Culinary and Chemistry

As I sit in the school library, it becomes painfully obvious that cooking and chemistry is one and the same.  Cooking is more applied science than others courses of study, add in a bit of alchemy and you are square in the middle of chef life.

 

The same skills of formulations, testing, observation, and trail and error, ever present in the kitchens all over the universe.  Even in cases where the chef or cook is cooking from a recipe, all of the steps apply, as good cooks never rely on an untested source when feeding their audience.  Some of us can review a written recipe and spot of it is accurate or not. Others must try it to discover the faults or the accuracy. In either case, mistakes can teach you more than your triumphs in the kitchen.   

The ability to test, modify, mix and remix, ingredients and turn the simple into the worthiest of dishes, let alone into art, is what chefs strive to achieve. Science and art culminate into a type of jazz, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The best of us climb to towering heights and can earn a type of immortality that gives lasting effects on the culinary world. Julia Child will always be with us through her teachings, books, and television broadcasts. The ladders she built will be scaled for generations to come.

We whisk up acids and bases, apply heat or cold, emulsify, extract, concentrate, dilute, expand, divide, and blend, all to achieve the awe inspiring creations. We live for the oohs and awwws that are created by our work. We lose sleep, forgo stopping to tend to our own needs, work odd hours, long hours, and miss out on the simple things, like events we are invited to attend, and even daylight. We arrive in the dark hours of the night and leave again after the sun has gone for the day. We talk more with our co-workers then our families and friends, some times. We can share our story with our loved ones but often they can't really understand who and what we have endured during our work. 

Sometimes I have encountered people who either don't understand what it is we do, or they act as if our work isn't important or not a profession like their's. The amounts of learning and training needed to work at my level can be greater than many other profession and less than others. It is often hard to adequately describe what we do, and how we do it, as many who cook think that they can do my job, or that it can't be that hard, or couldn't possibly take the amount of  hours that it really does. Sometimes my commitment to my work can require me to miss some events in my own children's life for the sake of other celebrations or needs. I don't like that aspect but my food magic show is what puts a roof over their heads.

Mixing magic with nutrition, art with taste, building constructs and designs for the eye, enticements for the nose, and specialties of taste can be very demanding. I love my work and I love teaching kids to think about and improve their options within the kitchen, that can improve their lives and the lives of others around them. 

Art is....

Art is many things, takes many forms, expressing itself throughout every realm. Perhaps it is easier to say what isn't art than to try and define it. For me, in many cases, art stops being art when it gets co-opted and turned into advertising for mass media consumption.

Agree or disagree, I am okay with how you see things. I'm not okay with not being respected because when someone's art isn't valued very often neither is the person respected.  Ever since the Oscar nominations were announced this year the conversations have sprung up everywhere about why there's a lack of minority actors and other filmmakers on the list.

While you might not be invested emotionally in this conversation, or can understand the protesters views, it does effect much more in our culture than you may think. A person's art, painting, music, sculpting, dance, and food, will outlive the artist and may even become an immortal part of them. Cave paintings, unearthed pottery and artifacts, Escoffier's legendary cooking methods, Michelangelo's art, invention, and poetry have stood the test of time.

But what of the art, science, invention, and music of the non-Anglo-Saxon? Art is universal, it transcends language and cultural norms, it is the best of ourselves manifested, a monument to our existence. I find it so valuable of an expression that my life revolves around it and is filled with it. My husband is an illustrator, myself a pastry chef, my friends all create some type of art, architecture, and science. I am an active board member for the NAACP ACT-SO Southside of Chicago Scholarship competition, my two youngest children are musicians, I have three professional musicians in the family, and two professional comedians. To me, a life without art is like living in a all white room with too much light and no sight, color, or sound, unbearable.

As the board Secretary, I assist our all volunteer board and staff prepare are high school age kids for competition. We conduct a regional competition and our gold medalist are then taken to nationals, free of charge, to compete amongst more than 700 kids from across the nation for college scholarships. My job, well one of my jobs, with C-Cap (Careers through Culinary Arts Program) also has a high school scholarship competition specifically for upcoming chefs.

Culinary arts is the combination of applied chemistry and art. The higher the level of the artistry the more it is considered fine dinning. Many people watch culinary television but don't really understand what it is that we chef's actually do. There still seems to be some elitist thinking from other professions that makes them look down upon the work that we create, while at the same time they seek out our work to consume. Cutting the art from cooking kills the lifeblood of the work, stifles the chef, kills their expressionism and creativity. Not all food is elevated to artistic levels but almost all of cooking has a creative spirit, some chefs dance with their spices and food combinations like a jazz musician on ice skates while others play it safer.

Art is a simple and pure expression of humanity and ignoring one type while prizing another is damaging the souls of the artists that created the ignored art. Not everyone likes the same type of art or the same artists but what I am referring to is the systematic exclusions that happen in some art circles. No each his own but know that my art has a value just like your art does without question.