --> 00:04:59,540 The more you cook the fish, the drier it becomes usually. 102 00:05:00,020 --> 00:05:02,380 And that's not all fish, because some fish are the exception. 103 00:05:02,380 --> 00:05:04,620 The more you cook them. Sometimes they get moist. 104 00:05:05,220 --> 00:05:07,540 Point being is that fish is so delicate. 105 00:05:07,900 --> 00:05:12,180 If you learn how to cook fish really well, you'll start to 106 00:05:12,180 --> 00:05:14,900 pick up a certain level of finesse that will transfer into 107 00:05:14,900 --> 00:05:17,780 all the other things that are a little bit more forgiving, like 108 00:05:17,780 --> 00:05:20,060 meat and poultry. You could fuck up a chicken, you 109 00:05:20,060 --> 00:05:21,260 could overcook it a little bit. It's okay. 110 00:05:21,260 --> 00:05:24,260 You're going to cook it to 165 degrees and to kill any 111 00:05:24,260 --> 00:05:26,300 salmonella or something like that, assuming that you're doing 112 00:05:26,300 --> 00:05:28,580 that. But you might not want to do 113 00:05:28,580 --> 00:05:31,020 that with fish. You also might have a cake 114 00:05:31,020 --> 00:05:34,100 tester or a fish skewer that you skewer the fish that you start 115 00:05:34,100 --> 00:05:36,670 to learn. Where to place the doneness? 116 00:05:36,670 --> 00:05:40,270 Maybe it's on your lip, like a lot of chefs used to put the 117 00:05:40,270 --> 00:05:42,670 skewer on their lip to test temperatures, or they put it at 118 00:05:42,670 --> 00:05:44,830 a sensitive part on their wrist or their hand. 119 00:05:45,310 --> 00:05:47,430 Or sometimes you just learn from touch. 120 00:05:47,670 --> 00:05:50,630 Or like I used to say, they use the chef force the intuition to 121 00:05:50,630 --> 00:05:54,950 tell when the fish is done. Skill #2 would be braising, and 122 00:05:54,950 --> 00:05:58,030 the reason I think braising is such an important skill that 123 00:05:58,030 --> 00:06:00,550 cooks and chefs can develop, especially early on in their 124 00:06:00,550 --> 00:06:04,470 career, is that you're. It's a multilayered skill, so 125 00:06:04,470 --> 00:06:07,150 typically in braising there's a Browning process. 126 00:06:07,990 --> 00:06:11,070 A lot of times there's the addition of vegetables, and then 127 00:06:11,110 --> 00:06:13,910 it's a combination cooking method, so it's dry heat and 128 00:06:13,910 --> 00:06:16,510 moist heat at the same time. And so you're learning 129 00:06:16,510 --> 00:06:19,030 everything from how to get color that you know, the Myard 130 00:06:19,030 --> 00:06:23,390 reaction, get that sear, get that golden, that GB D on the 131 00:06:23,390 --> 00:06:25,110 meat or whatever it is that you're braising. 132 00:06:26,350 --> 00:06:28,910 You're also learning almost how to make a sauce because a lot of 133 00:06:28,910 --> 00:06:30,870 times that braising liquid turns into. 134 00:06:31,580 --> 00:06:34,220 The sauce that's going to accompany the meat that you are 135 00:06:34,220 --> 00:06:36,420 cooking. There's also an element of 136 00:06:36,420 --> 00:06:39,020 understanding doneness. You know if you're braising A 137 00:06:39,020 --> 00:06:43,620 veal Shank, for example, you can't just rush through it. 138 00:06:43,620 --> 00:06:45,060 You got to cook it a certain amount of time. 139 00:06:45,060 --> 00:06:46,900 Are you braising octopus? It's going to be different than 140 00:06:46,900 --> 00:06:52,740 it if you're if you're braising an asobuco, or if you're doing a 141 00:06:52,740 --> 00:06:56,300 quick brace with some seafood or a chicken. 142 00:06:57,220 --> 00:06:59,340 All of that matters. So understanding that everything 143 00:06:59,340 --> 00:07:01,620 has a. A certain doneness, time and 144 00:07:01,620 --> 00:07:03,900 temperature. And so the amount of time that 145 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:06,140 you have to build flavor changes. 146 00:07:06,140 --> 00:07:08,260 So if you're going to brace something that's going to be 147 00:07:08,260 --> 00:07:11,900 done in 30 minutes, you need to be able to extract the most 148 00:07:11,900 --> 00:07:15,060 amount of flavor in the shortest period of time versus something 149 00:07:15,060 --> 00:07:17,180 that you're maybe braising for three or four hours. 150 00:07:17,260 --> 00:07:21,100 Then you have a little bit more time to develop that flavor. 