Ruhlman Video

Michael Ruhlman makes a home video about cooking paté a choux. (This, by the way, is a very good thing and tasty thing for you to do.)

Notice that good video is hard. We see from this example that it’s hard even if (a) you’re an experienced and excellent public speaker, (b) you’ve been on TV a lot, so you know what you’re doing, (c) your wife is a pro photographer, and (d) you’re right in the center of your comfort zone, and doing another take will cost you $5.

I really love the new typography of the Web site, incidentally, which extends nicely into the embedded video.

I’m not wild about the urge to try to reduce everything to TV. But some things are best communicated by watching. What should the dough look like? When you “stir vigorously”, does this mean “not langorously”? Or does it mean “beat the living daylights out of it?”

I just exchanged email with a Tinderbox user who’s been working with the program for years and years, and hadn’t realized that you can make a note by double-clicking where you want the note to be. Perhaps we need more video after all.