>>24081922A couple of Marco Pierre White videos taught me more than 2 years of cooking class at school did.
Why do you cook tomato sauce for 40 minutes or more? School: "helps the flavour, tastes good",, White: "it reduces the acidity of the tomato which makes room on the pallet for the herbs you use, and cooking is all about reducing water content in the first place, water isn't a calorie, it's empty and has no flavour, so boil off as much water as possible and add butter to emulsify everything, to move the flavours through the sauce, and to bind everything together. The longer, the better."
The beauty of it is that when you're working with sauces, you don't even need to pay much attention.
It's all about adding your ingredients at the right time so they all reach their ideal cooking finish together.
Besides, the restaurant trick is to sear in a pan, finish in an oven and add 20gr of butter for every 100gr of meat to the pan, with a splash of water or red/white wine vinegar or liquor to deglaze the pan and mix the fond into the gravy. Boil at full heat while the steak finishes.
You can do it in your sleep. Restaurants do it consistently and quickly, and add the chef's preferred herbs and spices.
Their job is to restore you, so don't take it out on them if you do a better job at home.
As for the modern Michelin crowd, they're not restaurant owners or restorers. They're artsy nerds who make you leave the venue broke and sad, not happy and restored.
