French Cooking French Cuisine...

Careful timing in cooking contributes greatly to Alexandre Dumaine's insistence on precision in the kitchen.
A kitchen alarm clock and a keen interest in preparing food are about all that are required-provided the ingredients are of the best quality-to be able to succeed in perfecting simple dishes.
A good test is to be able to prepare the Fillets of John Dory* and the accompanying Sauce Hollandaise* so that they are ready to be served together the minute that both of them are just cooked and no more.
Two conclusions can be drawn from Alexandra Dumaine's remark that "exactness in cooking is difficult to achieve."
One is that the difficulty resides in achieving the exact required result, according to the precise indications in the recipe; the other, that you have to reckon with your own particular taste and that of the family, or of your guests.
We are not all born with uniform palates: you may like garlic, others may not; some prefer lemon juice, instead of vinegar, in the salad dressing, etc.
There must, therefore, remain a margin in the prescribed amount of herbs and seasoning to be used in the preparation of these dishes.

From "The Art of Simple French Cookery" by Alexander Watt
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