The Food Section

David Chang's Tongs Takedown

Last week's New Yorker featured a profile of culinary it-boy David Chang and his trio of restaurants, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, and (brand new) Momofuku Ko. A lot of attention has been paid to the article's discussion of Chang's pefectionism, neuroses, and stress in dealing with the incredible amount of praise he has received. Others have obsessed over passages hinting at the possibility of a palatial Momofuku outlet opening in Vegas or even Dubai.

But, it was another passage that I found even more intriguing. It recalls an outburst by Chang when he discovered some shoddy technique by his cooks at the Noodle Bar:

At Noodle Bar, a junior line cook had been cooking chicken for family meal— lunch for the staff—and although he had to cook something like seventy-five chicken pieces and the stoves were mostly empty, he’d been cooking them in only two pans, which meant that he was wastiing time he could have spent helping to prep for dinner. Also, he was cooking with tongs, which was bad technique, it ripped the food apart, it was how you cooked at T.G.I. Friday’s—he should have been using a spoon or a spatula. Cooking with tongs showed disrespect for the chicken, disrespect for family meal, and, by extension, disrespect for the entire restaurant.

Disrespect? For using tongs!

I have no formal training as a chef, but I love using my tongs. When I cook, they're like an extension of my hands. Of course, I wouldn't use them to flip a delicate fish filet for fear of tearing it apart, but they seem to do the job perfectly with chicken (at least for me).

So, have I been a disrespectful cook all these years? What do you think, home cooks and pros, tong lovers and haters? Is tong technique acceptable or should it only be reserved for cheesy restaurant chains?

Skillet Endives

Another tip of the hat to master chef Jacques Pépin for culinary technique: this time, a simple and flawless method that turns raw endives from crisp and crunchy to silky and tender.

Mr. Pépin's recipe for skillet endives can be found in his recent cookbook Fast Food My Way, where he describes the technique as an alternative to a more traditional method of involving boiling and then sautéing the endives. He notes that skipping the boiling step also concentrates their subtle flavor.

While Mr. Pépin suggests cooking the endives whole, I split them lengthwise. I otherwise stuck closely to his instructions. After heating a non-stick pan with olive oil and butter, I added the endives, sprinkled them with sugar and salt, and let them cook, covered, over low temperature, turning them occasionally. Thirty minutes later, the endives were soft, caramelized, and faintly sweet.

Remove the cover, crank up the heat to reduce and evaporate any remaining liquid released by the endives, and serve immediately.

Hot Tip

Scattered throughout Jacques Pépin's new book, Fast Food My Way, are brief sidebars with tips and suggestions intended to speed prep time ("The custards can be baked a day in advance") or dispense a kernel of kitchen wisdom ("winter lobsters tend to be heavier, with more juicy meat than summer ones").

One sidebar in particular -- on warming plates -- was a (minor) revelation. "We all know that hot food stays hot much longer when served on warmed plates," writes Mr. Pépin. He's right, but truth be told, I very rarely do this. Whether it's forgetfulness, laziness, or maybe a subconscious way of editing down the number of steps in a recipe, I almost never take the step of turning on the oven just to warm plates. But, Mr. Pépin shares a shortcut, suggesting the use of a microwave oven to accomplish the task, noting that his friend Jean-Claude Szurdak will microwave a stack of four to six plates on high for one and a half to two minutes before plating a meal. This tip may not be a surprise to many of you, but it's never crossed my mind before. It just may make me a plate-warming convert.