Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School
About twenty years ago, more or less, I applied to the Cooking School at El Centro College in downtown Dallas. I listened raptly as the instructors talked about the handful of rich and famous chefs that lived in Dallas and pulled down around a hundred grand a year. This is still wealth beyond the dreams of avarice for me. There was a series of tests involve the senses of taste and smell and we were all told afterward what we should expect. I was told not to quiet my day job-literally.
I aced the water test, bits of subtle flavor suspended in water-I drink a lot of water. I failed the Dairy Products test, as I was not a working cook I had very little experience with sour cream, whipped cream, milk, 2% Milk, and some other kind of dairy product, perhaps yogurt. I did not get accepted to this small time culinary institute, and I realize now that I am not really cut out to be yelled at all day anyway.
So it is with a bit of wistfulness that I read Under The Table by Katherine Darling. It is the story of a woman going to cooking school and mastering the fine arts of making things like mayonnaise and flourless chocolate cake-both of which I have made with some success by the way. Included in Under The Table are stories of the French Culinary Institute in New York and is liberally sprinkled with recipes for the items she discuses in each chapter.
It’s a fun read and makes me want to try my hand at a few of the simpler recipes.
Katherine’s descriptions of bloody feet and blisters on her hands and sweat running in rivers down her back and legs-well, these remind that she is made of tougher stuff than I. I am also not as interesting in drinking and smoking as most of the cooking students and instructors seem to be. And there is that whole camaraderie thing, which my solitary soul would not have liked too much, but which Katherine Darling seems to revel in.
When Katherine talks about her father making her coddled eggs when she was home from school, I thought about my own Dad’s specialties-tortillas and tamales. I don’t know that I have ever had a coddled egg, it sounds simple enough though, so I might have to get it a shot. The idea of scrambling eggs and whacking down the skillet to make an omelet sounds kind of promising as well.
Reading about the path not traveled, which for me, are quite a lot of paths, is always a bit of fun. The idea of learning to cook and making a living at it, well, it does not have the appeal that it once did. But I still do a bit of cooking now and then and I like the idea of doing a bit more. The recipes in Under The Table are not difficult looking, but then, reading a recipe is never all that hard. I tend to cook on the fly, reading a recipe and adding this and that as the mood strikes me. Real Cooks, well, they have to do the same thing over and over again and get exactly the same results. I have never been all that good at that kind of cooking.
Under The Table is an easy read-the writing is clear and simple and there is a wonderful feeling of comradeship, conspiracy, and the sharing of a few secrets stolen from the French Cooking Institute. I enjoyed my time with Kathrine Darling and look forward to reading something by her again one day.
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September 29, 2009
Tags: book review, food, fun stuff Posted in: book review, food, fun
3 Responses
Hubby would love this book. He’s so into cooking. All my girlfriends want to marry him. They ask right in front of me. Always at meal time too.
Have a terrific day.
There is something about making a meal from a bag full of ingredients.
soylent green… it’s… it’s… I’ve got to tell them… : Sacred Clone - November 30, 2009
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