"I have brought this brand-new instrument that you may have seen before but perhaps never actually understood the significance of. If you can master this incredible tool, it will open new doors and allow you to do anything. This instrument will explain to you the essence of cooking."
A giant violin case was brought out. I opened it up, and inside was a broom. I showed them some real dirt I had brought with me, and I threw it on the floor and said: "I will now teach you something that you did not learn for your twenty-thousand-plus dollars in annual tuition: I will now teach you how to sweep.
"If you can allow yourself to become one with the broom, you will understand the basic foundation of how to become one with the food-- and thus, how to cook. Unless you can do that, you will not understand cooking because you will always be separated from it. This way, you can practice creating this flow between your psyche and your body, and then transferring it into something else, into a tool."
I demonstrated two methods of how many students would sweep. I did the "macho" method, where the student sweeps it all over the wall, followed by the "timid" method, where they sweep in right into their shoes!
The first thing you learn coming into the kitchen at The Inn at Little Washington is how to sweep the floor. No one knows how to do that anymore. No one ever showed them, ever!
I explained how to let energy flow into the broom handle, and how pleasurable it was when I was the broom, and how efficient the sweeping became. I then suggested that they all go to their dorms and practice.
Every night, I still find myself telling my cooks, "Get in the pan with the food!" I want them to feel total focus and flow. It is exciting when you see them merge with the food! It is a true high for a chef.
--Patrick O'Connell, Chef and Restaurateur, speaking at the Culinary Institute of America
Culinary and other practical advice here.
*one particularly conscientious student advises that you take your shoes off first.
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