Simple Cooking

A gentleman should be able to feed himself and one other person without embarrassment. I am not speaking of elaborate cooking, of reduction sauces and bains-marie and the sort of performative cuisine that requires an audience. I am speaking of competence. The ability to produce, from ordinary ingredients, a meal that is hot, edible, and does not require an apology.

The Edwardian kitchen was the domain of the cook. A gentleman of that era would no sooner have roasted a chicken than he would have shod his own horse; there were people for that. You do not have people for that. You have yourself, a kitchen of varying adequacy, and the persistent biological fact of hunger, which arrives whether or not you are prepared for it. Address the situation.

Five or six dishes, learned properly and executed without panic, will carry you through nearly any domestic occasion. Eggs in several forms: scrambled (low heat, patience, butter; this is not difficult, yet the number of men who produce rubbery curds and serve them with apparent satisfaction is staggering), fried, and as an omelette. A proper roast chicken, which requires nothing more than salt, heat, and the willingness to leave it alone for an hour. A soup that did not originate in a tin. A simple pasta with a sauce you made yourself, even if that sauce is merely garlic, olive oil, and whatever was in the cupboard. A piece of fish, cooked in a pan, without cremating it.

These are not impressive. They are adequate. Adequacy is the goal.

The equipment is simpler than you have been led to believe. A sharp knife; not an expensive knife, a sharp one. A heavy pan that holds heat. A chopping board. A pot large enough for soup or pasta. If your knife is dull, sharpen it, for a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one and produces worse results in every respect. If you own seventeen gadgets and cannot dice an onion, you have spent your money in the wrong places.

Learn heat control. This is where most cooking fails. The pan is too hot or not hot enough; the oil smokes or the food sits in a lukewarm puddle and steams rather than browns. High heat for searing. Medium heat for most everything else. Low heat for anything that requires patience, which includes scrambled eggs and most sauces. If the food is burning, the heat is too high. This is not a mystery.

Learn timing. Meat rests after cooking. Pasta is done before you think it is. Vegetables roasted ten minutes too long become sad. None of this requires talent; it requires attention, which is a different thing entirely and available to anyone who can be bothered to stand in a kitchen and pay attention to what is happening in the pan.

The man who can produce a decent meal for a guest has demonstrated something beyond culinary skill. He has demonstrated that he can plan, execute, and attend to the comfort of another person. The man who cannot has failed a test he did not realise he was taking.