February 7, 2012
MarkBernstein.org
 

A Sense Of Danger

I’m a patzer when it comes to pots of pans.

A recent dinner guest who cooks professionally told a friend that my cooking was dramatic because it was constantly on the edge of disaster. Naturally the paraphrase came back to me.

But it’s true: the edge is so much fun.

Michael Ruhlman has a nice series, incidentally, about a recent, relaxing trip to Key West where he wrote in Ernest’s shadow and cooked dinner for sixteen every night.

It requires a certain amount of stress to cook for a lot of people. Otherwise you won’t get it done. Too much work, and therefore too much focus and efficiency to both get everything done and also enjoy yourself. You’ve got to like this very peculiar kind of stress.