Chef Studio mentorship training
The Chef Studio offers a unique learning experience where professionals and amateurs build solid cooking skills in an old world mentorship tradition. It is dedicated to rigorous training which open doors of possibility as skills move from being practiced to mastered.
As Robert Reynolds describes it: “Each students has their own story fueled by their own enthusiasm. In the kitchen I take them through the repertoire of the subject of cooking, leading them through the academic part, the formulas, physics and chemistry that constitutes the discipline that good cooking demands. At a next stage I take them through a gastronomic tour of France, preparing dishes from the different regions always accompanied by wines so they may internalize the harmony that results from following season, soil and culture.
As the training progresses the cooks come to appreciate what is before them. They are conscious and careful about the rituals. They develop timing, sit before food, regard its colors and inhale its aromas. Their appreciation comes to the fore in a totally unself-conscious process. They learn to expect, knowing that expectation is the motor that drives the whole process. As they taste, reflect and respond, I marvel at how has all of this comes to be.
It may start with a potato or an onion, a chive or a chicken. It is not obvious how to lead students to authenticity and simplicity. Their beginning expectations are often very inflated. They have waited a long time to come to study. They are full of fantasy. They have made an enormous decision to learn about food. Their job is to be open, something that is neither evident nor easy, however it is a pleasurable task and fortunately that helps.
Americans have an image of food that mostly comes from restaurant experience. However, food is meant to nourish body and spirit, in variety, style, technique and presentation. It forms part of the fabric of life centered around the table. Restaurants come second. There is a lot for students to learn and to un-learn. So we start with techniques.
Madeleiine Kamman explained: “Sear your meats, then season them. That way you build up layers of flavor.”
I will forever hear Josephine Araldo saying: “This dish is constructed this way, first you do this…. “Or, “Cooking is only about texture and taste.”
“Look always in the saucepan. You’ve put an ingredient in the pan for a reason, determine when it is where it should be, where you want it to be. Then go on.”
” Judgement is called for at every step along the way.”
” Nothing happens by accident.”
Students are shaped first by the flavor of the ensemble, then by the magic. Slowly over time they learn to appreciate particular things. When they do, I take my cue from Josephine of simply preparing dishes from good ingredients. “A gourmet dish,” she said, “is a well prepared dish. Period.”
” The flour, sugar, butter and eggs that go into a cake are enough to flavor it. When ingredients don’t have flavor, you often add a flavoring to make up for that, but now experience the dish simply.”
“When you cook the potatoes eat the potatoes by themselves and treat the butter and the salt as though they were a sauce, but have the potato alone.”
Among my objectives is to give these cooks a standard of excellence against which they can judge when they find themselves alone in the kitchen. It seems to me that the psychological component of cooking demands self-possession. So the subject, the learning situations, and the environment must conspire to engender the feeling that “I know this.” It doesn’t mean that you know everything, but that you work with what you know very well and build from that.
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The next 8-week apprenticeship course begins
January 3rd and runs through February 24th
In addition to an evening 8-week session
There are three 4-part series
One series on baking is taught by Kristen D. Murray
Pastry chef at Paley’s Place Restaurant
A second series is on The very basics of home cooking
A third series on Understanding Indian Cooking
Is taught by Kaaren Bedi
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