Sunday, June 19, 2005
IN SHORT ORDER
You know that I dearly love Dan Neil who started as the auto-feature-writer on the LA Times and has gotten a Pulitzer for it.
He still does that column and has started a weekly column in the magazine section called 800 Words.
He is as good in general as he is on cars; funny, ironic, well written. It is an interesting exercise to keep it at 800.
This week it is about short order cooking: Cooks on Fire.
I did short order cookery when I was in college. I understand all of the stuff he is talking about.
I think that I could still do it. I know the fundamentals: timing, thinking ahead to the next step, lock step routine, and 'clean as you go'.
I lasted two years. I was in the middle of the pack in terms of keeping up and not making any errors. I made great eggs. I never had to do with freshening the hollandaise though. That is high end short order. I suppose eggs benedict.
Neil mentions St. Lawrence who, as it turns out, was slow broiled for his saintly goodness. I nominate him as the patron saint of short order cooks.
