It is fire that defines what cooking is all about; fire that draws young cooks to the kitchen; fire that inspires chefs to create; fire that fuels the adrenaline in kitchens, and fire that is there for every cook to try and control. The problem with fire is that it is challenging to control. Try as cooks may, fire is always threatening to gain the upper hand.

At times, it is as if fire is tempting cooks to try for that elusive control, drawing them in, pretending to allow each cook to feel as if control is within their grasp and then, laughing as it must – fire leaps forward and sends us a sign. Singed eyebrows, burns from a scorching hot sauté pan, spatters of 375-degree oil in the fryolator, or that elusive steam, heated by fire, that rolls from a convective steamer, or a super-hot pan just deglazed with a splash of wine or brandy. Each cook knows that it is, at best, a battle of wits and a call for concentration. Disengage from close observation of fire and it will lash out and bite, like a dog mistaking your finger for a bone.

Cooks and chefs spend their days admiring and working with fire – the mesmerizing flames that range in color from yellow to deep blue, and shades of white. We know the drill – “assume it’s hot, use a dry side towel, test the pan gradually before attempting that vise grip.” Cook’s must keep their attention on the fire and avoid relinquishing control. The fire is hungry and will gladly devour your sense of comfort and confidence if you let it. This is what fire does best. Give it some gas and plenty of oxygen and watch how it takes center stage.

Fire has character and personality. It can be gentle, and accommodating as with a seemingly controlled poach or simmer and in the next moment become a raging monster that is a beast best kept at bay when it sears, caramelizes, grills, or broils with the intensity of a bonfire. Fire may try and cooperate through a low and slow burn creating tempting smoke for barbeque, or nearly out of control with pan blackening, charring peppers, or searing a black and blue tenderloin of beef.

The cook needs to become one with fire, to respect it, try and understand it, give it the fuel it needs, but not too much, and keep it at bay when at any moment it might flare up and show that it has a mind of its own. The cook needs to maintain this delicate balance and not step out of this relationship zone focused on maintaining a sense of equilibrium.

Richard Wrangham, author of Catching Fire – How Cooking Made Us Human,

Stated: “I believe the transformative moment that gave rise to the genus Homo, one of the great transitions in the history of life, stemmed from the control of fire and the advent of cooked meals.”

It is fire, after all, that gave birth to taste and flavor. Caramelization and the subsequent elements of umami are closely aligned with the effects of fire on food. As the cook relishes the chance to control these beastly flames, the ingredients we work seek the strength of fire and the chance to release its impact on taste buds, olfactory senses, and the all-important “chew” that are transformed when ingredients and fire – connect.

The countless burns from fingertips to arms and necks; the deep tissue indirect burns from steam, and the sweat that defines the environment of a professional kitchen are merely indicators of fire’s presence and its constant quest to be in charge.

Aside from the physical connection of fire to cooking, fire is a metaphor for a chef’s passion for the craft, their commitment to the process, their energy and stamina, their level of excitement shared with others, and their desire to make a difference. The fire of being “all in” is consuming and definitive of the person who wears the uniform.

“In each moment the fire rages, it will burn away a hundred veils. And carry you a thousand steps toward your goal.”

— Rumi

To be a cook or chef is to be a servant to fire, a person with deep respect for this element of life that can only exist in the presence of oxygen, this action that seeks, if we allow it, to consume all the oxygen that is present, this phenomena that can be so incredibly destructive, yet as wonderfully warming and effective as a cooks tool, more so than any tool that man can design and build.

Cooks and chefs cannot exist without fire, nor would they want to. Fire is what we seek, what we sign up for, and what we spend a lifetime trying to understand.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

RESPECT THE TOOL OF FIRE

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting

www.harvestamericacues.com  BLOG

(Over 900 articles about the business and people of food)

CAFÉ Talks Podcast

https://cafemeetingplace.com/cafe-podcasts

More than 90 interviews with the most influential people in food