What makes someone a great chef?

[caesar]

Whenever I cook, even following a famous recipe, my dog won't eat it.

How much of making great tasting food is following the recipe, or is it the timing of adding the ingredients, or something else? What makes someone's food taste better?

 

[RogerD]

Whenever I cook, even following a famous recipe, my dog won't eat it.

Anybody can cook a meal,it's making it taste delicious that's hard. I found this book helpful,as different seasonings and joining complimentary foods together can make all the difference.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400

Also you might purchase some good carbon steel pans. They brown all meats beatifully and are also excellant pans for general cooking.

http://www.amazon.com/World-Cuisine-Carbon-Steel-Frying/dp/B000ECQ83M

 

[JackD201]

Well, I'm not a great chef but my friends and family look forward to my being in the mood to cook so I guess I'm okay.

Know your temp and how it affects your ingredients. It will determine flavor and texture. There's lot's of chemistry going on here so having a good handle on cause and effect will get you a loooooong way.

Personally, I look at recipes for ingredients and procedure but do not follow quantities religiously. There can be a huge discrepancy in taste between what they were using when they made the recipes and what's available to us at any given point in time. For example, if a recipe calls for tomatoes and what you get at the store is bland, you might need to add some acidity, sweetness or both.

Now what makes a great chef IMO? Creativity

 

[Gregadd]

Seasoning / Tastebuds/ Presentation. Like anything wanting to make the perfect dish is essential

 

[Keith_W]

I don't think it is the recipe that makes a dish, it is the technique. The problem with nearly every cookbook is that they are didactic. They repeat the same mistake by telling you to cook a chicken according to time, or fry a steak for x minutes on one side before flipping, or use "one cup" of flour and "half a stick" of butter, etc. What they should be doing is being more precise with instructions. A roast chicken does not need a dozen herbs and spices to make it taste good. All you need is salt, and proper cooking! If you pay attention to technique, and improve the precision of your cooking - you will be a much better cook.

 

[garylkoh]

A great chef must first love to eat.

Then, he needs to be a bit of a pyromaniac and have a very good feel of temperatures and fire. We Chinese call it "wok hei" or wok-breath where exactly the right amount of heat is used for each dish.

Then, a bit of alchemy because cooking afterall is blending the symphony of flavors - to know that the tomato is bland, and knowing exactly how much acidity and sweetness to put in.

Finally, an artist (which I fail miserably at but Keith seems to have mastered) to plate the meal in an appetizing and appealing manner.

 

[JackD201]

A great chef must first love to eat.

Then, he needs to be a bit of a pyromaniac and have a very good feel of temperatures and fire. We Chinese call it "wok hei" or wok-breath where exactly the right amount of heat is used for each dish.

Then, a bit of alchemy because cooking afterall is blending the symphony of flavors - to know that the tomato is bland, and knowing exactly how much acidity and sweetness to put in.

Finally, an artist (which I fail miserably at but Keith seems to have mastered) to plate the meal in an appetizing and appealing manner.

Love to eat!!!!!!!! Too bad it shows on me. LOL!!!!

There's nothing like exposure. Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. That said, I'll always take quality over quantity and quality need not be expensive. To build up a good frame of reference, eat out more. There's so much inspiration to be derived from sampling the work of professionals that make a successful living off of their talents.

Gary, Cantonese cuisine has always had me in awe precisely because of wok hei. I was at a birthday banquet last night in Makati among the dishes were finely sliced abalone, shrimp and cuttlefish in XO sauce, steamed grouper and a variation of yang chow using black olives, Salt and Pepper Duck Bones (2nd way of the Peking Duck). The symphony of flavors and textures was terrific.

A perfect example of proper temp is shrimps that pop in your mouth. That's not too hard. Now getting cuttlefish to be cooked through being firm but not rubbery in the slightest.......that's wok hei!!!

 

[RogerD]

Love to eat!!!!!!!! Too bad it shows on me. LOL!!!!

There's nothing like exposure. Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. That said, I'll always take quality over quantity and quality need not be expensive. To build up a good frame of reference, eat out more. There's so much inspiration to be derived from sampling the work of professionals that make a successful living off of their talents.

Gary, Cantonese cuisine has always had me in awe precisely because of wok hei. I was at a birthday banquet last night in Makati among the dishes were finely sliced abalone, shrimp and cuttlefish in XO sauce, steamed grouper and a variation of yang chow using black olives, Salt and Pepper Duck Bones (2nd way of the Peking Duck). The symphony of flavors and textures was terrific.

