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Why does nobody talk about the line cook who taught me to salt pasta water like the sea
Back in 2016 at a spot in Portland, a guy named Marco grabbed my wrist before I dumped a pinch in and said "taste it, it should taste like you're about to swim in it." Now I can't salt anything without thinking about that. What's the one tip from an old coworker you still use?
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the_kim8d ago
Man, that line about tasting like you're about to swim in it just hit me different. The thing nobody brings up is that this kind of tip isn't really about salt at all, it's about learning to trust your own mouth instead of a recipe. Marco made you taste it, which means he taught you to stop measuring and start paying attention. I had a prep cook named Rosa who did the same thing with vinegar in dressings, made me sip it until it "woke up my face." Ten years later I still can't dress a salad without hearing her voice, and honestly the recipe people never get that the lesson was never the ingredient.
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