You can argue with me all you want but I firmly believe that in any discussion of the five greatest inventions of modern civilization the public lending library, as an institution, must be included. Not the first sentence you were expecting in a restaurant blog post? Where is this all going? Be patient. If you can’t be patient how are you ever going to slow cook that pot roast? Or make those ribs? Geez.
Speaking of pot roast; how long do you cook it? At what temp? Is it better to brown it first? Why all these questions? Because this post is about finding answers and those answers come from your mom, your grandma, and your cookbooks (which you probably got from Mom and Grandma. That’s where I got most of mine). Would it surprise you to learn that professional chefs use cookbooks all the time? The picture above is the library in our very own kitchen at Bleu. If you look closely you will see amidst all the famous names like “The French Laundry,” “Au Pied de Cochon,” “Ad Hoc,” and others, is a familiar face. You know the one. It’s put together like a three ring binder and the cover has the red and white look of a picnic blanket. We all have a copy in our cabinet at home; its crusty with pancake batter because it gets used all the time. We all bought the fancy cookbooks by Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, and Heston Blumenthal. Our houses all have Wi-Fi so we can read allrecipes.com on our iPads in the kitchen. But…I’ll let you in on a secret. Everyone that cooks, whether they do it for a living, a hobby, a passion, or just has hungry kids that want scrambled eggs with ketchup for breakfast on Sundays, gets the most use out of the good old, beat up, red and white “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.” If you need to make a simple pie crust or find out at what temperature to cook your pork loin, it’s the first, best option. That’s why it has its place in the Bleu Restaurant library. The library itself has its place at Bleu because being an expert cook isn’t about knowing all the answers, its knowing how to find them.
Okay, so that covers books for those that cook. What about for those that eat? Our front-of-the-house staff has its own library, albeit much smaller. In this library one would find a couple bartending books, food and wine magazines, a wine reference book or two, and, most importantly, “The Food Lover’s Companion.” We look at it every day. That’s why your server seems like an expert when you ask about a particular term on the menu. Don’t feel bad. They most likely didn’t know what saltimbocca was when they got to the restaurant that night either. They consulted our library. A quick glance at a recent features menu yielded a good sized list of terms that we all knew we better be ready to define. Here’s just a few: harissa, aioli, arancini, paella, fontina, beurre rouge, Bolognese, pappardelle, and hearts of palm. Not to mention that, on the fly I’ve got to know the difference between a beschamel and a sauce Mornay, explain “confit,” or why crème fraiche can be used on a dessert and is also served with the pasta. I’m not an expert. I’ve got a chef and a great library to answer my questions.
So ask questions. Don’t get intimidated by French and Italian words on the menu. It’s okay to not know. That’s what we have cookbooks for. Most importantly I guarantee that as I’m standing at your table sounding like an expert in French cuisine, five minutes earlier, having just read that night’s menu, I was in the kitchen shouting across the line “Chef! What the hell is duxelles?”