151 00:07:21,580 --> 00:07:24,300 In addition to learning how to develop flavor, there's that 152 00:07:24,300 --> 00:07:26,140 sauce work that you're going to learn how to do. 153 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,520 Because, again, braising is very similar to making sauces and 154 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:34,520 stocks, at least in the classical repertoire of French 155 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:35,760 cuisine. There's a lot of there's a lot 156 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,080 of crossover between a braise and a stalker, a sauce. 157 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,240 So that's why I think learning how to braise is going to bring 158 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,200 out so many more skills in an individual. 159 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,160 So again, first skill I'd say learn how to cook fish, delicate 160 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:50,080 fish. Second skill, learn how to 161 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,680 braise. The third skill I would focus on 162 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:56,880 is the. Meticulous knife cut of Brunois 163 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,000 and I, and I don't mean just like getting everything and 164 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,640 chopping it very small. Now the reason I say Brunois is 165 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:06,280 so important because you're usually going to be working with 166 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,600 more difficult vegetables when you're making a Brunois so 167 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,160 harder. Vegetables like root vegetables 168 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:15,360 like carrots or potatoes in addition to onions and different 169 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:18,040 types of alium like shallots and things like that. 170 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:20,760 But I would have them Brunois everything. 171 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:23,160 Learn to Brunois onions perfectly Learn how to Brunois 172 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:26,140 carrots. One of my one of my friends 173 00:08:27,260 --> 00:08:30,940 shout out to Lauren Peters from Cookie Rich and if you don't 174 00:08:30,940 --> 00:08:33,220 know Cookie Rich you should they make they make great cookies. 175 00:08:33,780 --> 00:08:36,980 Anyway, we're getting off subject, but I was talking to my 176 00:08:36,980 --> 00:08:40,380 friend Lauren Peters and she used to have to brun wah 177 00:08:40,380 --> 00:08:43,620 pistachios as part of her training when she was coming up 178 00:08:44,179 --> 00:08:47,540 And I remember thinking about brun wah pistachios. 179 00:08:47,540 --> 00:08:49,460 Talk about level of difficulty there. 180 00:08:49,660 --> 00:08:51,860 They had to be perfect or you know individual leaves of 181 00:08:51,860 --> 00:08:54,160 tarragon. And the reason I say Brunois is 182 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,240 so important because it's a skill that's going to require 183 00:08:57,240 --> 00:08:59,080 two or three skills to get to the end result. 184 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:01,800 So a Brunois, for those of you that might not know this is the 185 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:05,600 technical term or the French term I should say for a specific 186 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,160 knife cuts, that's about 116th of an inch. 187 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:10,560 So it's a very, very small cube, right. 188 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,760 And so in order to get to the Brunois, first you're going to 189 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:15,960 have to start with the Julienne and then you're going to have to 190 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:17,680 move to the dicing aspect of it, so. 191 00:09:18,210 --> 00:09:19,770 You're gonna learn two skills in one. 192 00:09:19,770 --> 00:09:22,290 So if you have, in order to have a perfect Brunois, you have to 193 00:09:22,290 --> 00:09:24,770 have a perfect julienne. And so that's why I say Brunois, 194 00:09:24,810 --> 00:09:26,250 is it. Because if you know how to 195 00:09:26,250 --> 00:09:30,570 Brunois very well. And I'm talking about like 196 00:09:30,810 --> 00:09:34,410 perfect Brunois, micro Brunois, the kind that's gonna be used in 197 00:09:34,410 --> 00:09:39,450 garnish learning how to go pedal by pedal on an onion or a 198 00:09:39,450 --> 00:09:42,780 shallot. If you could do that 199 00:09:42,780 --> 00:09:45,620 exceptionally well, then all the rest of the knife cuts are going 200 00:09:45,620 --> 00:09:48,060 to be much easier. So if you know how to broonois 201 00:09:48,060 --> 00:09:50,740 perfect onion, then you know how to slice an onion. 