Mysteries of Asian Kitchen?
Many people often find cooking mysterious. It has frequently been
assumed that all gifted chefs have a bag full of special tricks and
closely guarded recipes that enable them to prepare the dishes that seem
so amazing to the uninitiated. But in reality, it is the chef's reliance
on basic cooking principles and fundamental preparation techniques that
provides the basis for the artwork.
Creativity takes on a
substance only when it is paired with the basic lessons of cooking.
Mastery of these lessons eliminates the mystery and makes it easier to
differentiate the merely trendy from the valid and valuable.
It
is insufficient to just know how to get a particular dish prepared, or to
get some complicated recipes reproduced. As a good cook, there is a need
to move our orientation away from a specific combination of ingredients to
reach a prescribed, predetermined finished dish. It is even more crucial
to know what is behind the "formulas" so that we can grasp the basics of
cooking, such as roasting, poaching, grilling, baking, and
charcuterie.
As a person who is keen on cooking, we must all
continue to gain confidence through experience, so that we can answer the
inevitable questions of : "How much?", "How long?" "And When?" When we
learn where the benchmarks of quality are found, we can then begin to
answer those crucial questions.
In order to prepare food with a
sense of passion, the chef must learn the harmonies of flavor. It is
important that the true flavors of foods - earthly, comfortable, honest,
identifiable - be allowed to speak for themselves. At the same time, the
intriguing interplay of contrasting colors, textures, shapes and cooking
techniques on the plate can provide depth, excitement and interest.
This website's aim is to act as an inspiration and to encourage you to
always learn more, for there is always more to learn. The youngest
apprentice and the experienced master chef alike are only truly at their
best when they continue to search for the greatest perfection of
technique, the most ideal harmonies of flavors and foods. It is
simplicity, in cooking as in all arts, that demands the greatest artistry
and offers the greatest rewards.
The motivation for this website
was our desire to incorporate as many contemporary cooking concepts as
possible, while remaining true to the principles that govern all good
cooking. Increased interest in nutritional cooking, working profitably
with a dwindling supply of high-quality fish and shellfish, the excitement
of learning about recipes and cuisines from all over the Asian countries -
all of these elements have combined to change the way we view a culinary
perspective.
In this website, we will try to provide a clear
picture of the basic cooking techniques as cooking is not always a
perfectly precise art, but a grasp of the basics gives the chef the
ability not only to apply the technique, but to also learn the standards
of quality so that one begins to develop a sense of how cooking
works.
The surest way to "demystify" cooking is to understand
that it is not recipes or an arsenal of secret ingredients that make the
chef. Rather, it is the chef's knowledge and expertise in three key areas
: selecting ingredients with an eye to quality and seasonality; handling
foods and equipment carefully to get the best results with the least
waste; and applying fundamental cooking techniques with due respect for
the food and the intended effect of the finished dish. These are the
supports that hold the recipes up.
Cooking is a dynamic passion,
one that provides some of the greatest challenges and some of the greatest
rewards. There is always another level of perfection to achieve and
another skill to master. It is our hope that this website will function
both as a springboard into further growth and as a reference point to give
ballast to the mysteries still to be discovered.
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