Accuracy

I have just returned from a long break, spending a month back home in Singapore and my wife’s hometown Petaling Jaya (PJ) in Malaysia. Trips home are always a major food and shopping fest, especially in Malaysia where I’m constantly tempted by glorious food and great buys. When I think of PJ, images of huge malls filled with all-you-can-buy goodies and mountains of local Malaysian dishes spring to mind.

But it was in a small shophouse tucked away in PJ Old Town that I found my best buy – a precision digital scale. This was actually top of my shopping list, followed by an electronic probe thermometer that I managed to purchase in Singapore.

A chef’s new “power tools” are no longer confined to sharp knives and “keen” tastebuds. Precision and accuracy are pre-requisites for maintaining consistency and achieving perfection in cooking.

Accuracy, an underestimated term in kitchens today. Mostly it’s more of this, less of that. Taste the sauce, more salt, less cream or too much butter.

A common question by junior chefs might be, why the crème anglaise seems thicker today than it was yesterday? The horror of a solution would be, “Hmmm… the gel is not setting, I think we should add in more gelatin.”

An even more horrific truth would be the fact that the scenario above applies not only to juniors, as I myself have witnessed senior chefs doing and saying the same thing! Unbelievable? Not quite.

The reason? Training and basics.

The culture of kitchens is to work round the clock, being able to expend every minute and second possible. Getting ready for the coming service. Pre-plating amuse bouche, praying the damm gel sets in time, hoping the Chef does not find out that the bloody ice cream has a strong egg taste before the new one churns in time. Busting one’s behind to get the fish soup passed through the food mill. Rolling cannelloni and thinking of the pasta running short and with that in mind realizing that the fucking raviolis needs to be made. The examples are endless. The accused, everyone who has ever worked in a professional kitchen.

If everyone learned (and practiced) the importance of accurate cooking, much time and headache could be spared. We’re now able to achieve such accuracy with modern technology. But of course the chef has to learn the basics.

How much does a chef need to spend on an accurate scale, a probe thermometer, oven thermometer? I am sure ALL PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS HAVE A VACUUM SEAL MACHINE. If not they should seriously rethink their HACCP/Hygiene standards. This is a “powerful” equipment in the world of cooking.

Sous vide cooking techniques can be applied throughout the kitchen. I’ve applied this technique for pre cooking roasts, stocks, vegetables and even making sauces containing eggs. The application varies with the knowledge of accurate temperatures for specific produce.

Once such tools are acquired you are already one step closer to attaining perfection.

Then arrives the difficult but all-important process of trial and error, for is this not the way all chefs learn? But this time, why not re-learn the basics, using these new tools and improved techniques? All one has to take note of is the perfect cooking time of basic produce. For example, the precise temperature at which egg yolks and whites coagulate? How red meats cook? Fish, poultry, vegetables and so on.

Tried and tested results in books and reports are available out there, providing an invaluable resource for those who seek it. So the next time, just give perfection a chance before we decide to whisk the crème anglaise over the stove like a mad man or add more gelatin to the mix.