Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Another journal entry

*Yeah, I journal about cooking*

 

Cooking again. Allowing the kitchen to take me over. I become a ghost within it. A whisper within the cacophony of sizzle and spice. I listen, but do not speak. The food does all of the talking, and it does so in a language that I barely speak. I catch a word here and a phrase there. I try to piece together the conversation, but it often eludes me.


When does the sizzle become a scream for help? Where is the border between perfectly caramelized and irreparably burned? Where lies the boundary of a meal that teases and excites the taste buds before it falls into a meal that passes without notice? When does fork tender turn into mush? These are the questions that the food is trying to answer for me, if only I could understand.


If only I could decipher the slang, then I think that this would all click into place, and a master of the kitchen I would become. Perhaps it is simply a matter of spending more time with the locals. Perhaps all that is required is an inquisitive mind and a supreme amount of patience.


If that is the case then I worry that I will never become that master, as I seem to so rarely have the time to dedicate to learning this language. That I will forever be the cook who speaks broken English.

3 comments:

Catalyst said...

Broken English? I think my cooking conversations are like that . . with the occasional G--d--n it! or Sonuvab----! Or worse.

Big Sky Chef said...

Very Poetic...in a Coolinary Way.

May I suggest you pick up a copy of The Culinary Companion. Cooks Bible.

Lots of new words and what they mean.
http://shrinkify.com/h20

TomboCheck said...

Catalyst - Yeah, it's like any restaurant kitchen - you learn the swear words first! :)

Big Sky Chef - I'll check it out. Thanks for the rec.