01-13-2008, 01:28 AM
Because I just feel like I can't do it. Sorrry to be a downer. I'm just scared and overwhelmed.[/QUOTE]
>>
Ok, Here's a light-hearted story to help you get going. When I started chef school way back when, we were given a text book that was essentially about 2000 soup recipes. :eek: It was horrible. Our instructor told us that we would be required to prepare any of them at any time throughout the class (14 days) and to be ready. Ok, so I was 18 years old and had never even made one soup- so I figured I was probably going to fail or this chef was just trying to scare us.....
The first day we made one soup that I found very very difficult. The next day again, and each day the same thing. It was all new to me, all confusing, and all hard- unrelated. The first week was terrible in every way.
Well, as it turns out, there are very specific methods for making soups- standard things you do every time. In the end, there are only 5 soups. Every soup in this whole wide world is a variation of on of the five. With only slight changes, a soup changes names- but it is still really the same; No matter the ingredients.... so, once you learn the 5 types, you are only learning slight variations of the same thing. So, guess what, after I learned the basics I could in fact prepare all 2000 upon request.
20 years later, I can say with certainty to my students that you can't learn any of the 2000 if you don't learn the first 5. If you (like the home cook) use a recipe without knowing a method, you have not learned anything- and you will have only learned one soup...and you will need a recipe each time. Chefs learn methods, home cooks learn recipes. See the difference? You must learn the basics- the bases of what you are trying to understand. It might be 100% new now, but once you "get" that, all new things will be easier because you won't have to think about the basics.
So....keep going, you are still learning your base soups.
>>
Ok, Here's a light-hearted story to help you get going. When I started chef school way back when, we were given a text book that was essentially about 2000 soup recipes. :eek: It was horrible. Our instructor told us that we would be required to prepare any of them at any time throughout the class (14 days) and to be ready. Ok, so I was 18 years old and had never even made one soup- so I figured I was probably going to fail or this chef was just trying to scare us.....
The first day we made one soup that I found very very difficult. The next day again, and each day the same thing. It was all new to me, all confusing, and all hard- unrelated. The first week was terrible in every way.
Well, as it turns out, there are very specific methods for making soups- standard things you do every time. In the end, there are only 5 soups. Every soup in this whole wide world is a variation of on of the five. With only slight changes, a soup changes names- but it is still really the same; No matter the ingredients.... so, once you learn the 5 types, you are only learning slight variations of the same thing. So, guess what, after I learned the basics I could in fact prepare all 2000 upon request.
20 years later, I can say with certainty to my students that you can't learn any of the 2000 if you don't learn the first 5. If you (like the home cook) use a recipe without knowing a method, you have not learned anything- and you will have only learned one soup...and you will need a recipe each time. Chefs learn methods, home cooks learn recipes. See the difference? You must learn the basics- the bases of what you are trying to understand. It might be 100% new now, but once you "get" that, all new things will be easier because you won't have to think about the basics.
So....keep going, you are still learning your base soups.
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