I've recently been watching the new channel 4 series, "How to cook like Heston" in which Heston Blumenthal gives tips on common ingredients, how to cook them and recipes to utilise them to their greatest extent.
As I have mentioned before, I am a very keen, modestly able, cook. Oddly enough, I also love eating!
Consequently, I do watch an awful lot of cooking programmes (and there's hardly a shortage of them). In my opinion, they do offer some useful inspiration as well as tips on how to do basic things such as seasoning and chopping.
This recent Blumenthal programme has caused the scales to fall from my eyes. He has been an idol to me, as he has to many for a few reasons. Firstly, he is self-taught. To me, running a successful restaurant when self-taught is impressive. Achieving such high accolades is phenomenal.
Secondly is his ingenuity. Looking at some of the dishes he comes up with makes my head spin. With most chefs, I look at their dishes and think that, given the equipment and possibly a recipe I could have a fair stab at recreating it.; maybe not to the same standard but certainly make something that's recognisable as the same dish. With Heston I can barely even comprehend what he makes never mind have the vaguest idea where to start... and not just the stuff that's playing with liquid nitrogen. Another example would also be simultaneously hot and cold tea... who needs acid when stuff like that can be made?
Finally I really admire his questioning of accepted wisdom and his application of science. This is what the latest programme focuses on. Blumenthal explains techniques and explains how they work. A good example of this would be his recommendation to cook meat at a low temperature for a long time. Using basic biology it's obvious. The cooking temperature is high enough to fatally damage harmful bacteria but below the boiling point of water (which is the majority component of virtually all tissue) hence the meat retains the juices and stays very moist. Obvious when you think of it but still flying in the face of popular wisdom. I love this questioning attitude and the willingness to play with convention.
His enthusiasm is also infectious. Part of it is genuine love of food and cooking, part of it is a practical joker at work surprising diners and part of it is raw boyish enthusiasm for playing with stuff you can hurt yourself on. I share many of these traits and I like this programme as it lets me share, albeit slightly in the pleasure he must gain from his work.
If you haven't watched it already, have a look in on it.
JR
As I have mentioned before, I am a very keen, modestly able, cook. Oddly enough, I also love eating!
Consequently, I do watch an awful lot of cooking programmes (and there's hardly a shortage of them). In my opinion, they do offer some useful inspiration as well as tips on how to do basic things such as seasoning and chopping.
This recent Blumenthal programme has caused the scales to fall from my eyes. He has been an idol to me, as he has to many for a few reasons. Firstly, he is self-taught. To me, running a successful restaurant when self-taught is impressive. Achieving such high accolades is phenomenal.
Secondly is his ingenuity. Looking at some of the dishes he comes up with makes my head spin. With most chefs, I look at their dishes and think that, given the equipment and possibly a recipe I could have a fair stab at recreating it.; maybe not to the same standard but certainly make something that's recognisable as the same dish. With Heston I can barely even comprehend what he makes never mind have the vaguest idea where to start... and not just the stuff that's playing with liquid nitrogen. Another example would also be simultaneously hot and cold tea... who needs acid when stuff like that can be made?
Finally I really admire his questioning of accepted wisdom and his application of science. This is what the latest programme focuses on. Blumenthal explains techniques and explains how they work. A good example of this would be his recommendation to cook meat at a low temperature for a long time. Using basic biology it's obvious. The cooking temperature is high enough to fatally damage harmful bacteria but below the boiling point of water (which is the majority component of virtually all tissue) hence the meat retains the juices and stays very moist. Obvious when you think of it but still flying in the face of popular wisdom. I love this questioning attitude and the willingness to play with convention.
His enthusiasm is also infectious. Part of it is genuine love of food and cooking, part of it is a practical joker at work surprising diners and part of it is raw boyish enthusiasm for playing with stuff you can hurt yourself on. I share many of these traits and I like this programme as it lets me share, albeit slightly in the pleasure he must gain from his work.
If you haven't watched it already, have a look in on it.
JR
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