Rendering as a medium

“…pasta is tossed with egg yolk (and sometimes albumen), pecorino cheese, guanciale and black pepper…”

Felicity Cloake's Guardian masterclass on risotto alla milanese hews to the orthodox build: hot stock added a ladle at a time, frequent (not constant) stirring, the saffron bloomed in stock before going in. Her position is that the technique is more forgiving than its reputation suggests, provided the stock is genuinely hot. · paraphrased

Gritzer scrambled five batches of eggs, salted anywhere from 0 to 60 minutes before cooking. His conclusion: pre-salting does not toughen scrambled eggs, and it can improve their texture. · paraphrased

Thomas Keller's bistro-school standard at Bouchon: build a hard crust on both sides of a thick cut, then drop butter, garlic, and thyme into the pan and spoon the foaming fat continuously over the steak. The basting is what brings the interior up to temperature without overcooking the perimeter. · paraphrased

Thomas Keller's Bouchon roast chicken is built on omission: no basting, no aromatics in the cavity beyond optional thyme, no compound butter under the skin. A pasture-raised bird, dried thoroughly, salted inside and out, trussed so the breast does not dry out, roasted at high heat with no further interference. · paraphrased

“Cook, uncovered, at the merest simmer for a long, long time; no less than 3 hours is necessary, more is better.”

Fuchsia Dunlop's recurring position (on her own site and in The Food of Sichuan) is that wok hei is partly a measure of how aggressively you can burn fuel — a UK or US domestic burner is fundamentally underpowered relative to a Chinese restaurant range, and no technique entirely closes that gap. · paraphrased

David Chang's wok pedagogy (Mind of a Chef, Momofuku writing): soy goes down the hot side of the wok, never directly onto the rice. It hits screaming metal first, caramelises in the half-second before contact, and only then meets the grain. · paraphrased