What It’s Actually Like at America’s Top Culinary School
Talking to Brigid Washington about the value of sometimes failing in the kitchen—and in life.
I was watching a young competitor on Next Gen Chef royally screw up what they were cooking the other night, and I just kept thinking of my friend Brigid Washington.
Not just because the Netflix competition is held at the Culinary Institute of America—the setting of Brigid’s new memoir, Salt, Sweat & Steam—but also because her book takes us deep into disastrous moments in the kitchen.
If you’ve ever wondered what going to a high-powered culinary school is actually like, the book (and this week’s podcast conversation) will give you a taste. The triumphs are triumphant. The low points are brutal.
To graduate at the CIA, Brigid tells me, you have to pass a strictly-timed test that has all the pressure of a reality show competition, with none of the sped-up-clock magic of television. (As Brigid says, “the gentleness of entertainment is completely removed.”)
Brigid had a slip of memory, and served hot food on a cold plate. Automatic deduction.
Another time, she was tasked with making raita using yogurt that someone else in the class had freshly fermented.
“We had to study the recipes before,” Brigid says, “and write them down by hand…I wrote down one and a half cups of yogurt with all the different other spices I needed, cardamom and cumin and whatnot. And I don’t know what happened. But I read 11 and a half cups, which makes absolutely zero sense. And I took the entire class production, all the yogurt…”
She started seasoning, a teaspoon at a time.
Because she’d added spices to this huge batch of yogurt, no one else could use that tub for any of their assignments. “The class was pin-drop quiet. I was absolutely mortified.”
Things don’t always work out in the book, and Brigid sees the benefit of that now. Not just the lesson to read a recipe carefully, to evaluate whether it makes sense, but also to become a person who can weather a storm, who can pivot and adapt. It’s helpful beyond the kitchen, too.
“These failures in the kitchen,” and in life, Brigid says, “we should not be scared of them.”
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Brigid mentioned:
Brigid’s Rosemary Brick Chicken
Coconut Bake (NYT Cooking)
Trinidadian Beef Pilau (Bon Appétit)
Eric Kim’s crispy trout from Korean American (Bookshop here)
Hawa Hasan’s stuffed peppers (video here) from Setting a Place for Us (Bookshop here)
Julia Turshen’s Small Victories (Bookshop here)
Andre Fowles’s My Jamaican Table (Bookshop here)
Priya Krishna’s Indian-ish (Bookshop here)
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Maggie mentioned:
Andy Baraghani’s Sticky-Sweet Roast Chicken (reprinted from The Cook You Want to Be)
Maggie’s big toaster oven / air fryer
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Coconut Curried Shrimp
Reprinted from Caribbean Flavors for Every Season by Brigid Washington. Copyright 2017, 2022. Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
You’ll be amazed at how just a handful of unsung ingredients can be transformed into a savory and satisfying meal that’s signed, sealed, and delivered in under fifteen minutes. This dish sings with all of the namesake ingredients of this cookbook: coconut, ginger, and shrimp. It’s a weekday workhouse that’s easy to double, a leftover maven, and your new best friend.
Serves 2–4
¼ cup coconut oil
½ cup chopped white onion
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (about 6 cloves)
1 tablespoon chopped ginger (about 1 inch)
1 tablespoon madras curry powder
1 cup full-fat coconut milk
1 cup chopped scallions (about 5 stalks)
½ cup chopped cilantro
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Naan or freshly steamed rice, for serving
In a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil and heat for 30 seconds. Then add the onions, garlic, and ginger, and sauté for another 30 seconds.
Add the curry powder, stir to combine, and cook for 1 minute.
Next, add the coconut milk, herbs, and garbanzo beans and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the shrimp and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with naan or with freshly steamed rice.
Woof that brings back memories and ICE wasn't anywhere near as serious as CIA! But we all have those moments. The "oh crap" ones in the kitchen. Luckily, it's usually under less pressure.
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