As usual, the best part is the essays, which unpack tacit knowledge from eminent practitioners.
Conversation
Oddly, the second-most-valuable cookbook in my library went through the same evolution: the Eleven Madison Park cookbook is super makeable! Such a valuable guide to composition and vegetable cookery. Its successor is inspiring, astonishing—and alas, much less useful in the home.
1
10
However: the essays in the second EMP book are wonderful and very bloody!
I was served this dish when I visited in 2017, and it was one of the most stirring things I’d ever eaten. I was excited to see it in the book! But… the essay associated with it showed the cost (see pic).
2
2
11
“Lovers fell asleep waiting for me to return home at night … I did not have time to read bedtime stories to my children … I am divorced … I still hurt … A dish ilke this is drawn from the long hours and years in the kitchen … There are no steps to skip.” Remarkable.
2
5
53
The temptation is to say: gosh, is Humm just making excuses for sociopathy and workaholism? Surely this isn’t necessary? But it’s really not clear. Few dishes have ever shocked me the way this one did. I don’t think it’s an accident that this essay is paired with this dish.
3
1
17
I’m trying to think of something I’d appreciate this much. ;)
I’m also struck by how he couldn’t ever escape the restaurant schedule? Surely there’s a way for an artisan to get out of the day-to-holiday?
2
1
1
gonna say that when it comes to capital-C Craft, there's no substitute for actual time spent polishing. you can want novel execution all you want, but you have to actually make the thing over and over (and crucially have to make that process simple for others to execute on later)
1
1
1
disagree with the hobby/suffering though—the tight economics of restaurants make this aggrieved R&D necessary in order to stay afloat. you can def hone a craft w/o suffering, but it will take much much longer & your motivation will probably wane if your job isn't at stake.
1
1
2
Do you think there’s anything to a notion of raw hours at play here? e.g. if Humm had worked 40hr/wk instead of 80, would it have taken him twice as long to develop the skill needed to create this dish? He’s 44, so assuming he started work at 20, maybe that’d make him 68?
1
i mean, that's sort of the problem, even me working at a mediocre place doing garde manger, i was averaging 60 hours a week, the industry was just unforgiving, maybe it's gotten better. i don't know he could have gotten where he did _professionally_ w/o working 80 hour weeks tho
1
1
Right, sure, but just as a theoretical question: if we imagine the industry could have allowed him his position with 40hr weeks, what do we imagine the impact on his creative output might be?
i think probably faster! i'd guess he would have probably spent the same ~amount of _time on craft_ but not under the same inflexible time constraints.
1
1
1
like, my read is that 80 hour weeks are not contributing meaningfully beyond a certain point, but i think freed of those constraints, great artisans probably develop their craft faster. it's sort of the UBI argument, though, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
1
1