202 00:09:51,300 --> 00:09:54,220 You know how to dice an onion, you know how to dice a potato, 203 00:09:54,220 --> 00:09:55,860 you know how to you know chop a carrot. 204 00:09:56,500 --> 00:09:59,380 Because all those skills are required to get to the end 205 00:09:59,380 --> 00:10:03,180 result of the broonois. It's the furthest down the road 206 00:10:03,700 --> 00:10:07,380 and you have to bypass several other skills to get there when I 207 00:10:08,140 --> 00:10:12,880 used to run kitchens. I would have my cooks practice 208 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:15,720 Brunois for days on end before they would do anything else, 209 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,640 before I'd kind of release them into the wild. 210 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:19,880 And, you know, honestly, they used to hate it. 211 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:22,960 I used to hate it too. The reason I would have them do 212 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:25,680 that is because once they understood, everything else 213 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:29,320 became super easy for them. And I remember telling one of my 214 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:33,560 chefs, shout out to Lauren Pogue that there would be a time when 215 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:35,960 her skills were so good that they would probably be better 216 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:38,360 than the culinary school instructors that were teaching 217 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,400 her. That her Brunois skills would be 218 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:43,960 so good that they will become better than the culinary school 219 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:45,600 instructors that were teaching her at the time. 220 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:49,280 And she didn't believe me. But then when she was in 221 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:51,480 culinary school, she said some of her teachers would come over 222 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:55,520 and ask her where she learned how to Brunois like that and 223 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:58,800 they were all very impressed. So the technical skills are 224 00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:01,720 important. So those are my top three 225 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:04,440 skills, Brunois fish, cookery and braising. 226 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:06,440 Now if you wanted to learn how to cook. 227 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,040 And I put this in the post the other day. 228 00:11:08,380 --> 00:11:11,180 This is what I would do if if if you want to practice at home, 229 00:11:11,540 --> 00:11:14,940 you could get relatively good at just a couple of things, and I 230 00:11:14,940 --> 00:11:17,740 would say buy whole chickens. They're relatively inexpensive 231 00:11:18,180 --> 00:11:21,260 eggs and potatoes. Now, you may need a couple of 232 00:11:21,260 --> 00:11:24,300 other pantry items like flour and things like that, salt, etc. 233 00:11:24,620 --> 00:11:27,060 But if you think about all the different techniques that you 234 00:11:27,060 --> 00:11:29,460 could practice on with just those three ingredients. 235 00:11:29,620 --> 00:11:31,180 Let's take the chicken for example. 236 00:11:33,310 --> 00:11:36,270 With the chicken, just with the chicken, you could practice so 237 00:11:36,270 --> 00:11:38,390 many different cooking methods. You could braise the chicken, 238 00:11:38,670 --> 00:11:41,430 You could roast the chicken. You could Stew the chicken. 