I’m clear on the “unpaid and doing it for the love of it” vs. “it’s my job; it’s what I do” difference between amateur and professional, but I’m bringing something out of comments to the front page to expand on just one other difference between amateurs and professionals, particularly the old saw that,
“Amateurs practice until they get it right; professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.”
I like to cook. At times, I love to cook. Over the years, my role in our family has evolved to the point where I am the primary cook for the family. And I’m pretty good, according to family reports and hits on my dishes at potlucks. 😉
But I am not a professional chef. Oh, I have “perfected” a few habits. My grip on a chef’s knife, chopping an onion (“tear free” and fast), certain recipes, etc.: all perfection or nearly so.
But apart from those, I am still an amateur cook by the criterion that says “professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.” Breakfast this a.m. is an example. Pan-poached eggs are a dish that I have down to near perfection. It’s an easy-peasy dish that also makes for easy-peasy cleanup. Still, one (at least this one :-)) can cock it up when caffeine-deprived, early in the a.m. And I nearly did.
First: 4 rashers of bacon, then 3 eggs (my Wonder Woman only wanted one egg). I pulled the wrong sized pan off the rack, an 8-inch skillet instead of the better-sized (for the bacon) 10-inch. Second mistake? I set the heat too high under the pan. Too high for the bacon, which would have been much too high for the eggs. I caught that, but not before I’d coated the pan with a nice payer of “non stick” cooked on bacon grease. *sigh* Meant more difficult cleanup down the road and more cooling off before I could cook the eggs.
OK, bacon on warm in the toaster oven. Eggs in the pan. Water. Lid. Everything from there on out was perfect. By the time the toast was done, so were the eggs, medium like we like them. Eggs on toast, bacon side, rescued breakfast, just harder than necessary cleanup of the “wrong” pan and a couple of crispier-than-preferred spots on the bacon.
Oh, well. I’m not a professional chef.
But you get the idea: “professionals” practice until they cannot get it wrong. I just need more practice.
(Of course, practice doesn’t make perfect, despite the old proverb. No, Practice simply makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. That’s why, once they’ve got it right, pros practice doing it right until doing it wrong is, well, not impossible but still very unlikely.)
Practicing cooking is a very rewarding thing, luckily. 🙂
Yeh, Nicole, but the rewards tend to go to my waist as I get older… *heh*
BTW, tonight I had an experimental meal. WW and Son&Heir had a classic: Scrambled eggs, biscuits and sausage gravy (a fav “comfort meal). I made for myself some amaranth-soy-“white” whole wheat-flax meal biscuits and “egg-sausage gravy”. The latter was essentially sausage gravy with the scrambled eggs cooked in it. OK, but not an outa the park hit with me. Turned out to be more like really fluffy sausage scrambled eggs with the flavor (but not texture) of sausage gravy. The biscuits were fine, though, and it was all good enough when served together, but I’m glad I was the only one having the “egg gravy” part.
Heh. egg gravy.
So David, I need to know… how do you poach eggs? I’ve never gotten it right, as simple as it should be.
Mel, I don’t actually do the “traditional” (or perhaps it ought to be “standard”) egg poaching. My way is simplicity made simpler.
1. Crack the eggs into a bowl to begin with. (This assures that they’ll all cook alike–no differences in cooking time.)
2. Heat a skillet to medium heat. (Hand held about 4″ above the surface becomes too warm for comfort after about 5 seconds or so–differs a bit by person, but that works for me.)
3. Have 1/2 to 1C water on hand.
4. Grease the skillet (bacon grease, butter, oil: whatever you want).
5. Add eggs and let them very, very briefly “set”.
6. Add water and cover tightly with a well-fitting lid.
7. About 2 minutes later, slide the eggs out with the aid of a spatula onto plates for some nice eatin’. I usually like ’em on toast with a couple of rashers of bacon on the side. Simple, classic, good eats.
Different primarily in texture to eggs that are simply fried and as good as (better, IMO) traditionally poached eggs.