A Clean Cook, second in series

 

    As I spoke in my first post I was intrigued with a term Thomas Keller used, A Clean Chef. The first meaning that came to mind was the obvious one, a cook who cleans up after ones self, one who works in a clean environment. I think one cooks more effective when ones kitchen is fairly clean. I know one cooks more effective if one cleans up as they go along. Plus I have found efficiency actually leads to more creativity. Since I hate to clean, I always though cleaning would kill my creative juices but I have found the opposite is true. It is hard to feel creative when you have no space to work with, cannot find anything and have to spend an hour cleaning before you even start.

    I have a French marble table I use as my kitchen island. Part of me would love to have some pretty vignette on it, maybe stacked cake stands with fresh fruit but I need a wide open work space. If I was building my dream kitchen, I would copy the kitchen of 100 year old house in Saratoga I was lucky to tour when I was a girl. It is about 500 square feet (or at lest that is how I remember it)  and had 3 massive marble islands in the middle. I would have one for prepping, one for plating and one for baking with room to have a pretty vignettes ;-) So you see my sweet little island has to do the duty of all three! Keeping my island open and clean inspires me to create, does not drain my engery by having to clean to off everytime I need to use it and thrills me to see someone standing there cooking.

    Now there is also the chef who thinks of how to cook in a clean way. For example I have seen people cook and use every bowl they have, instead of thinking about the dish before they even start preparing. A clean cook makes a plan as to how to use bowls in an organized manner. There is a mindset to a chef and one I think would benefit us home-cooks. A chef enjoys thier work but also uses their time wisely. They know their space well, they have constructed it to meet their needs and their creativity. With a orderly, open space one is free to be a clean cook!

I will be back with more, please feel free to enjoy the rest of the series

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Comments

[Lorelei]

Hi Clarice.....Am not much to comment but I do love following your blog.
I don't mind the main cooking too much but would chose baking over it any day! The clean-up....well that's another story.
I will be checking in here for your next post.
I'm envious of your French marble table! I love the look of marble even when it's aged and stained. Would you have a photo to share or maybe there's a picture in an earlier post that I may have missed?
Enjoy the day.....Lorelei

[Linda]

I love this. I want to know more about how to use bowls in an organized manner. Mom