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Not only do I not know how to make a bechamel, this is the first time I've heard this word or the expression "mother sauces". (Maybe because I'm only a quarter

Not only do I not know how to make a bechamel, this is the first time I've heard this word or the expression "mother sauces". (Maybe because I'm only a quarter Italian?) If we're going to gatekeep cooking behind a lot of prior knowledge perhaps it would be even more efficient to reduce the lasagna recipe to a single sentence: "Make a lasagna."

klodolph 4y ago
You can write programs and never know what an algorithm is. That’s roughly the equivalent. Someone with formal training in cooking will know the mother sauces, almost certainly, just like someone with formal training in CS will almost certainly know big-O notation. If you want to learn this stuff, there textbooks on cooking. Not quite the same thing as a cookbook!
- WebbWeaver 4y ago
  Fair. Just follow https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/ for recipes so you dont have to think.
  - klodolph 4y ago
    I find those much more difficult and frustrating than a traditional recipe. I don’t like having to pause or scrub through videos to figure out what the steps are. I like having a list of ingredients, so I can do some basic mise en place and figure out if I need to go to the grocery store or choose a different recipe.
EddySchauHai 4y ago
This really isn't gatekeeping! But if you're learning to cook there are fundamental things you need to learn. This is like the simplest sentences of learning a new language on Duolingo here, it's not some crazy term. Literally week 1 in many cooking schools, maybe week 2 after stocks. If you're trying to teach people cooking, you want to be taught the fundamental key steps to follow recipes no? How many start with butter, thicken with flour, loosen with milk? That's bechamel :)
- tclancy 4y ago
  Mother sauces is absolutely gatekeeping. You can get pretty far, and even know how to turn a roux into a béchamel without ever knowing it’s a mother sauce or that there are others.
  - EddySchauHai 4y ago
    We're talking about a course on cooking here, how is it gatekeeping to talk about cooking 101 subjects?
    - acaloiar 4y ago
      For what it's worth, you're the only one talking about a cooking course in this thread.
      - arcticbull 4y ago
        I wish more were! That's what I was hoping parsnip.ai was. I was really excited actually.
        mizzao 4y ago
        OP here. a16z has a thesis that education will go from 1. teaching in a class and taking a test, to 2. teaching in online videos and taking an online test, to 3. modular, choose your own adventure, at your own pace, software-supplemented, continual learning: https://a16z.com/2020/10/16/next-gen-edtech/ https://a16z.com/2020/10/16/next-gen-edtech/ That's what we're trying to do with cooking. If we succeed, it's going to be essentially replicating an apprenticeship but you don't need to find a master.
        arcticbull 4y ago
        Can't wait! I cook pretty often and I'd love to up my game and work towards some more fine dining type dishes. I'd pay for an app that did that.
jfim 4y ago
Mother sauces are a French thing. They're béchamel, velouté, espagnole, tomate, and mayonnaise. Some stuff can be made shorter by just saying things like "deglaze the pan" instead of "pour some flavorful liquid such as stock, broth, or wine in this hot pan that you think would compliment the taste of whatever you're cooking and make sure to scrape the brown bits while at it." It's the same thing as programming, one might say to a professional programmer to "sum these items" while a beginning programmer would get "write a for loop with an accumulator variable, and for each iteration of the loop add the item to your accumulator." They're both the same thing, it's just that one is more succinct.

klodolph 4y ago

You can write programs and never know what an algorithm is. That’s roughly the equivalent. Someone with formal training in cooking will know the mother sauces, almost certainly, just like someone with formal training in CS will almost certainly know big-O notation. If you want to learn this stuff, there textbooks on cooking. Not quite the same thing as a cookbook!

WebbWeaver 4y ago
Fair. Just follow https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/ for recipes so you dont have to think.
- klodolph 4y ago
  I find those much more difficult and frustrating than a traditional recipe. I don’t like having to pause or scrub through videos to figure out what the steps are. I like having a list of ingredients, so I can do some basic mise en place and figure out if I need to go to the grocery store or choose a different recipe.

EddySchauHai 4y ago

This really isn't gatekeeping! But if you're learning to cook there are fundamental things you need to learn. This is like the simplest sentences of learning a new language on Duolingo here, it's not some crazy term. Literally week 1 in many cooking schools, maybe week 2 after stocks. If you're trying to teach people cooking, you want to be taught the fundamental key steps to follow recipes no? How many start with butter, thicken with flour, loosen with milk? That's bechamel :)

tclancy 4y ago
Mother sauces is absolutely gatekeeping. You can get pretty far, and even know how to turn a roux into a béchamel without ever knowing it’s a mother sauce or that there are others.
- EddySchauHai 4y ago
  We're talking about a course on cooking here, how is it gatekeeping to talk about cooking 101 subjects?
  - acaloiar 4y ago
    For what it's worth, you're the only one talking about a cooking course in this thread.
    - arcticbull 4y ago
      I wish more were! That's what I was hoping parsnip.ai was. I was really excited actually.
      - mizzao 4y ago
        OP here. a16z has a thesis that education will go from 1. teaching in a class and taking a test, to 2. teaching in online videos and taking an online test, to 3. modular, choose your own adventure, at your own pace, software-supplemented, continual learning: https://a16z.com/2020/10/16/next-gen-edtech/ https://a16z.com/2020/10/16/next-gen-edtech/ That's what we're trying to do with cooking. If we succeed, it's going to be essentially replicating an apprenticeship but you don't need to find a master.
        arcticbull 4y ago
        Can't wait! I cook pretty often and I'd love to up my game and work towards some more fine dining type dishes. I'd pay for an app that did that.

jfim 4y ago

Mother sauces are a French thing. They're béchamel, velouté, espagnole, tomate, and mayonnaise. Some stuff can be made shorter by just saying things like "deglaze the pan" instead of "pour some flavorful liquid such as stock, broth, or wine in this hot pan that you think would compliment the taste of whatever you're cooking and make sure to scrape the brown bits while at it." It's the same thing as programming, one might say to a professional programmer to "sum these items" while a beginning programmer would get "write a for loop with an accumulator variable, and for each iteration of the loop add the item to your accumulator." They're both the same thing, it's just that one is more succinct.