The Daily Grind, Chop and Fry

Some people’s fascination with life behind a professional cooking line borders on the obsessive. Having spent fifteen years on the other side of the line, I got some of the benefit of the insanely long hours and buckets of sweat the pros I worked with put in, without actually having to work that hard. Some of the things I picked up help me speed up in the kitchen, and I need all of the help I can get.

• Keep your stuff where you use it. I measure out all of my baking ingredients in one place, and keep a separate set of baker’s measuring scoops in the same cabinet as the flour. Cornbread takes four minutes to make.

• Take a knife skills class. Watching my friend Arlene do prep one day, I asked how she got so fast and she said, simply, “knife class.” She went to Le Cordon Bleu – they don’t show that in Julie and Julia*. But of course she had to take that. If I had to take Color Theory, why wouldn’t beginning culinary students have to learn to use a knife? Or you could spend three years at a prep station, chopping onions and carrots. And unless you really know how to sharpen it, get your chef’s knife sharpened professionally, regularly. (I’m terrible about this. I hate to give up my knives for the day or two it takes to get them done.  I keep a little sharpener right below the cutting board that does a decent job and doesn’t damage the edge. But it doesn’t compare to the edge the knife has when it is actually sharp.)

• Set up a proper prep area. Get your chopping surface high enough that you are comfortable and aren’t straining your shoulders and neck; fresh vegetarian cooking requires more chopping, dicing, peeling, etc than many other kinds of cooking, and you will be faster and happier if you think about the ergonomics of your work. Put a bright enough light bulb on your work surface. Have a bowl handy for your waste, and enough other containers and plates for the things you have chopped. One minute spent getting ready at the beginning saves a lot of time spinning around in the kitchen later. Fill a sink with hot soapy water for bowls, etc. Sadly, we don’t get pot washers.

Everything you need can be right where you need it.

Unless you have a fantasy kitchen, you have to make decisions about what you are willing to give up in order to gain utility. I have a nice island and cook top, but otherwise my kitchen is pretty badly designed, with old appliances and dismal cabinet space. I had to turn my hall closet into a pantry. I have very few appliances that I do not use at least weekly, and any large dishes, appliances etc. that aren’t in regular use are stashed in a spare room or the garage. I looked longingly at an apple corer for a year before finally deciding to buy it and give it room in a drawer. I’m still not sure I did the right thing. So you can bet that when I devoted a whole drawer to knives and cutting boards and sharpeners, I did not do it lightly. I could not have been more thrilled when I found the Wusthof In Drawer Knife Block, 7 Slot at Sur la Table and it fit perfectly.

*For a really entertaining book about what it is like to go to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, read The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School. The first person I met who had attended Cordon Bleu (in London) was the great Lydia Shire, when we were both working at The Parker House Hotel in Boston. I was in awe – both the school and the line were both still very much the dominion of men, and she was – and is – a pioneer.