Cordon Bleu Cooks. Why Do They Have to Be So Good ?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Jun 25, 2021
1,369
4,443
England
I quite like Illy coffee beans, medium roast. My sister is a Cordon Bleu cook, she uses exactly the same beans, pot and method as I do. Her coffee tastes divine, while mine tastes somewhat mundane. I ask myself how this can be, but I know if you were to put Lewis Hamilton and me in the same off the line production cars, he's more than likely going to thrash me. Even toast is out of this world the way she does it. just ain't fair !
 

pappymac

Lifer
Feb 26, 2015
3,268
4,261
It's the subtle nuances they teach either in culinary school or learned working for very good chefs. I'm a damn good cook (according to everyone who has eaten my cooking) but our oldest son is an executive chef and he can out cook me in making fine dining type meals. (He still can't beat my chili or Stewed Redfish.)
 
Jun 23, 2019
1,845
12,758
What is a Cordon Bleu cook?

Chicken breast, butterflied, stuffed with cheese and ham, rolled up, breaded then deep fried.

LOL

- - -

I quite like Illy coffee beans, medium roast. My sister is a Cordon Bleu cook, she uses exactly the same beans, pot and method as I do. Her coffee tastes divine, while mine tastes somewhat mundane. I ask myself how this can be, but I know if you were to put Lewis Hamilton and me in the same off the line production cars, he's more than likely going to thrash me. Even toast is out of this world the way she does it. just ain't fair !

Just like piping, technique is king. The same ingredients (and/or equipment) will do dramatically different things in different hands.
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,932
37,913
RTP, NC. USA
Cordon Bleu, if I'm not mistaken, is a culinary academy. And that French chicken dish. Sort of like CIA (Culinary Institute of America). There are steps to prepare everything to way they should be. If followed, most of the time, things will come out pretty good. With coffee, grain size, water temp, and type of filter makes difference. With toasts, try toasting on frying pan with good quality unsalted butter and just a pinch of sea salt.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,065
Carmel Valley, CA
As to the coffee- could it be the phenom I experience when my GF makes a salad, it's superb, and when I do, it's mundane at best?

Otherwise, quiz her, grill her, spy on her to find out if she is doing something you are not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OzPiper

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,675
29,390
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I quite like Illy coffee beans, medium roast. My sister is a Cordon Bleu cook, she uses exactly the same beans, pot and method as I do. Her coffee tastes divine, while mine tastes somewhat mundane. I ask myself how this can be, but I know if you were to put Lewis Hamilton and me in the same off the line production cars, he's more than likely going to thrash me. Even toast is out of this world the way she does it. just ain't fair !
because cooking is a gestalt type thing. Where little things make a huge difference on the whole. And someone who has her education knows really well what those little things are and how much of them to use. I think a good example of that is how sometimes you can add a tiny pinch of a spice to a recipe a pinch so tiny it's imperceptible in as much as no one will be able to pick out that spice or even the specific thing it adds to the recipe, however it will somehow elevate that recipe into something new. There are infinite examples of this in action. I am sure we've all had restaurants that we can't tell you what's so much better about how they do something because it basically tastes like everywhere else but somehow better.
Reminds me of a silly story. I worked at a restaurant that released a cookbook and their hot sauce had a proprietary secret ingredient. As in the book said there is one more ingredient we're not telling you here. The secret ingredient turned out to be just doubling the amount of clarified butter. That little thing utterly changed the sauce in a way that seems magical.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,675
29,390
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Cordon Bleu, if I'm not mistaken, is a culinary academy. And that French chicken dish. Sort of like CIA (Culinary Institute of America). There are steps to prepare everything to way they should be. If followed, most of the time, things will come out pretty good. With coffee, grain size, water temp, and type of filter makes difference. With toasts, try toasting on frying pan with good quality unsalted butter and just a pinch of sea salt.
Cordon Bleu = Blue Ribbon. It's a highly regarded Academy with a number of branches, that train professional chefs. Then they go out into the industry and really learn how to cook. It is all in the nuances.
after years of working in kitchens I can say that the worst people to work with are trained chefs, with one huge caveat. That being that rule doesn't apply to CIA and Cordon Bleu, everyone I worked with who studied at either of those places might as well be considered food wizards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bullet08

5star

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 17, 2017
727
2,018
PacNW USA
Like in many fields of endeavor, professionals far outperform those of us who are merely interested amateurs. We do Not spend 40+ hours a week doing the activity in which they make their livelihood. Training, distinctions made through experience, & natural talent make a huge difference in results.