There are methods, there are techniques, there are perfected
preferences for every kind of cookery ever imagined or executed in the
professional arena or at home… and they are all valid in my
view. There is, as they say, more than one way to skin a cat.
My favorite method, hands down… is to use my hands.
It seems I’m not alone.
But at the table’s opposite end was the kitchen’s resident
artist, Ken Alice N’doye, preparing thiebu djen (cheb-oo JEN),
Senegal’s national dish of rice cooked in a tomato-based fish stew.
Although Ms. N’doye, 31, an owner of the cafe, also wore a crisp chef’s
coat, her every move sprung from sensual, rather than technical, cues.
“In Senegal, we never measure,” Ms. N’doye said, as she reached deep
into a large can of tomato paste and pulled from it a fistful of thick
red purée, which she massaged into a small bowl of warm water. (From The New York Times Wednesday, August 1st 2007)