The first book I read was Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. In the book, the authors define great cooking as one having an excellent flavour (which in turn, is a combination of taste, mouth feel, aroma, and an X factor) that gives pleasure - in mind, body, and spirit - to the consumer. They go further and explain that in order to ensure that the food gives the right pleasure, multiple factors need to be taken into account such as the moment at which the food is served and the nature of the ingredients that make the food. The moment is important for the emotional satisfaction and can vary anywhere from the current weather (hot, cold, gloomy, sunny) to the type of mood the person is in (in a hurry, with a party, wants to take it slow, just hungry). The ingredients are of course, important for the physical satisfaction, which include the food pairings that go well (apple with cinnamon, tomato with basil) as well as the plating of the food (color and texture).
The second book I read was Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. It's quite an interesting cookbook in that it does not focus on recipes. Rather, it focuses on the ratio of ingredients that make a recipe and encourages the reader to come up with the final dish. The ratios themselves provide the foundation for the dish, while it is up to the reader to introduce additional flavors as well as to follow the appropriate technique to convert it to the final product. For example, to make bread, it takes 5 parts flour and 3 parts water, along with a pinch of yeast and salt. While this is the basic ratio for bread, there can be different kinds based on the flavors (garlic, herb and cheese, whole wheat, 8-grain) added to the bread as well as the technique adopted (ciabatta, foccaccia, sour dough).
I could very well relate to this concept, as I had been fairly frustrated when I first started cooking seriously. I would ask my Mom to tell me her recipes so that I could reproduce them and I would get vague descriptions such as 3 measures of coriander seeds with 2 measures of cumin and 25 chilis, with no specifics on the 'measure' itself. And of course, salt was always 'to taste'. It took me a while to formalize her recipes so that I could get the right flavour and now that I have graduated somewhat, I can see the sense in her basics.
I see quite a few similarities when I think of music, especially Indian classical music (Carnatic or South-Indian to be specific, although these apply to the Hindustani or North-Indian classical music as well). Unlike the traditional Western classical music which is based on harmony and strict composition, carnatic music is based more on melody and does not typically have strict rules on how a composition should be played.
To me, Western classical is more like a recipe book. It exactly tells you how to create the dish down to the last detail and if you follow it right, then you'll get it more or less right. Of course, the musicians would have to be skilled in their instruments and the conductor must use the right technique to get the most out of his musicians, but the composition itself is fairly well-defined, similar to how you can get a fairly decent dish by following the recipe to the dot, provided you know the basics of cooking and have the right ingredients. Better the ingredients and your cooking expertise, the better the dish will be.
On the other hand, carnatic music is more like cooking by ratio combined with flavor techniques. Most renditions have two components - the lyrics of the song being rendered and the 'raga' of the song. A raga is essentially a sequence of notes (Do Re Mi, etc.) that can be used in a particular pattern. This is similar to the ratios of a dish. After that, it's pretty much left to the singer on how the song should be rendered. The singer may opt to use the default raga (normally) or may even opt to sing the lyrics in a completely different raga, if that makes more sense to him. It is also up to the singer to use his own technique (as taught by his teacher - different teachers have different styles of singing) and to add creative variations to the base rules for singing the song (called 'vakrams' or deviations). So, while the artist has the foundation of the raga and the lyrics, he would combine it with his own embellishments on top of the basic rules along with his own unique techniques and create the final rendition.
Does this mean that one is better than the other? Not really. They are just two different ways to the same final destination, and each has its relevance in a specific setting. I just think that it is interesting to see the similarities, which hopefully can help appreciate both types of music with a different lens of perception.
Coming back to cooking, I think it's important to understand both styles of cooking if one aspires to be a good cook. I see it kind of being cyclical - you would first want to start with recipes that are accurate. Following tried and tested recipes to the dot can help improve one's overall cooking skills as well as to get comfortable with the basics of cooking. The focus here would be more on the skills of cooking since the recipe itself spells out the procedure as well as the ingredients and their combination. Once enough cooking skills have been developed, I think it's important to move on to the ratio-based thinking that is more free form. Such mode of thinking helps improve creativity and innovation while ensuring that the basics are right. This is probably the stage when the cook masters the art. The last part of the cycle involves codifying the skills learned both as recipes as well as rules for future generations. I think this is a part that many tend to forget or ignore. It is not only important for one to learn an art, but one should also pass on that knowledge to the next generation of aspiring cooks.
If this topic aroused your curiosity, you may want to check out the books I mentioned earlier.
- The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg
- Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
Finally, you might also want to read the book that inspired the title of this blog - On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of Kitchen by Harold McGee - a fascinating book that goes into the science of cooking.
Happy Reading, Cooking, and Listening!
3 comments:
Good comparison really.
Another comparison point is that the taste of food depends on what you ate before. Eating flavor of spice one after another does not help, neither does eating a laddoo after a rasagolla. That's why you have a paayasam or mysore paak right after a well-made spicy rasam.
Similarly in carnatic-music, performers pick ragas that are contrasting in 'flavor'. Like they do not sing a simhendramadhyamam followed by say shanmukhapriya. Or a varali followed by a chalanata. They are too close to each other for comfort.
True. I also forgot to mention the other aspect in Carnatic music that is similar to what the Flavor Bible says, and that's on the emotional satisfaction.
Much like how the satisfaction the food brings depends on the 'moment' factor - such as a hot soup on a cold day or a cold beverage on a hot day, I think Carnatic music also allows for such mood-based offerings. For example, an artist might perform a 'thukkada' (short, fast piece) if he thinks the audience is nodding off, or may sing a 'desh' raag if it happens to be Independence day to resonate with the moment. I guess you can probably do the same with Western as well, by selecting the appropriate tempo, but I feel it's more flexible in Carnatic, as the music system itself has a strong mood relationship.
Practice makes it perfect in both food and music..
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