A perfect example of proper temp is shrimps that pop in your mouth. That's not too hard. Now getting cuttlefish to be cooked through being firm but not rubbery in the slightest.......that's wok hei!!!

You guys are making me hungry!

 

[garylkoh]

Jack, that must have been a real master chef. I wouldn't even begin to dare to try abalone, shrimp and cuttlefish in XO sauce. Three ingredients that define the need for precision in wok hei - and cooked together in one dish. Wow.

I certainly live to eat Luckily, so does my whole family!

 

[Ronm1]

Attitude plays a large part, IMHO. Do you truly enjoy preparing for friends, colleagues, family, self, or is it a chore that has to be done.

 

[RogerD]

Proper preparation is always important. I learned this when I started baking and also when cooking Chinese meals or Sushi. Take your time and have everything ready before you start. Also learn to cook by temperature. You do not need to use high heat all the time. Except for browning meats,ect., or to achieve Wok hei, a lower heat level is always better and less stressful.

I have a small collection of cookbooks,maybe 200+ but these two books are really helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-James-Peterson/dp/1580087892

http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Recip...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335279906&sr=1-1

 

[MylesBAstor]

Attitude plays a large part, IMHO. Do you truly enjoy preparing for friends, colleagues, family, self, or is it a chore that has to be done.

Having taken a few cooking courses, what differentiates the amateur from the professional chef is the understanding of chemistry. It's understanding how to extract the oils from the spices. It's about understanding how adding acids and bases together affects the flavor.

 

[garylkoh]

Attitude plays a large part, IMHO. Do you truly enjoy preparing for friends, colleagues, family, self, or is it a chore that has to be done.

Yes, I love to cook - in particular for an appreciative audience of foodies.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

I'm not a great chef, but I'm a pretty decent cook, and I think it is all of the above - desire, attitude, fire, timing. It is knowing how to follow a recipe and knowing when to ignore one. I knew I was getting pretty decent at cooking when I began to look at recipes as rough guidelines instead of rules. But I think the thing that separates the people who are getting something edible on the table from the folks that are putting some crafstmanship on the plate is flavor awareness. Do you know what cumin does in a dish, when to use it and why? In combination with what? Is your awareness basic, like you know it goes in chili, or do you know what you'll get if you combine it with nutmeg or curry? If you don't know fro? experience, can you guess? Most of it happens in the nose.

Tim

 

[Soundproof]

What makes someone a great chef?

The ability to improvise. Which is why so few women are great chefs.

 

[RogerD]

What makes someone a great chef?

The ability to improvise. Which is why so few women are great chefs.

Ouch!

 

[DaveyF]

What makes someone a great chef?

The ability to improvise. Which is why so few women are great chefs.

Soundproof, better NOT say that to your mother or your wife/significant other, otherwise someone in Oslo, Norway, may be losing a lot of weight, LOL.

 

[JackD201]

What makes someone a great chef?

The ability to improvise. Which is why so few women are great chefs.

I'd attribute that to the physical rigors of being a chef rather than the lack of ability to improvise.

 

[Soundproof]

Soundproof, better NOT say that to your mother or your wife/significant other, otherwise someone in Oslo, Norway, may be losing a lot of weight, LOL.

I've actually discussed this with leading chefs, including women who cook well. And there's been general agreement. I have also discussed this with my mother, who cooks phenomenally but follows set recipes.
Cookbooks are for people who can't find their own way. Great chefs make their own way, and a key ingredient is the ability to improvise, from a deep set of learned skills.
There are countless women who can follow a score in classical music, and interpret it well. But how many great female jazz improvisers can you name? And please, no Diana Krall.

Improvisation is the key secret of the great chefs.

However, my mother's flan is of Tour d'Argent quality, and she spends three days on her gnocci sauce. Her leg of lamb is world class every single time. She displays absolute connoisseurship in selecting ingredients.
Yet she does not improvise, she always follows set recipes, learnt from her grandmother and being transmitted to my daughter, and me. The food my mother makes never deviates from the plan defined by the recipe she follows, whereas great chefs improvise continuously, always looking for new juxtapositions of succulence, flavor, texture, nose and lingering delicious aftertaste.

 

[JackD201]

The fact that there are more male leading chefs than there are female does not constitute a lack of ability in women. Watch Iron Chef Japan or Top Chef Master Edition and you will see many, many women who can and do extraordinary things on the fly. Again I maintain that the long, arduous working hours required for being a chef attracts less women to top restaurants. It's harder than raising a newborn. You will however see scores of them in the less demanding catering and private chef segments of the culinary profession.