General > Cooking

Professional chef turned EE

(1/3) > >>

hvna:
Hi everyone, I'm a former professional chef (10 years in industry, classically french trained) with multiple years experience in Michelin restaurants. Last year I decided to get out and I've been in school for electrical engineering since then. I am still currently the executive chef here at a restaurant in Ireland, but due to Covid I'll be moving to a different country soon. Regardless, I'm always here for cooking questions. It isn't my passion but I do have quite a bit of knowledge. I can only hope all of you return the favor!

Halcyon:
Welcome! It's always interesting to see people from all different backgrounds and professions here. Everyone has a story to tell.

Will you share with us your "signature dish" (at least one we can make at home)? ;-)

Or perhaps you can tell us, how do you cook the perfect steak? I can cook all manner of things, but steak is just something I keep getting wrong.

themadhippy:

--- Quote ---, how do you cook the perfect steak
--- End quote ---
put a heavy non nonstick pan on the heat
wait
when the smoke detector goes off open window to let smoke escape,reset alarm
wait another five minutes
if pan starts glowing/melting turn down the heat a tiny bit
drop steak into pan
1 to 2 minutes later turn steak
cook for another minute or 2
serve

nctnico:
Nice to have a professional chef on board. I think I have a pretty neat way to cook steaks though. The trick is to keep the moisture in.

I use olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder as seasoning.

I use a frying pan with a thick bottom which I let heat up on high fire until the olive oil (+ salt) starts to fume a bit. Then I put the steaks in and let them fry for 50 seconds per cm for each side. Nice and crusty with lots of smoke. For really thick steaks (over 3cm) I set the heat a bit lower and go to 60 seconds per cm. Then I take them out of the pan (turn the heat off & cover the pan) and wrap the steaks into aluminium after after sprinkling the pepper, garlic and thyme on top. Let that sit for 5 to 6 minutes. After that put the steaks back into the pan which has cooled down and let the residual heat do the rest. The steaks shouldn't 'sizzle'. It takes some practise to get it right; if there is a lot of moisture coming from the steaks then you are making them too hot and you are literally cooking the tenderness out of the meat. 3 minutes 'after cooking' for medium rare, 6 minutes for medium. This trick also works well with pork but you may want different seasoning.

rhodges:
Hi, hvna. I would like a cookbook. There are probably thousands or more of "cookbooks". But they are bad. Some say "to taste". How the hell do I know what that means? What is the start, and how do I add "to taste"? Some (or many) have ingredients that are not really needed. Why not tell me? Why?

I would like to buy a cookbook that starts with the minimum ingredients to make it. Then, it tells how to make it better. And it explains WHY the new ingredients are better. Then, it tells how to make it excellent. One, two, three. Basic, good, excellent. Can I buy this cookbook?

On a similar note, I want to make my own "pizza sausage" and pepperoni. I have a decent "pizza sausage" spice recipe (no thanks to the Internet). But I have no good recipe for making pepperoni. Yes, there are many "recipes". But when so much is garbage, why should I spend my time on worthless (or prank?) recipes?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page