239 00:11:41,430 --> 00:11:42,790 You could Frick see, you could make soup. 240 00:11:43,350 --> 00:11:48,110 You could fry the chicken. You learn trussing techniques. 241 00:11:48,110 --> 00:11:50,670 So again, that's another layered technique on top of the chicken. 242 00:11:50,670 --> 00:11:54,030 You could learn how to trust. And of course, you could learn 243 00:11:54,030 --> 00:11:55,750 multiple ways to trust the chicken. 244 00:11:55,750 --> 00:11:58,390 A lot of different ways to do something correctly. 245 00:11:58,390 --> 00:12:02,190 Depending on who's teaching you, you could learn boning skills, 246 00:12:02,390 --> 00:12:06,110 so. And I mean, taking apart the 247 00:12:06,110 --> 00:12:09,910 meat from the bone skills, you could debone the chicken. 248 00:12:10,430 --> 00:12:12,550 Once you understand, you know, where the joints are, where the 249 00:12:12,550 --> 00:12:16,830 articulation is, you, you really get a lot of practice with the 250 00:12:16,830 --> 00:12:19,750 chicken. Other birds are very similar. 251 00:12:20,030 --> 00:12:24,430 So ducks, pheasant, etcetera, they're all kind of structured 252 00:12:24,430 --> 00:12:27,230 the same. And a chicken, it's not exactly 253 00:12:27,230 --> 00:12:29,570 like a bigger animal. But if you understand how to 254 00:12:29,570 --> 00:12:31,890 break down chickens and you understand where bones, meat and 255 00:12:31,890 --> 00:12:33,890 you understand where muscle meats and tendons and things 256 00:12:33,890 --> 00:12:35,890 like that, then you have a better idea. 257 00:12:35,890 --> 00:12:40,810 As you move on to larger animals like whole pigs or cows, you 258 00:12:40,810 --> 00:12:42,610 start to understand how to break down animals. 259 00:12:42,610 --> 00:12:45,290 But you got to start with chickens, start small, You could 260 00:12:45,290 --> 00:12:49,570 learn how to saute, you could debone your chicken thigh and 261 00:12:49,570 --> 00:12:51,650 you could make a roulade. You could take some of the meat 262 00:12:51,650 --> 00:12:54,090 and you could make a farce. You could then. 263 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:57,480 Do more advanced skills, like learn how to remove the skin in 264 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,960 its entirety on the chicken. Not to mention, now that you've 265 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:04,000 deboned the chicken, you could learn how to make stock, right? 266 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,040 Yes, there's some subtle changes going from a white stock to a 267 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:12,280 dark stock, but you're going to have so many skills that you 268 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:14,200 could practice just with that chicken. 269 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,680 The next one, like I said, potatoes with potatoes. 270 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:20,880 Again, you could practice all your knife cuts, your julienne, 271 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,790 your brunois, your tornay, etc. But there's other skills that 272 00:13:24,790 --> 00:13:27,590 that potato could lend to, like making mashed potatoes. 273 00:13:27,790 --> 00:13:35,150 Make potato salad, Make French fries, Make roasty, Make the 274 00:13:35,750 --> 00:13:39,230 Joel Rubicon palm puree with a lot of butter in it. 275 00:13:39,750 --> 00:13:42,750 There's a difference between just mashing your potatoes and 276 00:13:42,750 --> 00:13:45,430 then making a palm puree where you're adding in. 277 00:13:45,430 --> 00:13:47,870 I think it's equal amounts of butter. 278 00:13:49,390 --> 00:13:51,150 Maybe you put clarified butter as well. 279 00:13:51,150 --> 00:13:52,670 Maybe you do cream, maybe you do milk. 280 00:13:52,670 --> 00:13:53,630 I don't know. That's up to you. 281 00:13:55,990 --> 00:13:58,150 But you're passing the potatoes through a food mill. 282 00:13:58,150 --> 00:14:00,950 Maybe you're running them through a Tammy afterwards to 283 00:14:00,950 --> 00:14:02,830 make sure that they are extra silky smooth. 284 00:14:03,670 --> 00:14:05,870 I'm going to, I'm going to digress for a minute. 