What's Cooking?

[wuteversbitin424]

Mystery basket style. 4 courses...salad, soup, and two entrees with judging on knife skills, meat fabrication, and specific cooking methods and requirements for each course. Ive won the district and state one last year and this year and placed 13th in the national one last year.

[wuteversbitin424]

Shooting for the top three this time. Of course id like to win but really its just fun to me and a great way to learn something.

[ness]

Mystery basket style. 4 courses...salad, soup, and two entrees with judging on knife skills, meat fabrication, and specific cooking methods and requirements for each course. Ive won the district and state one last year and this year and placed 13th in the national one last year.

Oh.

We don't want your kind around here

Seriously -- can you post a link? I've never heard of this.

[wuteversbitin424]

Yes its www.skillsusa.org. it is through my college o.t.c. but there are lots more around here at the profesional level too. Msu just did one called show me chefs that will be on air this fall. If if hadnt been for me having class on the nights that one went on i would have entered it too.

[joeD]

Chefs used to cook food for people. Butchers used to process meat. Bakers baked. Farmers farmed.

Now, cooking is competitive. A self grandizing way of putting yourself ahead of others. Where your technique and so called innovation is more important than the meal and the people you are serving. Instead of bringing people together, the current chef culture divides. It is no longer about the meal, but the person who "created" it.

Example: Some families in Spain and Italy have been processing meats for generations. No big deal. It's what they do. Now, in America, apparently, butchers have for years got it all wrong. We now have ex accountants chuck the cubicle life, grow a beard, get arm tattoos, dress like a lumberjack and make "salume" and other meat products. And, most egregiously, call themselves "artisans" and their products "artisinal." After three years.

Example: Farm to table movement. How many people, and restaurants, have broken their arms patting themselves on the back, because they prepared a meal, "directly from the soil." Gawd. Where did restaurants in the 1980s 1970s 60s 50s 40s 30s 20s get their meat and produce from? The moon?

Example: BBQ competition. Where three people judge hundreds. Where good food has been reduced to television events. And the egos it has created.

Good grief.

I know I'm a negative crank and malcontent who should have better things to do. I don't care. This sub forum I should stay away from.

But I won't. I will continue to rant and poke a stick in the current climate of foodism and the people who populate it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I'm not a fan of competitive cooking.

Especially BBQ.

[Chief Grey Bear]

And put me down as a non fan of Cilantro too.

I would rather eat the soap.

[rps]

I am competitive. My sports history speaks to that. However, I am no longer competitive about the things I do because I love them. That is just me.

On the other hand, the "black box" has been used for many years as a hiring skill. "Here, show me what you can and would make with these ingredients." It should surprise no one that the concept has become competitive. One of the chefs at school competed regularly in competitions where you used non food stuffs or misused food stuffs to plate "faux" meals.

Like all competitions, the contest does not always bring out the best in the competitors. Although at the skillsusa level the change is not noticeable, as you grow in scope, people prove to be people. Large scale BBQ competitions show that.

Nor should it surprise anyone that when television comes calling, reality disappears. The television cooking competitions are about as real as Duck Dynasty and 19 and Counting.

Since I am offering observations that could be deemed opinion, I apologize if what I have written offends.

As for CGB's defective palate, you have my condolences. It must be hard in a world where you know you are the disabled.

As for JoeD, Hi! Hope you are enjoying your day!

[Terrierman]

Chefs used to cook food for people. Butchers used to process meat. Bakers baked. Farmers farmed.

Now, cooking is competitive. A self grandizing way of putting yourself ahead of others. Where your technique and so called innovation is more important than the meal and the people you are serving. Instead of bringing people together, the current chef culture divides. It is no longer about the meal, but the person who "created" it.

Example: Some families in Spain and Italy have been processing meats for generations. No big deal. It's what they do. Now, in America, apparently, butchers have for years got it all wrong. We now have ex accountants chuck the cubicle life, grow a beard, get arm tattoos, dress like a lumberjack and make "salume" and other meat products. And, most egregiously, call themselves "artisans" and their products "artisinal." After three years.

Example: Farm to table movement. How many people, and restaurants, have broken their arms patting themselves on the back, because they prepared a meal, "directly from the soil." Gawd. Where did restaurants in the 1980s 1970s 60s 50s 40s 30s 20s get their meat and produce from? The moon?

Example: BBQ competition. Where three people judge hundreds. Where good food has been reduced to television events. And the egos it has created.

Good grief.

I know I'm a negative crank and malcontent who should have better things to do. I don't care. This sub forum I should stay away from.

But I won't. I will continue to rant and poke a stick in the current climate of foodism and the people who populate it.

That's really weird but it takes all kinds.

[Terrierman]

Follow up to the smoked pickled eggs subject. Those pickled onions (the artisanal ones) are really something special on a burger from the grill. Just FYI.