7. Eggs in a Water Bath
Take eggs. We poach eggs in a water bath. Egg white sets at a different temperature to egg yolk, hence you can hold a poached egg hot for hours without it setting... providing you know what temperature egg yolk sets at. So, if you hold the egg at 64°C, the yolk won't set.
This kind of knowledge is the key to improving your cooking techniques.
However, as I've said, I was trained in the classical French tradition... it was drilled into me!
If you look at those chefs around my age group who are cooking well now, nearly all of us have solid classical French backgrounds.
It induces such a firm foundation to build on.
The only worry now is that the next generation of cooks, who want to do the foams and all the high-tech modern cooking, won't have that solid foundation. They want to do this all-singing and dancing cooking but lack the basic building blocks.
If you ask them can they make puff pastry, they just look blank. I asked one young chef, who had done three years at college, if he could make crème anglaise. He replied, "No, can you show me?" I said, "You've done three years at college and you don't know how to make custard?" "No, we didn't do that. I can make a rose out of marzipan." Really good functional stuff that!
We make everything here... except cheese biscuits. I buy those in... decent ones, like Duchy, charcoal, lavender oatcakes. We make our own breads... I love bread, you see. Of course, there's no point in doing it just for the sake of putting "handmade" on a menu. If a local baker can make a superior product, and save you time, buy it in... there's no stigma attached. To get bread right, I think, is a bit more difficult than people say.
I've spent many an hour, studying and experimenting and working it. Because bread is not something you can just take from a book. It's something about the texture, the feel... and I know when it feels right.
I'm a thorn in the side of suppliers because I always want something a bit better! "It's only you ever moans, Marc", they tell me, "nobody else does."