285 00:14:05,870 --> 00:14:09,510 I'm going to tell you a story. I had a sous chef one time and 286 00:14:10,270 --> 00:14:13,030 he gave me some potatoes to try and he said, what do you think 287 00:14:13,030 --> 00:14:15,870 of these potatoes? I said, yeah, they're fine. 288 00:14:16,330 --> 00:14:17,930 And he said just fine. I said, yeah, they're fine. 289 00:14:17,930 --> 00:14:19,650 They're, you know, he's like what? 290 00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:23,410 He's like, these are excellent. And I could tell he was a little 291 00:14:23,410 --> 00:14:26,090 bit annoyed by me because I just thought the potatoes were fine 292 00:14:26,090 --> 00:14:27,450 where he thought they were excellent. 293 00:14:27,930 --> 00:14:30,650 And so I said, well, let me teach you how to make this style 294 00:14:30,650 --> 00:14:33,970 of pompere, like the Joel Rubicon style potatoes. 295 00:14:35,770 --> 00:14:37,850 And so I taught him how to make it. 296 00:14:37,850 --> 00:14:40,650 I said, now taste these and then taste those and tell me what you 297 00:14:40,650 --> 00:14:42,410 think. And he says they both taste the 298 00:14:42,410 --> 00:14:44,650 same. Now at that point I realized. 299 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:50,000 He couldn't tell the difference between the two because an 300 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,440 experienced palette will tell you one was significantly 301 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:54,760 better. So I told him, do this, then do 302 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,080 me a favor. I want you to make potatoes like 303 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,160 I just taught you. And every day I want you to 304 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:00,640 bring them down. And we're going to taste them 305 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:03,200 together and we're going to critique, is it too much butter, 306 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,320 Not enough butter, too much salt, not enough salt, etcetera. 307 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,800 And for the next 30 days, I only want you to try these potatoes 308 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:12,680 that you're going to make with me. 309 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:15,520 And we're going to constantly tweak and adjust so that it has 310 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,960 the perfect flavor. And he said okay. 311 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,640 He didn't understand the assignment, but for 30 days he 312 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:26,280 made these palm puree, didn't taste anything else, no other 313 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,040 style of potatoes. And we'd sit there and we'd 314 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:31,640 adjust and we'd have a conversation on needs more salt, 315 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,680 maybe a little bit more butter, maybe put some clarified, maybe 316 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:36,760 add a little bit of cream or milk. 317 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:40,040 Maybe we're putting white pepper. 318 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:41,960 I don't remember. We were probably put on white 319 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:42,870 pepper. I'm not. 320 00:15:42,950 --> 00:15:45,830 I'm not a big black pepper fan and and mashed potatoes anyway, 321 00:15:46,350 --> 00:15:49,910 point being 30 days later we come back to the potatoes and I 322 00:15:49,910 --> 00:15:54,230 say now the potatoes that you made, make them the way you used 323 00:15:54,230 --> 00:15:55,630 to make them but don't taste them. 324 00:15:56,070 --> 00:16:01,750 Then he made them, I said okay now try them side by side and 325 00:16:01,750 --> 00:16:05,430 when he tried them side by side he was like oh shit these 326 00:16:05,430 --> 00:16:07,990 potatoes are significantly better and I said you see he's 327 00:16:07,990 --> 00:16:13,300 like I didn't know and that. Illustrates you know there's 328 00:16:13,300 --> 00:16:17,540 this, there's the story about the king that has the best cake 329 00:16:18,140 --> 00:16:21,420 and so it goes like this. I'll share the story with you. 330 00:16:22,060 --> 00:16:27,140 There's a king and he wanted to experience what his Kingdom was 331 00:16:27,140 --> 00:16:30,380 like so he had to put himself in a disguise and experiences 332 00:16:30,380 --> 00:16:31,740 Kingdom. So he's wandering through the 