FFFFOOD

TK: Yeah. Okay, let’s see what happens with these puppies. [Loud sizzling as raw scallops are placed in pan of hot oil.] You can’t be afraid. So many people, they drop it in from way back here [leans away from pan] and then the oil splatters everywhere, and they hurt themselves. If you get really close, it’s not so bad. See that?

Keller bends his whole body in close over the pan. I’ve never seen anyone cook this way, interact with food this way, and it’s a surprising thrill. I’m making paper airplanes with Neil Armstrong.

TK [flipping perfectly browned scallop]: Heyyy! Look at that. That is beautiful. You just need to be patient with this stuff. People think that when they’re cooking, they have to be moving stuff around. Leave it alone. I mean, smell that. That’s what I love about food: the transformation. These didn’t smell before, right? Now they’re everywhere, so sweet and beautiful. And it happens like that. [Snaps.] The transformation of food is so exciting.

Everyone has seen food cook, but I never thought of it this way. It was true: Suddenly the air was brackish and sugary, and it was as if he really couldn’t believe how miraculous that was, even after all these years.

He asks me if I want to start putting the hot scallops on plates, so I look for tongs. I’m mumbling and drumming on my thigh with one hand, which I do when I’m nervous.

Me: Okay, yeah. Let’s see, the tongs, the tongs …

TK: Use your fingers, use your fingers, come on. Don’t be a girl.

Keller speaks with cool authority, like an unusually laid-back football coach. I pick up the steaming scallops with the pads of my fingers, and right away I feel like a slightly better cook. As if by touching the food, I’m taking ownership of it, which I think is his point. The mollusks are plump and spongelike and scalding; I feel their tiny corrugations and crisped edges.

I’ll never use tongs again.

“How to Cook Dinner for the World’s Greatest Chef,” Esquire.com, November 19, 2009

I can do without the sexism here, TK, but like the encouragement to cook with one’s hands. And to lean in.

(via seaweedbutter)

Source: seaweedbutter