I guess where I differ is, I've been cooking food my entire life. Most of it sucks. I still eat it. But if you were to ask me how to make one of the foods I cook any better I really wouldn't even know where to start.
However, if I picked up one of the those books, all of a sudden I would start to understand how meat cooks, the different ways you can tweak the process, and how to achieve the best results.
From there, I would be prepared to actually start cooking well. But without reading, I would still be shooting in the dark with the same terrible dishes I've been cooking terribly for decades.
Author of the essay here -- I know they say you shouldn't read the comments, but the discussion on here was so thoughtful I just had to create and account and jump in.
Two thoughts to this convo:
1. One thing it took a few years of living in Europe to learn is that what seems like a logical way to learn or convey information is also -- at least partially -- cultural. I'm an experience first kind of gal -- and I judge theories by how well they explain experience. I also think it's a better way to communicate. But here in Europe the standard way of giving, say, a presentation is to begin with all the theory, definitions, concepts, and only then move on to case studies.
One of her axes of comparison is "principles first vs applications first." It helped me to realise that my preference for applications first was also due to spending all my formative years in North America, being taught this way, consuming media structured this way, and so on.
2. I actually finally bought Salt Fat Acid Heat this spring, started reading it, and just the chapter on salt has already begun making a difference in my cooking. I do think cooking proves you can do something badly, every day, for an entire lifetime, if you don't either get some better theory or carry out a lot of experimentation and remember what works.
However... the reason I bought the Nosrat book was that I was starting to be inspired by cooking again, and what motivated me in that end was the Ramsay course! It gave me that sense of exploration and play again. So I think it's worth paying attention to what increases motivation, especially with something that can become quite a dull chore.
I'd like to add bread to the list of things that can be bad every day, without us questioning it.
I spent years eating bread rolls from the local bakery every morning and never questioning it. But there's like a whole world of bread variants that are not suitable for bakeries for various reasons (too much work, expensive ingredients, short shelf life). And now my new favorite is this:
It has such a pleasant nut-like taste and the fluffiness really highlights some flavors like smoked salmon. Now that I know what is possible, I feel disappointed by the blandness of store-bought bread.
I tend to read way more than I should before diving into something, but there's definitely a question of "you don't know what you don't know" that can't be resolved by mere practice, or not very efficiently for reasonably complex skills/topics.
Right. The funny thing is Ramsay talks about the years of work he did learning how to cook, studying Italian cuisine in Italy, etc. etc.
I think the MasterClasses -- or other online instruction -- are mostly great for inspiration and motivation. Someone who is already good at the craft might get more out of it, since they'll notice the finer points of technique. But for most people I suspect it will be passive entertainment, with a few widely applicable insights here and there.
I guess where I differ is, I've been cooking food my entire life. Most of it sucks. I still eat it. But if you were to ask me how to make one of the foods I cook any better I really wouldn't even know where to start.
However, if I picked up one of the those books, all of a sudden I would start to understand how meat cooks, the different ways you can tweak the process, and how to achieve the best results.
From there, I would be prepared to actually start cooking well. But without reading, I would still be shooting in the dark with the same terrible dishes I've been cooking terribly for decades.