333 00:16:31,740 --> 00:16:36,740 streets and he saw a sign on the shop window that said best cake 334 00:16:36,820 --> 00:16:39,460 in all the Kingdom. The king went and spoke to the 335 00:16:39,460 --> 00:16:41,780 Baker and said. I heard you had the best cake in 336 00:16:41,780 --> 00:16:43,140 all the Kingdom. I want to try it. 337 00:16:43,580 --> 00:16:46,620 So the Baker says, OK, gives him the cake and he has the king. 338 00:16:46,620 --> 00:16:48,860 What do you think? And the king says that's a 339 00:16:48,860 --> 00:16:51,300 little dry, could have used it, a little of this, could use a 340 00:16:51,300 --> 00:16:53,420 little of that. And the Baker was highly 341 00:16:53,420 --> 00:16:54,740 offended and said, what are you talking about? 342 00:16:54,740 --> 00:16:55,900 This is the best cake at all the Kingdom. 343 00:16:55,900 --> 00:16:57,220 And started to get a little puffed up. 344 00:16:57,820 --> 00:16:59,540 The king was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 345 00:17:00,460 --> 00:17:02,620 I'm the king. And the, you know, the Baker was 346 00:17:02,620 --> 00:17:04,060 very apologetic after that. I'm sorry. 347 00:17:04,060 --> 00:17:05,700 I didn't know you were the king. He's like, it's OK. 348 00:17:05,700 --> 00:17:06,819 But here's what I want you to do. 349 00:17:07,099 --> 00:17:09,339 I want you to come to my castle and I'm going to put on a 350 00:17:09,339 --> 00:17:11,130 banquet. And we're going to try cake 351 00:17:11,130 --> 00:17:14,770 together that my pastry chef makes. 352 00:17:16,770 --> 00:17:18,970 So the Baker thought, well, I don't know why I got to do this. 353 00:17:18,970 --> 00:17:21,730 I make the best cake in the Kingdom, whatever, let's go try 354 00:17:21,730 --> 00:17:23,250 and, you know, placate them or whatever. 355 00:17:23,890 --> 00:17:27,490 So they go, and the king puts on this lavish banquet, brings over 356 00:17:27,490 --> 00:17:31,090 the cake that his pastry chef makes and gives it to this 357 00:17:31,090 --> 00:17:34,130 person. And as they were trying it, then 358 00:17:34,130 --> 00:17:37,490 they began to weep and the king says, what do you think? 359 00:17:38,340 --> 00:17:40,180 And the Baker says I had no idea. 360 00:17:41,980 --> 00:17:44,540 And the reason I tell that story is because a lot of times you 361 00:17:44,540 --> 00:17:48,660 don't have a frame of reference of really what excellence or I 362 00:17:48,660 --> 00:17:51,500 should say to what level of excellence, Perfection, 363 00:17:51,500 --> 00:17:53,340 something. Or to what level something of 364 00:17:53,340 --> 00:17:56,540 excellence can be attained if you haven't really tried it yet. 365 00:17:57,020 --> 00:17:58,900 Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know. 366 00:17:59,420 --> 00:18:01,540 But anyway, we digress. Back to potatoes. 367 00:18:01,820 --> 00:18:04,500 You can also learn how to make gnocchi and all sorts of other 368 00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:05,900 things. And then. 369 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:08,480 With regards to the next thing I would bring in, I would bring in 370 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,680 eggs and again with eggs you could learn all sorts of skills. 371 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,400 We were talking earlier about the temperature control. 372 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,040 With cooking fish, well the same thing applies when cooking eggs. 373 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:20,880 There's a big difference in the heat between an over easy or 374 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:24,680 sunny side up and an over hard and everything in between. 375 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:27,680 Or the difference between an American style omelet which has 376 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,920 curds that are browned, or a French style omelet which has no 377 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,200 curds and it's silky and smooth and it doesn't have holes in the 378 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,350 pockets. On the outside, you shouldn't 379 00:18:36,350 --> 00:18:37,950 see holes that should be perfectly smooth. 380 00:18:37,950 --> 00:18:39,750 On the inside, the curds should be light. 381 00:18:40,630 --> 00:18:44,070 To get to that point requires a high level of technical skill. 