The three golden rules of cooking

EDIT (10/18/08):  My first draft had Focus and Timing as my two golden rules of cooking.  Then i realized i’d forgotten the third–the most important of all.  So now, i present my three golden rules of cooking:

Focus.
Timing.
Respect.

Most struggling cooks can improve immensely if they keep just those three things in mind.  Here are some tips to start you off:

Focus:

• Minimize distractions.  Turn off the TV.  I don’t like any noise in the background, whether it’s the TV or music or people’s voices.  I don’t pick up the phone.  I wish i could unplug it, but that would be selfish.
• Be physically comfortable.  Dress comfortably.  Sleeves that keep rolling down are your worst enemy in the kitchen.  Put your hair up.  Keep the temperature in the kitchen at a comfortable degree.
• Be psychologically comfortable.  If something’s on your mind and you don’t feel like cooking, don’t cook.  Get take-out.  Eat a microwavable meal.  These things are meant to be reserved for days when you’re physically–but more importantly, mentally–tired.  When you force yourself to cook when you don’t want to, things go wrong.  I say this from experience, and i can’t stress it enough:  things will go wrong.
• When you’re cooking, don’t think about anything other than what you’re cooking.  Empty your mind.  Only when it’s empty will new ideas come in.  I know this is challenging or even absurd for those who are not a foodie like i am, but you have to learn to tap into the rhythm and flow of things, that all important momentum, or else whatever you make, no matter how much care you put into it, will just not taste that good.  Think of the kitchen not as part of your home, but as a world in itself, a purely culinary world that demands constant sensory and mental attention.

And that brings me to my next golden rule:  Timing.  Every recipe involves careful timing to ensure that some things are done before others, some things are prepared in anticipation for something else, and some things are cooked to the right degree in relation to others.  There’s the timing of each component of a recipe (marinating a meat to be used later with something else, for example); there’s the timing that allows those components to come together at the same time to complete a dish; and then there’s the unconscious timing that orchestrates all your movements throughout the cooking process.  Like i said, momentum is one of the telltale signs of a good cook, and once you learn to tap into it, you will not only be dishin’ out some good stuff, but you’ll enjoy the process more than you ever had.  One good way to tap into the cooking momentum is to learn not to rely on clocks or timers.  Once you gain some experience and understand how long certain things take to cook, start relying on your inner clock.  Trust yourself.  Soon enough, you’ll just feel when that steak needs to be turned over.

And lastly, you have the most important rule, the holy rule:  Respect.  Cooking starts with the ingredients, which need to be cherished, handled carefully and lovingly, and respected.  You’re not the one acting on the ingredients.  The ingredients are the ones acting on you.  They govern your every move.  You are merely the facilitator that brings the ingredients from their raw, untouched state to a human mouth.  You need to treat each ingredient the way it wants and needs to be treated.  Don’t dump those apples onto the counter; you’ll bruise them.  Take them out one by one.  Don’t slice that roast with any old knife; a less-than-razor-sharp blade will ruin the grain, even if only on the microscopic level.  Don’t ever mix aged and fresh ingredients; if you want to save the slightly aged one for a specific use, keep it separate.  To put it simply, ingredients are not tools; they are embodiments of nature.  If you love life, then you love nature, so love your food in all its states.

And there’s my brief treatise on cooking.  Everything i write on this blog will basically be extensions of any or all of these rules.  Expect a treatise on eating in the near future.