Mark Hoffe
Special to SaltWire
The culinary arts can be intimidating.
With so many ingredients, seasonings and specific skills involved, there are plenty of opportunities for your dinner party to turn into a disaster before the guests arrive. That dish or dessert destined for social media fame can easily end up in your trash bin.
Although the foodie television boom offers plenty of ideas for recipes and helpful cooking tips, shows like MasterChef often feature experienced chefs cracking under pressure.
Don’t let the hyped-up drama deter you, though – master chefs might seem superhuman, but everybody makes mistakes.
'You name it, we roasted it'
That’s something Peter Wedgwood knows all too well.
A Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute trained chef and owner of Wedgwood Café & Catering on Elizabeth Avenue in St. John’s, his love of cooking began in childhood.
“I grew up in a household of amazing cooks,” Wedgwood said. “Just the best home cooking you could imagine.”
Sunday night at the Wedgwood household was always roast night. Prime rib. Roast turkey. Pork loin with apple sauce. Savoury stuffed chickens. Ham and scalloped potatoes.
“You name it, we roasted it,” Wedgwood said. “Always an abundance of side dishes and the gravy would be flowing. It was magical.”
Mistakes still happen
Still, under food’s magic spell, Wedgwood admits cooking can occasionally seem like a curse. About 10 years ago, he faced a catering dilemma with a cheesecake.
“I didn't realize at the time, but one of the rags I was using to remove the cake from the oven was damp,” Wedgwood said.
“When pressed against the hot cake pan, it caused a pretty nasty steam burn on my hand. I accidentally dropped the cake on the counter and basically destroyed it. It was a hot mess.”
“With everything from cakes to pizza dough, there's a sweet spot.”
— Jenny Rockett
Half of the cheesecake was in the pan and the other half was splattered across the countertop and floor. Wedgwood didn’t have time to bake a new one.
“I would stop short of calling it a dire situation, but it wasn't good,” he said. “I ended up using some phyllo pastry and turned the dessert into cheesecake spring rolls with Toblerone chocolate ganache and ice cream. Mistakes happen, and you've got to be able to roll with the punches.”
From Nan's kitchen to the bakery
No stranger to rolling with the punches, small business owner Jenny Rockett grew up punching dough with her grandmother.
She traces her love of baking to her grandmother’s kitchen.
“She made the best white bread,” Rockett said. “Sometimes with raisins, sometimes with a swirl of cinnamon. It was so good. It didn't seem like she ever measured anything. Just a scoop of this, a spoon of that. I was always amazed by that.”
Rockett still loves the feel of dough in her hands, but she now measures her ingredients.
She’ll soon open Birdie, a new bakery and coffee shop on Water Street in St. John’s, with co-owner Phil Goodland, a pastry chef and former owner of Levain Bakery.
Wedding cake oops
“When I started baking professionally, I occasionally made wedding cakes for friends,” Rockett said.
“Being from Newfoundland, I didn't really consider how heat could affect a cake. The first wedding cake I made was for a friend and it was the hottest day I can remember.”
At the time, Rockett drove an old car with no air conditioning. The wedding venue also lacked air conditioning. By the time she transported the cake from St. John's to Portugal Cove and set it up, the three-tiered cake started to lean.
“It became pretty clear that the cake wasn't going to make it to the scheduled cutting,” Rockett said.
“There was nothing I could do but panic, be mortified and suggest that they move up the cake cutting, which, thankfully, they did. I learned the hard way about the importance of stabilizing the cake tiers with dowels and never again made a summer wedding cake with a soft, creamy icing.”
Start simple
As those stories show, it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to flip a food flop in your favour. Prep, patience and perseverance are key.
“Start with something fairly simple,” Wedgwood said.
“Once you have that mastered, slowly start to step outside your comfort zone. Use the internet to find new recipes that interest you. If you shag it up, no big deal. Try it again and again and again until you have it where you want it.”
Rockett hasn’t worked with a lot of new bakers, but she often gets calls from family and friends to help troubleshoot recipes. Overmixing or undermixing are common mistakes.
“With everything from cakes to pizza dough, there's a sweet spot,” Rockett said.
“I have a favourite vegan chocolate cake recipe that is my go-to chocolate cake. I've shared the recipe with family members, but somehow it's never quite the same as mine. If a cake is rubbery and chewy, it's likely caused by overmixing, if it didn't rise as much as expected and is dense at the bottom, it's likely been undermixed.”
Rockett admits that's a bit of a simplification. With baking in particular, the quality of the final product depends on ingredients, temperature, the type of pan and other matters. Experiment until you get it right.
Organization key
“I would also say make sure you have all the ingredients before you start,” Rockett said.
"It's so simple, but it’s definitely a mistake I made in my earlier years. I'm much more organized and disciplined now. I like to get all my ingredients out before I start, prep my pans, preheat the oven and clean as I go.”
Wedgwood often notices that new cooks are disorganized, cluttered and lack a sense of timing.
“It's important to have a game plan when you attack your prep list,” Wedgwood said.
“Clean as you go and finish tasks that you start. Keep your knives sharp and constantly work on your knife skills. Taste your food as you go to make sure seasoning is on point. I always tell my young beginning cooks to know how large their pinch of seasoning is and to be consistent with it.”
Common cooking wisdom
Some common cooking wisdom can help keep chaos in the kitchen at bay.
If you find lumps in your gravy or sauce, smooth it out with a food processor or immersion blender. You can also strain it.
If it’s too watery, dissolve one tablespoon of cornstarch in a quarter-cup of water and slowly add while simmering and stirring. Repeat if necessary.
As Wedgwood said, the key is to taste your food as you go. It’s much easier to adjust on the fly than it is to fix flavours when everything’s on the table.
“You got to put the reps in. There is no faking it. Build your repertoire dish by dish and have fun doing it.”
— Peter Wedgwood
Sweetness can fight spice, and a little bit of fire can counteract sweetness. Dairy also mellows spice.
Some people love salty food, some don’t. If you cook something that involves liquid, add more liquid to balance the salt. Water is often best because it’s neutral.
If the recipe has cream or milk, add more to dilute the salt and make the dish creamier.
Acidic foods like lemon and lime juice can also dilute salt, and you don’t need much to get the job done.
'No secret'
“There is no secret to becoming a good cook,” Wedgwood said. “You got to put the reps in. There is no faking it. Build your repertoire dish by dish and have fun doing it.”
Rockett agrees that having fun in the kitchen is a main ingredient for success.
“Don't be afraid to make mistakes,” she said. “That's how you learn. Get your hands into everything. Baking is tactile and often it's the best way to figure out if the texture of your dough or batter is right.”
She also recommends experimenting with flavours.
“We're so lucky in Newfoundland to have access to such a variety of local flavours. I really like to incorporate local ingredients and have used everything from partridgeberries to spruce tips to wild mushrooms in my shortbread."