382 00:18:44,950 --> 00:18:47,510 You're going to learn a lot like pan control when it goes on and 383 00:18:47,510 --> 00:18:50,750 off the heat, That little tip of just banging your pan once to 384 00:18:50,750 --> 00:18:54,870 make sure that the curd settles. How to roll it? 385 00:18:54,990 --> 00:18:57,230 How to roll it onto a plate? Are you going to fill it? 386 00:18:57,230 --> 00:19:00,230 Are you going to garnish it? Is it just an omelet, or do you 387 00:19:00,230 --> 00:19:02,710 brush it with clarified butter afterwards? 388 00:19:02,750 --> 00:19:04,910 Do you season it with finishing salt? 389 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,040 Do you put chives on it? Are your chives cut nicely or do 390 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:11,640 you have shit chives? Right. 391 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:15,680 Another skill that's important. But anyway, back to eggs. 392 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,680 You learn how to poach, ice fry eggs, omelets, souffle custards, 393 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,480 so on and so forth. Like so many skills just from 394 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:26,160 working with eggs, potatoes, chickens, And then I would throw 395 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:28,480 in onions, right? Because with an onion also you 396 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:30,240 could practice that julienne, that dice. 397 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,680 You just sit there and julienne onions all day. 398 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,940 Make onion soup. So much can be done with the 399 00:19:36,940 --> 00:19:40,340 most simple ingredients. Now if you wanted to level that 400 00:19:40,340 --> 00:19:43,580 up and say OK, I've gotten really proficient at these 401 00:19:43,580 --> 00:19:45,700 ingredients. Onions, chickens, potatoes, boom 402 00:19:45,940 --> 00:19:49,420 brunois, cooking, fish braising. I got it down. 403 00:19:49,940 --> 00:19:52,180 Then I would say time to graduate to something more 404 00:19:52,180 --> 00:19:55,740 difficult for me. The way I would introduce the 405 00:19:55,740 --> 00:20:00,340 difficulty setting next to a cook would be from a vegetable 406 00:20:00,340 --> 00:20:02,860 standpoint, I'd say artichokes, because it's like the Achilles 407 00:20:02,860 --> 00:20:06,560 heel of all chefs. Hence why so many people buy 408 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,360 canned artichokes or artichokes that are already clean because 409 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:11,600 they're difficult to clean. They take time. 410 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,040 You got to you got to have some dexterity with a knife, a paring 411 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:18,480 knife or whatever kind of knife that you're using to clean the 412 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,280 artichoke. So I would say start working on 413 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,000 artichokes and then cooking artichokes is also a skill. 414 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,160 Do you braise them? Do you cook them sous vide? 415 00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,360 Do you blanch them? Do you grill them? 416 00:20:30,360 --> 00:20:31,800 Like how do you cook your artichokes? 417 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:34,830 There's a different way. And again, that little handy 418 00:20:34,870 --> 00:20:37,390 metal skewer comes in handy to know when the artichokes are 419 00:20:37,390 --> 00:20:39,550 done. So I would say going from those 420 00:20:39,550 --> 00:20:42,670 skills graduate to artichokes, then I would say graduate to 421 00:20:42,670 --> 00:20:45,830 shellfish cookery. So learn how to cook lobsters, 422 00:20:45,830 --> 00:20:47,670 learn how to break down lobsters, learn how to Shuck 423 00:20:47,670 --> 00:20:49,230 oysters, learn how to cook mussels. 424 00:20:51,030 --> 00:20:53,150 Lobsters is one of those things that I think people should learn 425 00:20:53,150 --> 00:20:54,390 how to do. Because when you start to learn 426 00:20:54,390 --> 00:20:57,750 how to break down lobsters or crabs, like there's there's a 427 00:20:57,750 --> 00:20:58,910 certain way that you break them down. 428 00:20:58,910 --> 00:21:00,630 Like when you do, you remove the head. 429 00:21:01,030 --> 00:21:02,760 Do you? Cut the gills out of the 430 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:04,640 lobster. What do you do with the shells? 