Haste makes waste: the hazards of speed before preparation

 

     I do a lot of cooking around the house. Although I enjoy the various cooking shows that are currently popular, I cannot often make use of the recipes. They either take too much time or they involve ingredients that fall afoul of the pickiness of one or another of the members of the household. I primarily watch in admiration and awe of the fluidity of the actions of the professional chefs.

     I have often wondered why, in comparison to the published recipes and cooking shows, my preparation time takes about twice as long as that stated on the recipe or what it takes for them to do it on a cooking show (cooking time is usually fairly similar <smile>).

     I have decided that my "slowness" is a combination of lack of practice with a particular recipe and my basic tool skills. Watching a "MasterClass" of cooking techniques, I can watch a chef finely dice a shallot in the time that it would take me to locate it in the pantry or refrigerator. There is a third factor which I am slowly improving upon -- organization and method. When a chef on a cooking show prepares food, they have everything pre-measured, and set out, such that cooking is a matter of assembly and preparation.

     With 45 years of experience as a general, household, cook -- I am faster, and more able, than many. But, in order to get as experienced as the chefs, I would need to cook the same dish 100 times within a week. Repetition, within short time frames, is what grinds in the motor memory needed to do something with lack of conscious thought. I remember watching a show about Julia Child and she needed to practice peeling potatoes. So, she got a huge mound (hundreds) of potatoes and just started peeling. (I would not have liked to pay for her grocery bill that month.)

     This type of experience is also necessary for skills with tools -- in particular, knives. In this area my willingness to attempt increasing speed is greatly tempered by my fear. I know about holding fingers in a certain way, keeping the knife sharp, making sure the food and cutting board are properly secured, and all that -- but I am still afraid of allowing muscle memory to take over. As is true of most cooks (and even chefs), I have a few scars from past burns and cuts (no missing digits, thank goodness). In this respect, I am willing to be slow. I know how to speed up and I know it is somewhat irrational but I am willing to be slow in this area.

     A final area of practice is with some techniques. I would LOVE to be able to take a skillet of hash browns and flip, and fold, them with a toss of the skillet and movement of the wrist. And it's not that awfully dangerous. But, I will wager quite fully, those people on the cooking shows who casually flip their food have also cleaned up a lot of messes in the process. Since I am the one to clean up my messes, I prefer not to make them -- so that is still on my cooking "bucket list".

     Some of you who are reading this from a more formal business viewpoint may (even are likely to) be wondering "what has this got to do with business"? Quite a lot. We are talking about the basic aspects of preparation, practice, experience, tools, procedure, and logistics.

     There is often an excellent correspondence between household needs and business needs. Probably that isn't an accident as the processes (and "product management") needed in household tasks existed prior to taking them into the business environment.

     So, in respect to business, "let's get cooking".