Art or Science?

Do you want to have a jam session or do you want to write a song? This is the eloquent way a cooking buddy of mine asked the question. It encapsulates the tension between playing in the kitchen, essentially "Throwing food at other food" or creating actual dishes. For a few years I've been a big supporter of innovating, so I thought I fell into the Jam Session/unfettered creativity camp. But then I started thinking--a "dangerous pastime at best," as Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast would say--and realized that innovation and experimentation need a solid grasp on some basics.



There are multiple places to get the basic methods and techniques, and I'm not going to say that any one is better, faster or easier than another. Obviously there's the internet, with examples like the Dummies site. Really useful stuff there, but to me that's more like an FAQ than a place to actually start cooking. If you're more of a traditionalist or Neo-Luddite (we'll overlook the question of how you are reading this post), you can go with one of the all-time greats, like the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. There's a reason it's on the 15th edition.

Starting out, I didn't use the internet much. I also burned a bunch of food, because I was just trying to figure stuff out by pure trial and error. Then I lucked out; a buddy of mine was house sitting for a month at a carriage house in the middle of nowhere and he was a competent cook. He proposed that he could teach me a bunch of his tricks if I kept showing up with wine.

Drink a bunch of Sangiovese and Cabernet and learn how to make tasty food then eat it? Where do I sign up? That month got me the true basics (e.g. sharp knives are far safer than dull knives) as well as some great little tricks, like how easy it is to make a marinade from staring at all the leftover condiments on the fridge door and adding some salt, sugar and a little acidity.

After that, the regimented training of food service jobs, while it felt a bit stifling at times, showed me the value of consistency and repeatability, especially if you're cooking for unfamiliar audiences. People should have a pretty good idea about the overall taste of something if you tell them what it is, after all. If I tell you I'm pan-searing ahi steaks with a cilantro and citrus drizzle, it better not have an overpowering taste of rosemary and romano cheese.

Even now, I've got techniques I love, but I'll rarely not at least check recipes before making my own version. The first time I innovate, I rarely change more than a couple ingredients or shuffle ingredient ratios to taste. It's just like writing: gotta know the rules first, then you can break 'em on purpose. This has made me nervous about baking, since all my cake and bread making friends tell me how easy it is to be off just a little bit and wreck the whole batch.

Where do you come down on the Artist/Scientist spectrum?