Do you love to cook? What are your views or thoughts about it? Is it an art or a craft…or both? Does it bring you joy or give you anxiety? These are the types of questions that I have going on in my head quite often when I think about cooking, eating for that matter too! When I was younger and just getting started I fancied myself an artist. Then I realized that I actually had a tremendous work ethic. Then I read Kitchen Confidential only to realize that I was, in fact, a craftsman. The shift had happened, mentally, long before I read the book. However, it wasn’t until I read it that I was able to make the connection or give a name to my approach to cooking. I ALWAYS SHOWED UP FOR WORK! Over the years I’ve looked back and laughed at the passage that talks about how artists don’t always show up or only show up when they feel it. Something to that effect, I’m paraphrasing. Back to the questions from the beginning of the post.

Cooking is both an art and a craft. Right? What I’ve found is that a craftsman can become or is usually the better artist anyway. Huh? Well, if you think about it, it’s really quite simple. If you work at perfecting your craft be it cooking or(insert what ever cheesy cliche you’d like here) underwater basket weaving. You can begin to experiment because you have level of understanding and competence that can always bring you back to the basics. When I viewed myself as an artist I had lots and lots of grandiose ideas, but absolutely zero fucking skills or knowledge to be able to use to accomplish those ideas. Often, too, I had a wandering mind and the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel. Which wasn’t a great recipe for my success or the success of the restaurant I was charged with making function at the highest possible level. I remember getting a couple of very simple and great pieces of advice, which I decided to follow, that absolutely changed my trajectory. Why am I even talking about this anyway? Oh yeah, we’re talking about cooking and craftsmanship…

The two pieces of advice you ask? 1. Make a list & 2. Do one task at a time. Those two overly simple concepts helped me transform my career as a chef. I was able to free up my head space for creativity and ultimately make myself waaaaaay more efficient by employing these tactics. Making a list let me get the daily to dos out of my head and I didn’t have to think about what I needed to do once I checked everything at the start of the day. It also helped me get back on track if I got pulled away or distracted, which was often. I could fall back on my lists when I wasn’t at my best or wasn’t feeling “it” that day too. Doing one task from start to finish was something I never thought about, that is, until one day when my chef mentor came into the kitchen and started pointing out that while I had 15 things going for prep I had none of them completed. I was a whirlwind of activity wrapped in chaos with a side of disorganized. AWESOME!

What in the hell does this have to do with craftsmanship and cooking? Well, if you’re planning on being an awesome home chef, weekend pit master or tailgate king it may be helpful to understand that it’s a process. As with so many things in life if we know that we have to go one step at a time we can plan. You can also work on getting better a little bit at a time, mastering a method or system before you try and build the Eiffel Tower out of chocolate… The list making and doing one task at a time are just a couple of simple tips to help you along the way. They also might help to cut down on the anxiety about cooking, if you have that, or grow your joy