431 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:08,360 How do you make sauce again, one of those, one of those 432 00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:10,400 ingredients that have multiple layers with this, with the 433 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:12,880 lobster, not only can you use the meat, but you could also 434 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,640 turn the shells into bisque or sauce or lobster butter or 435 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,600 something like that. And then you know, basically 436 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,800 just to wrap it up. I would say the last skill I 437 00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,240 would introduce someone in in terms of complexity would be 438 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:26,000 like doughs and pasta and things like that. 439 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,440 So learn how to make pasta dough, learn how to make 440 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:30,600 raviolis, learn all the different shapes like. 441 00:21:31,140 --> 00:21:33,700 Pasta's an art by the way. Shout out to Ryan Peters doing a 442 00:21:33,740 --> 00:21:36,380 video with Mr. Beast. I thought that was pretty cool. 443 00:21:38,100 --> 00:21:40,500 I don't know, he had like 10,000 eggs or 20,000 eggs. 444 00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:45,420 There's a lot of eggs. Anyway, I'm not going to make 445 00:21:45,420 --> 00:21:48,100 that much pasta, but learning how to make pasta is a great 446 00:21:48,100 --> 00:21:49,260 skill. You you should learn. 447 00:21:49,300 --> 00:21:50,660 You should learn how to make pasta. 448 00:21:50,660 --> 00:21:51,700 I already know how to make pasta. 449 00:21:53,260 --> 00:21:56,620 Anyway, that's it. The next episode I want to do is 450 00:21:56,620 --> 00:21:58,660 I do want to do something. I get a lot of requests to do 451 00:21:58,660 --> 00:22:03,330 something on food cost. And so I am thinking of just 452 00:22:03,330 --> 00:22:07,570 doing a maybe one to two parter on deep dive into food cost. 453 00:22:07,570 --> 00:22:09,690 If that's something that you all want to listen to, let me know. 454 00:22:10,170 --> 00:22:12,090 You could comment on this podcast or you could leave a 455 00:22:12,090 --> 00:22:14,050 message or something on Spotify so I could read it. 456 00:22:14,370 --> 00:22:16,810 So if you want to hear a food cost podcast, let me know and 457 00:22:16,810 --> 00:22:19,050 I'll do a deep dive on to how to manage food costs and how to 458 00:22:19,050 --> 00:22:21,170 look food cost. And if you want to support the 459 00:22:21,170 --> 00:22:23,370 show, you know what to do. Make sure you leave five stars. 460 00:22:23,370 --> 00:22:25,370 I appreciate it. Nothing less than five stars. 461 00:22:25,770 --> 00:22:27,560 I'm on YouTube now. I'm putting. 462 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,720 I'm practicing my editing skills so you can go watch the podcast 463 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,440 with overlaid video. I'm going back and doing all the 464 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,040 old podcasts. So there's two of the old 465 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,280 podcasts. Episodes one and two are now on 466 00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:39,360 YouTube. Go watch them. 467 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,920 If you're waiting for the Spanish books, they will be out. 468 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,840 Go get the books. Everything's on chefs psa.com. 469 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:47,480 Go support your favorite podcast, which should be this 470 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,880 one If it's someone else's podcast, like, come on, what's 471 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:52,520 wrong with you? I'll dare you. 472 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:55,640 Anyway, see you all next week. Hit the porno music.