Hair Flick

Television shows can either be informative, educational or entertaining. Cooking shows tend to fall into all three of those categories. Audience members look at the chefs of these shows as their teachers. However, some of these chefs on television could use a refresher course themselves.

Magic Food: Most people tune into cooking shows to learn or perfect a recipe. Many times these TV chefs perform a vital part of a recipe during the commercial break. Before the break, the chef removes the chicken from a package and somehow, the chicken is magically seasoned and sautéed by the time the chef comes back from break. How is the audience supposed to follow along with the recipe if you don’t show all of the steps? Viewers might as well just go online and look up the recipe on their own time.

Hanging Over The Food: Every good chef tastes their food once or twice while cooking it. Tasting your food is normal behavior for anyone in the kitchen.

However, a lot of television cooks tend to exercise the ‘hanging method’. The ‘hanging method’ is taking a spoonful of food and tasting it while hanging over the entire pot. The proper way to taste your food is to take a spoonful with your hand cupped underneath it and pull the spoon toward you. Hanging over the pot isn’t sanitary. Hanging over the pot also makes the person look like a savage.

‘A Pinch’: Television chefs use this term constantly, but many of them don’t seem to know what ‘a pinch’ is. A pinch should be a very small portion added within milliseconds. However, in TV land,new products, ‘a pinch’ means sprinkling until the chef’s fingers get tired. If a viewer with high blood pressure added the same ‘pinch’ of salt that TV chefs used, then they’d be in huge trouble.

Eye Measuring: There are some instances where you should use the ‘eye measuring’ method when cooking. However, some chefs use it all the time. ‘Eye measuring’ is when a cook doesn’t use any utensils to measure their ingredients. Just because you’re a chef, it doesn’t mean you’re immune to making a mistake. If you’re working with a large spout, there’s no telling what can happen when you start pouring that ingredient. Some chefs state that a recipe calls for two tablespoons of a certain substance. A tablespoon is supposed to be a small addition to a recipe. According to what chefs do on television, a tablespoon looks like half a cup. Of course any chef has the right to alter their recipe, but when you’re on television, it’s best to show exactly how a recipe is done.

Talking While Eating: Every little boy and girl is taught not to talk with food in their mouth. This rule seems to be nonexistent in the TV world. Talking with food in your mouth is worse than making slurping noises while eating soup. The food isn’t going anywhere and being that these chefs are human, the audience will understand if it takes them a few minutes to chew the food in their mouth. Viewers want to listen to a clear speaking voice rather than a mumble.

Dirty Cutting Board: A cutting board should be thoroughly cleaned after every use. On most of these cooking shows, the chefs simply swipe a rag over the cutting board and then prepare something else on it. The rag they use to wipe down the cutting board is never rinsed. Therefore the same germs are being recycled after each wipe. A tactic like this will land someone in the hospital sooner or later.

Package Residue: Most chefs place their packaged meat on their cutting board before cutting it. That package, bag or paper could have been anywhere before you took it home. When dealing with meat, you have to be extremely careful. Placing an unknown package or wrapper on your cutting board or prep area isn’t sanitary. It would be safer to place your meat on a dish and then bring it over to your prep area.

Hair Flick: Long hair and loose hair don’t bode well in the kitchen. If your hair tends to be all over the place or long, it would make more sense to pin it back. Of course television chefs want to look good for the cameras,discount christian louboutin sandals, but there’s food involved here. Some chefs move their hair out of their face and then continue cooking. As a chef, your hands should be on your food at all times. Touching your hair while cooking, can lead to strands of it being found in the food. Moving your hair tends to be a subconscious thing. However, if the problem isn’t there in the first place, then there would be no need to do it.

Teachers and instructors are supposed to set examples. A television chef/cook is seen as a teacher, while the viewer is seen as the pupil. Of course a pupil can decipher what’s right or wrong on their own. However, when you take on a leadership role, it’s always good to put your best foot forward.