Deepa: Ah. I actually have this theory that making food is as creative an endeavour as any other art; therefore, really good food cannot be standardized...if it is, it will lose by that process.
Udhay: I am not sure I agree. It is perfectly possible, in my experience, to have chefs turn out food that tastes just the same (*and* is excellent to boot) day after day. Deepa: Well...I think this because even when I measure the ingredients and follow a recipe (not always possible with south Indian cooking though), the food does not taste zigackly the same each time. Charles: I agree with both of you! Even a great restaurant with a world class chef needs consistency. If two people order the same dish, either at the same table on the same night, or at different times from the same restaurant, they expect it to be recognizably the same. In that sense it's "standardized. I expect the salmon and creme fraiche cornets at French Laundry to be the same as last time I visited, and I expect them to be the same at Per Se. This in spite of the fact that they will be prepared by different people, and the salmon will vary by location and by season. However, because ingredients do differ, achieving that "standardization" is very different from writing down a recipe to be slavishly followed by someone of minimal culinary skill. You can't say "sautee for five minutes" you have to teach them how to judge the amount of sauteeing required to reproduce the effect you want. "Sautee until the skin is correctly crisped." Even so, you need someone to maintain the standard. The chef will still need to make periodic corrections and adjustments, and that doesn't scale to a large chain. A good chef may be able to train some executive chefs, but will still need to visit occasionally to make sure the standards are being maintained. I think Joel Robouchon is pretty amazing in being able to maintain standards across his chain... I mean "empire." So I think creating amazing food is a creative endeavor but it can also be reduced to practice - but only by a gifted chef and only for someone trained in the art who has adequate skills. -- Charles
