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Improvise This
March 2006
What's a chef to do when she
has no stove? I've now been in my new home for two months—hard to
believe since as usual these days, the days, weeks—and dare I say
months and years—seem to fly by. Knowing that I couldn't possibly
put off cooking until my stove—a 6 burner Blue Star with a grill and
two ovens—arrives in April, so I decided to improvise. This is my
set-up. I have a crock-pot for making sauces and soups, a Cuisinart
griddle/grill for eggs, panini, meats and fish. Then there's an
electric wok for sautéing or stir-frying and finally a tabletop
burner that runs on butane for anything else I may desire to cook
up.
After cooking in a
professional kitchen for years, I must say this set-up can handle
almost anything—except baking and roasting. In the last month or so
since I devised this system, I've cooked up some pretty tasty meals.
In the process, I remembered a thing or two about improvising that
reminds me of an old saying, "When fishermen can't go to sea, they
repair their nets."
I often don't appreciate the
‘art' of improvising until I'm forced to do so. Yet, as I reflect on
times when the ability to improvise saved me from some rather
embarrassing—or even potentially dangerous—moments, my respect for
the ability to go with the flow and work with what you have, is
reawakened. I'm reminded that too often we get so used to being,
seeing or doing things a certain way, that when circumstances in our
lives change—and they always do—we're easily thrown off kilter and
our usual competence gets shaken.
One of the things I most
loved about working in a restaurant every day is that every day was
"opening night". Along with the routine and regimen—and let me tell
you a well run restaurant is based on this—of setting up kitchen,
dining room and stations, each day brought a new set of problems and
opportunities, when the ability to improvise was often what got us
through the night. For starters, we never truly knew—regardless of
our forecasts— how many people would walk through our doors, what
they would need—or at times demand—or what would be demanded of us
to insure that our customers had a wonderful dining experience.
I remember one night when a
customer went to great pains to plan a special evening in which he
was to propose to his lady. Working with our manager and me, we
picked the table, the wine, the flowers and the meal only to have
our host accidentally spill the beans before he actually popped the
question! Oh my gosh! Our young host couldn't possibly have felt
worse. We did all we could to salvage the evening, including picking
up the tab. We later learned that our customer improvised how and
where he asked her to marry him and it was perfect.
I could tell you hundreds of
stories when the ability to improvise was called upon, from what do
you do when the pasta cooker dies in the middle of a busy Saturday
night, or the dish washer or a server fails to show up, or when we
would inadvertently double book a table or forget to note a
reservation and now one of our best customers didn't have a table
and they've just walked in with their elderly mother! The stories we
collected over the 10 years we operated our restaurant, Biscotti,
kept our staff entertained for many an evening when we reminisced
and laughed till our sides hurt.
I now know that my years of
training to "expect the unexpected" in my restaurant, kept my
flexibility to respond to life's curve balls exercised and served me
well in the outfield of my life. I saw early on that the demands of
running a restaurant often acted as a backdrop or metaphor for life
lessons that I first got to rehearse in gentle—and often humorous
ways—prepared me for life's bigger challenges.
I bet you have rehearsals
too.
Chef Silvia
Though naturally, this
month's recipes are ones I've improvised to fit my cooking
equipment, you'll love these simple comfort food dishes that were
the result:
a lentil/spilt
pea soup with sausage and pasta you can start in the crock pot
in the morning, that's ready and delicious by the afternoon—with
little effort from you—and fills your home with delicious aromas; a
grilled cheese panini made
with cheddar and brie, sliced tomatoes, and arugula on rustic bread;
and finally, grilled steak
with a mustard/jalapeno/wine sauce.
If any of you are interested in organizing you own style of cooking
class/dinner party, check out my
cooking classes page for more information.
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