For me, when I first learned to cook, the most grateful time was when I was a handyman day and night, and I could lay a solid foundation in knife work without the preparation stage of serving guests in the restaurant. Although new wounds are constantly being added to my hands every day, the goal at that time was simple, that is, to learn the skills of cutting and matching, especially to see potatoes cut by others with matchsticks. At that time, I was particularly envious of the purpose of learning.
When I first started as an apprentice, I cut a big bag of carrots and onions every day, just these two dishes. Because it was a pilaf at that time, the requirements for knife work were not very strict, so it was a good material for beginners to practice knife work. Carrots and onions add up to about 100 Jin, so they must be cut in three hours, otherwise it will affect the meal time; In order to have a chance to practice fencing, I always get up first every day (at that time, I ate and lived in a restaurant, and several stools made a bed together), turned on the tap and touched my face casually, and hurried to the kitchen to start my day's work.
Don't get up early to go to work with other disciples, even have no chance to hold a knife; The first thing to do is to wash and peel carrots and onions that you need all day; Carrots are easier said than done. The hardest thing is to cut onions and peel them. This is the hardest thing. From the first peeling of onions, tears flow to the last peeling and cutting of onions; Now, even if I am sad again, I won't cry. I think that's because all the tears have dried up.
When you learn to cut vegetables, no one teaches you how to hold a knife and how to cut it. It's all up to you. The experience of secretly watching my brother how to hold a knife and how to cut vegetables and steal a teacher has also taught me the ability to read people's minds at all times and avoid conflicts with others. It may also be because of this self-righteous trick that I lost many opportunities.
When I first started practicing fencing, the carrots on the chopping board were always rolling around and I couldn't catch them. I cut the carrot, but my nails were cut off. When I went down with two knives, two nail shells separated from my index finger and middle finger. At that time, I was thinking: if I go down the third knife, will my middle finger not belong to me? With this in mind, I dare not cut the third knife any more.
It is true that learning from one's mistakes and suffering again and again make people unforgettable for a long time, which is the ability to concentrate on avoiding suffering; When I didn't learn to cut vegetables, it was easy to watch others cut vegetables, and I subconsciously felt that I could do it, but I didn't know how ignorant and arrogant I was until I did it myself. I began to pay attention to his brother's posture of holding a knife in his right hand, the way of holding food in his left hand, and the cooperation between his two hands was particularly tacit.
I found that when my brother went out, the nails of several fingers (except thumb) of his left hand shrank slightly inward, and all the first knuckles rested on the back of the knife, and the height of the blade never exceeded the first knuckles; Imitating the appearance of the elder brother opened the way of cutting and matching; Constantly pondering and experimenting is to reduce the pain of the same flesh and blood; Once, I saw a brother cut vegetables because he was distracted by talking to others and almost cut off his little finger, which made me a little creepy. When practicing knife skills, I became very careful, fearing to chop my fingers carelessly.
After going through the difficult stage, everything became simple. It took me two months from getting up before dawn every day to finishing the cutting and matching work in two hours on time. From the beginning, I couldn't even hold the knife, and continued to cut carrots evenly. I put all my enthusiasm and energy into it. It can be said that from that moment on, I really knocked on the door of the catering profession.
Two months later, my brother began to take me and teach me the raw materials. What main course and side dishes are needed for that dish, whether it is slicing, shredding or dicing, all need fixed standards, and there can be no mistakes; The bustling and complicated details suddenly made me nod, and all the cutting standards made my mind a paste. As a last resort, I had to take out a piece of paper and write down all the ingredients needed for cooking. Memorize the content when you sleep at night. From then on, I had the habit of recording the raw materials needed for recipes, which lasted until the end of my career as a chef. The recorded recipes and two thick notebooks were unfortunately lost in a move last year, some of which were classic dishes made by myself. It is a great pity to think of them now, but not the raw materials.
If there was no solid foundation of swordsmanship at that time, when I was studying in the culinary institute, the skill of carving vegetables might be a torment for myself; That kind of despair that you can't love is enough to ruin a person, especially a person you like very much, or a job. When you can't pursue a person, when a job you like very much is in front of you, but you can't do anything about it, that feeling may be shared by most people.