VIEW POINT
Reading Books Keeps the Mind Ticking By Sudhir Nair
You know you have read a good book, when you turn the last page and feel you have lost a friend – an avid reader
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eading books have always transported me to places I never thought I could be in, middle of a war to peak of a mountain to the deep mysteries of the ocean or kitchens of royal household in an era gone by. I have always been a seeker with a lot of questions; my colleagues would often get irritated with my questions. They would tease me by saying, here goes the why-man. I frankly wouldn’t interest myself in studies, but I would be intrigued by origin of practices, traditions and rituals. I was once asked to move out of a ceremony by my father when I started asking many questions. Early in my life I found solace in the quietness of my travel and constant company of books. I did try digital reading but somehow it didn’t give me the warmth and feel of reading. As a matter of fact, I keep myself updated with different news apps but I would never miss a chance to read a physical newspaper whenever I have a chance. I read a wide range of subjects. Being a chef I have decent collection of cookery related, theory and science of food books. But a major part of my books are devoted to the past in one form or the other. Be it in form of history, biographies, wars, evolution or travel. I do also indulge in psychology and management texts. Reading started as a medium to pass time; today I make time to read. It keeps me charged and opens possibilities in life and work. I don’t know if it is normal for others to do but I usually read two books at a time and try to keep the subjects as
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different as possible. Doing this forces me to think and recollect the read part of the book and revises the entire context in my mind every time I pick the book to read. When I started my career as a Kitchen trainee, I was training to be a cook. I learnt the basics of cutting vegetables, meat and making stocks, sauces. I had to follow recipes and make as per standard. I would be in awe of my Chef who would recite recipes of so many dishes even without looking at a book or file. So I went and asked him; how he remembered 100s of recipes. It didn’t seem humanely possible. He laughed and told me to understand a recipe, know the ingredient then you don’t have to remember it. I didn’t realize it then, now I know. If
Hammer Food & Beverage Business Review
we read and have enough knowledge of the ingredient, their properties and the effect of time and temperature, you can make any dish. So I read about pH values, time, pressure, temperature, elasticity, coagulation, gelatinization, structure of bones and tissue, salt, sugar, lipids, osmosis, etc. Today when I read a recipe I can visualize the role of each ingredient and how the final dish should be like. There a few books like “What Einstein told his cook” part 1 and 2 by Robert Wolke and Kitchen mysteries: Revealing the science of cooking by Hervé This; it stimulates the brain and solves a lot of queries. It also helps a chef understand the amazing chemistry involved in food and its effects on Human body. All books by Harold McGee are a kind of Holy grail for the budding Chef. Back in my management days, I was once working on a 5 slide presentation of a 350 page book as an assignment. I was repulsed with the idea of a book with so many numbers and graphs but the project took me to a different dimension. Within a few hours I was hooked. The book was “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. The jumble of numbers started making sense, I learnt about patterns and trends. The graphs spoke to me and depicted how minor adjustments could give major changes in the outcome. I read upon a book by Richard Koch “The 80- 20 Principle”. Till date I use this in my kitchen wherein I organize my staffing rosters based on peaks and valleys of business. I plot graphs of my sales and
Aug-Sept ’20
