Jamie Oliver is a real cool guy. Never mind that he's young and brilliant,
but he can make a meal in only 30 minutes (Meals in Minutes). But if
you want to know the truth…So can I.
My daughter and I have been having a lively debate ever since she
studied Daniel Coyle's book, The Talent Code in her psychology class.
Coyle claims that much of talent comes from practice...10,000 hours,
to be precise. Although I still have fundamental issues with the whole
concept, when it comes to making meals in 30 minutes, I must admit,
Coyle wins. A complete meal from scratch cannot be made in 30
minutes by a novice. One must have years of experience to pull it off.
First of all, 30 minutes is not really 30 minutes. In order to be able to
make a meal in 30 minutes, one must spend an hour at the grocery
store, purchasing everything needed for the meal. Sixty minutes, by
the way, is a very conservative estimate. And I am not even factoring
in meeting people we know in the vegetable aisle and having the
meaningful, let's-catch-up-after-15 years- of-not-seeing-each-other,
conversation.
Next, one must spend another 15 minutes at a grocery store (same or
different one, not counting commuting time), because inevitably, some
things were forgotten on the first run.
Let's not forget the time used for shlepping the food in to the house
and unpacking it, along with all of the other stuff we realized we
needed when shopping. Like toilet paper. Or chocolate covered...
well...anything.
Then comes the prepping. Even before cooking, everything has to be
ready. Like the gun in the cowboy's holster, everything needs to be
at your fingertips so that it can be grabbed effortlessly and practically
without thinking. When you're in that zen of cooking quickly, the dance
must be fluid and graceful. There's no time alotted for searching for the
proper utensil. Preparation is the key.
When all the steps above have been completed, and when you've put
in years of practice, making a meal in 30 minutes...and a good one at
that...is a snap. It's a real kick, too. Like those chefs on Chopped, I feel
a lot of pride when that food is completed and served up in no time flat,
even though it’s lapped up in less time than it took to make it.
So a meal in 30 minutes? Well, technically...but not really. And I've
heard rumours that Restaurant Makeover isn't really done in 5 days,
either.......................
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