Flavor Profiles

Just perusing this interview with Thomas Keller, a god among men in the culinary world. (There's also a piece by Amanda Hesser in the Times Magazine this past weekend.) If there could ever be a genius in the food world, he would be one of the few, the way he thinks (or intuits) about food and the interaction of his materials and flavors (something I probably will never have the time or the patience to discover for myself, but oh well). His recipes seem incredibly delicate, demanding, maybe over-wrought, but that is his way. It demonstrates his utter mastery over his medium and of his art. Much is being made about his technique of separating the protein from the vegetables using a cheesecloth in his Boeuf Bourgonione. And the idea that each vegetable should be cooked separately, which, now that I think about it, makes some sense -- it treasures the independence of each material by acknowledging its own individual needs and cooking times. I've never eaten the man's food, but the fact that he is making us think about food differently (and reverentially) speaks volumes. Having worked in a restaurant, I know how hard it is to impose your will first on the staff, the people who help you make the food, and then on the people who come to eat your food. People now go to The French Laundry and Per Se to cook for Thomas Keller and people pay lots of money to eat food that he has overseen. He is a culinary icon.