My sous chef told me to stop over-seasoning my lamb racks and she was dead right

I've been at the grill station for 5 years and always loaded up lamb with rosemary and garlic until my 22 year old sous pulled me aside last Tuesday and said I was masking the meat. She had me do a blind taste test with just salt and pepper versus my usual mix and I honestly couldn't tell which was which. Has anyone else had a junior cook teach them something basic that should've been obvious?

3 comments

3 Comments

lily571mo ago

Can you really get that used to your own cooking that you stop tasting it? A friend of mine ran a BBQ joint for like eight years and swore his rub was the best thing since sliced bread. Then his new line cook, a quiet kid right out of culinary school, told him the rub was burning on the smoker and making the meat bitter. Friend got defensive at first like @nathan100 said about that contractor, thinking his years of experience meant we was above criticism. The kid made him do a side by side with just salt and pepper, and my buddy had to admit the plain stuff tasted cleaner and let the beef come through. He still uses a rub now but way lighter, and he's honestly a better cook for it.

viola_lopez301mo ago

Happens everywhere. We get comfortable and stop paying attention to the basics.

nathan1001mo ago

Last year I saw a contractor on a big project start skipping the safety harness checks because he'd been doing the job fifteen years. Three weeks later he took a bad fall and broke his hip. @viola_lopez30 I get what you're saying about comfort leading to carelessness, but I think it's more about people convincing themselves the rules don't apply to them anymore. Experience and routine aren't the same thing.