Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "smells"
Kitchens
Picture in your head two different kinds of kitchens, manned by different types of chefs.
The first guy stocks up to the brim before he even really starts to think about cooking anything with it, perhaps before he even knows just what he wants to make. Pots and pans, cutlery, fancy new kitchen devices to cook with, ingredients and spices to cook out of. Like a dozen different sorts of knives. A great big kitchen filled with stuff, most of which is likely going to go unused for all time.
Sometimes prospective cooks do this sort of stuff without even knowing whether they're going to ever have the time to actually use them on anything! But once they do, it's sure to inspire them: just look at all these knives, wouldn't you want to make something with them? Wouldn't you want to put all this fruit into things? You can smell it already, can't you?
Ultimately, it's just so much easier to gather this stuff than it is to actually go through the effort of actually putting it to use. Many of us do this by instinct or sudden impulse, perhaps even without noticing. Just carry a new set of knives out of the store with no memory of ever buying anything. It can become a problem.
But you can take it to undesirable extremes, I find. You can get obsessed with having a full set of everything everywhere. You talk to other chefs and they all go on about their perfect kitchens and all the things they have in them. You hear all these cooking enthusiasts go on saying things like: "He's a real chef - his kitchen is so full and so interesting!" It's easy to get the impression that this is what cooking is all about.
Yet in the end, what really matters is the food you actually make.
That's where the other kitchen comes in - the sort I prefer, if it's not clear. It's got far less cutlery and stuff, but what it does have, sees a lot of use. Every knife has nicks in them, every frying pan's always a bit greasy no matter how you wash it, and not a single vegetable sack is quite full. The smell of good cooking, everywhere: just breathe in and feel your mouth water.
From time to time you might want to make something that you're not prepared for. It might leave you a bit puzzled and aimless, for a short while, but if you stick with the idea then it's never too much of a problem to add up to your arsenal. Throw some more half-used stuff into the pile. Maybe even get suddenly inspired to add in some of the stuff you've already used, because you know it works well and you've come to like it a lot and whoever's eating your stuff always praised it.
And every time you cook something, the smell only gets stronger. It sticks to your body, too. It cannot be rid of ever again. All that look at you, know what you do for a living, and can only guess the glory you share for it.
Maybe you'll get to this point even if you started out with the first type of kitchen. Maybe all of those great many pieces of equipment and ingredient you bought - or at least most of it - does find some use sooner or later. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. You think you need to fill up a whole kitchen before you can start making stuff, that you're worth nothing if you cannot do this, you'll soon find how wrong you are. A kitchen that sees no actual use, no matter how shiny and fancy and sharp, is no kitchen at all.
ᵂʰᵃᵗᵉᵛᵉʳ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ, ᴵ'ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵉᵃᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᶦᵗ.
The first guy stocks up to the brim before he even really starts to think about cooking anything with it, perhaps before he even knows just what he wants to make. Pots and pans, cutlery, fancy new kitchen devices to cook with, ingredients and spices to cook out of. Like a dozen different sorts of knives. A great big kitchen filled with stuff, most of which is likely going to go unused for all time.
Sometimes prospective cooks do this sort of stuff without even knowing whether they're going to ever have the time to actually use them on anything! But once they do, it's sure to inspire them: just look at all these knives, wouldn't you want to make something with them? Wouldn't you want to put all this fruit into things? You can smell it already, can't you?
Ultimately, it's just so much easier to gather this stuff than it is to actually go through the effort of actually putting it to use. Many of us do this by instinct or sudden impulse, perhaps even without noticing. Just carry a new set of knives out of the store with no memory of ever buying anything. It can become a problem.
But you can take it to undesirable extremes, I find. You can get obsessed with having a full set of everything everywhere. You talk to other chefs and they all go on about their perfect kitchens and all the things they have in them. You hear all these cooking enthusiasts go on saying things like: "He's a real chef - his kitchen is so full and so interesting!" It's easy to get the impression that this is what cooking is all about.
Yet in the end, what really matters is the food you actually make.
That's where the other kitchen comes in - the sort I prefer, if it's not clear. It's got far less cutlery and stuff, but what it does have, sees a lot of use. Every knife has nicks in them, every frying pan's always a bit greasy no matter how you wash it, and not a single vegetable sack is quite full. The smell of good cooking, everywhere: just breathe in and feel your mouth water.
From time to time you might want to make something that you're not prepared for. It might leave you a bit puzzled and aimless, for a short while, but if you stick with the idea then it's never too much of a problem to add up to your arsenal. Throw some more half-used stuff into the pile. Maybe even get suddenly inspired to add in some of the stuff you've already used, because you know it works well and you've come to like it a lot and whoever's eating your stuff always praised it.
And every time you cook something, the smell only gets stronger. It sticks to your body, too. It cannot be rid of ever again. All that look at you, know what you do for a living, and can only guess the glory you share for it.
Maybe you'll get to this point even if you started out with the first type of kitchen. Maybe all of those great many pieces of equipment and ingredient you bought - or at least most of it - does find some use sooner or later. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. You think you need to fill up a whole kitchen before you can start making stuff, that you're worth nothing if you cannot do this, you'll soon find how wrong you are. A kitchen that sees no actual use, no matter how shiny and fancy and sharp, is no kitchen at all.
ᵂʰᵃᵗᵉᵛᵉʳ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ, ᴵ'ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵉᵃᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᶦᵗ.
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