In the linked paper I quoted from Meyer and Land (2003) on cooking, and went on to say "Perhaps the fact that I do not find that obvious accounts in some measure for my failings as a cook! Despite the reference to the physical equations about heat transfer, there is no suggestion that it has to be "understood" at that academic level."
Well—look here! "The Invisible Ingredient in Every Kitchen" is a great bite-size exposition from the New York Times of a couple of days ago.
It worked for me, in terms of understanding what is going on (better in fact than Heston Blumenthal's (2006) In search of perfection London; Bloomsbury ; always reference correctly even when the source is downright silly, as this one is!)
Since somehow I am on to that... Implicit in Blumenthal's title is a (tongue-in-cheek) assumptions that there is a definitive version of several classic recipes. But the point of all of them is that they are themes around which there are countless variations; that is what makes them classics (we're not necessarily talking haute cuisine here; he has chapters on roast chicken, fish and chips, bangers and mash...).
Question, folks! How do Blumenthal's recipes relate to learning how to cook?
Several years ago, we had a really good student who taught cooking. (As I write that I become aware that he taught chefs. It's not the same thing. But he did not teach "catering", because he was really keen on the hands-on skills of cooking--but on a large scale.) However! I vividly remember him telling me that his principal problem was getting his trainees to eat what they cooked. Often they did not want to taste it! What was the threshold concept for his students?
Sunday 6 January 2008
If you can't stand the heat...
Posted by James A at 18:12
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From the little I know about Blumenthal, I would venture to suggest that the reason his cooking can be so experimental and avant garde (or just way out) is because the fundamental principles of cooking have become second nature to him, as they are to all good cooks. Surely these are the threshold concepts of cooking? You don't have to have academic or scientific understanding - you don't have to be able to explain why heat transference takes place -but you do need to understand that cheese melts under a grill, that chocolate melts best in a bowl over water, that dill enhances the flavour of fish or cheese but doesn't go with red meat ... once you've 'got' a range of threshold concepts (or just basic principles?) you can much about and experiment successfully in the kitchen. Now how I wish I was teaching cookery rather than English!!
ReplyDeleteSpot on! Once you have got a threshold concept it becomes (if you permit it---that's the ontological challenge) a part of you.
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