tasting spoon hoopla ?

I was surprised to see this article in the Chow Blog. I had no idea that a tasting spoon could be the source of so much controversy. Then I thought, maybe not, maybe just pumped up for the sake of the article. What do you all do about tasting spoons?
mike




A new culinary school stirred up a tempest in a spoon's bowl this week. The San Francisco Cooking School (SFCS) is launching recreational classes soon, and a full-scale culinary program this January. Last week they sent out a media packet that included the spoon you see here (CHOW photographer Chris Rochelle propped it up on a pumpkin pie he happened to be shooting). That spoon—a Gray Kunz, which Saveur praised in 2011—caused a stir.

It came in a box that said this:

Ask 100 chefs what they use for a tasting spoon and you’ll get 50 different answers. The other 50 will say Gray Kunz. You’ll find the Gray Kunz tasting spoon in the pockets of chefs worldwide, as well as the SFCS student kit.

Well, well. One local chef jumped on Twitter to set the record straight. “The new SF Cooking School refers to the Kunz spoon as a tasting spoon? Wrong,” Robbie Lewis tweeted. “It's not for tasting, nor kept in your pocket. Teach better.” San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer blogged about how sketchy he finds the whole concept of a tasting spoon. “I like the idea of tasting along the way—it’s what gives great chefs the culinary edge—but I’m not too sure about keeping the spoon in your pocket. How do you sanitize it between tastes?”

Some recipients had obviously taken this spoon thing very, very seriously.

I asked the SFCS director, Jodi Liano, about the unexpected spoon controversy. Did she really expect her students to whip their Gray Kunzes out of the arm pockets on their chef’s coats and jab them into pans to taste for salt?

“The idea is that a spoon can be a chef’s friend,” Liano said, “to tell when something is seasoned properly. That’s something I really want to ingrain with my students: to taste and fix and taste again.” Liano wasn’t about to be pinned to any faux-controversy over the hygiene of employing a single spoon. “You might use plastic spoons—the overarching idea is that there’s a spoon involved,” she said. “It all comes down to tasting.”

I reached Chef Gray Kunz by phone in Manhattan. Kunz said he designed the spoon in the 1990s while at Lespinasse, as a basting and plating spoon, a tool for drizzling, say, gastrique. “It’s part of the tool kit when a chef sets up a station,” Kunz said, “for spooning and saucing. Chefs love it.” Well, he would say that.

Bill Corbett definitely loves his. The pastry chef at Absinthe in San Francisco says he has a huge attachment to his spoons, which include a Gray Kunz. Corbett says savory chefs tend to use it for basting, and for pastry chefs, it might be their favorite spoon for shaping quenelles. But that’s a highly personal decision.

“Spoons are a touchy subject,” Corbett explains. “You don’t touch another cook’s spoon—it’s like an extension of someone’s hand.” In his kitchen, each cook has a pan of clean spoons for tasting and a pan to ditch dirty ones. And the spoons themselves? Cheap stainless steel, purchased by the bundle. Corbett used to use plastic for tasting, but now thinks they’re a waste of money and landfill—they’ve been banned.

Also banned: double-dipping into saucepans. That should make Michael Bauer feel at ease, at least about eating at Absinthe—even if every cook on the line has a shiny Gray Kunz spoon in his or her jacket pocket.

 

Reminds me of a roommate many years ago...when she wasn't in her straitjacket, she'd come into my room at 2am asking me if I knew where her special spoon was. Never would have guessed she was a chef.

 

This guy has the ultimate tasting spoon: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20060621&slug=tastebuds21

His job is to taste test ice cream and he does it with an 18-karat gold spoon. Presumably so there is no "metal" taste involved.

 

This may make me seem like a tool. But I carry one of these in the sleeve pocket of my chef coat. I am continually moving between 5 kitchens in two buildings and people randomly pull the 'hey chef try this' routine. I find t necessary to have something to taste with.

http://www.jbprince.com/utensils/alma-test-tasting.asp

 

That Alma spoon is pretty cool. Not too big either. I guess, I'm the uninitiated, it never occurred to me before. Tto me the pictured Gray Kunz spoon does not look special, but if the atricle is correct, it is highly appreciated.

 

A little history behind the spoon from a Lucky Peach article on Lespinasse, a restaurant that used to be at the St. Regis in New York but is now closed. Grey Kunz was the chef during the 90's.

"Another legacy of Lespinasse is the Kunz spoon, dreamed up by Grey Kunz in the 90's to fill the need for a perfect basic working spoon. Measuring exactly nine inches, it is a bridge between a larger cooking spoon and a small saucing spoon. it's big enough to handle robust cooking tasks like basting, roasting, flipping meats, and stirring, but still small enough and tapered at the tip, so it can be used for more delicate and precise tasks like saucing, making quenelles and portioning.
During the early days of Lespinasse, Kunz issued a spoon to each chef (the chefs paid for the spoons) with a unique engraved number and station on the back. The number was to record in a ledger in the office, so if anyone found a lost spoon, they would know whom to return it to (and who to blame for losing it). In the early 90's the spoons served as a distinctive badge, as only cooks who had worked at Lespinasse had them. Kunz eventually began selling them through the vendor JB Prince, and the utensils caught on throughout the restaurant world."

This was in the third issue of Lucky Peach.

 

Sad... I'd rather have a bucket full of 'ice cream tasters' rather than some fck with a fancy spoon wiping it off on his apron...
yeah yeah I know all professionals here but. tards everywhere else....

 

Thanks for the background Leper
I can see it as very useful and in a busy kitchen. nice to have at the ready, especially in a case like chuckles mentioned having to rove between two buildings to keep things going. I picture chefs doing a lot of tasting and touching of the food to make sure it is right. It would not be practical I suppose to have a can of old spoons at the station that get used and tossed in the dish bin. Not to mention that it would be more to wash and keep track of. My only experience was as the dish washer at Bea's Deluxe Diner.

 

What a load of total and utter bollocks.

Chef Gray Kuntz designed a spoon ? Im trying not to laugh to myself but I cant help it. That job must have been like landing on the moon, or having an ice cold diaree.
Oh my god, he really reinvented the whole concept didnt he?

You have five fingers? Then you can taste five things including items that cant be taken on a spoon, before you must wash your hand again. Like to think chefs choose to do that more often. I would hope chefs are firstly teached and made wash their hands properly, but hey, apparently in the best restaurant in the world in Danmark they did not, so who knows? ? ? ?
Can only imagine whats on their multipurpose spoons. Saliva mixed with their sweaty jacket, food bits and I wonder how many times the spoon landed in the trousers pocket next to the dingdongs ?
As to the spoon itself, would expect something made exactly for this specific job would have more of a visual punch to it.
So sorry Gray thanks but no thanks.

 

I think I dated that girl...

Anyhow...carry on .

 

Also should be mentioned that the spoon in the picture is the smaller version of the Kunz spoon, which is basically a tablespoon. The original is quite bigger and more useful in my opinion.

I have a spoon collection that are all used for plating, saucing etc. Tasting spoons have always been a bunch of house spoons with two 9 pans, one for clean, one for dirty. I've never worked anywhere where someone carried one spoon around that they tasted with. Not sure how they came up with that.

 

I've worked at places where you would get drilled for not having a spoon in your back pocket for tasting and would drill you even more for tasting anything with your fingers...
Then I've been at places that would hate spoons in pockets.
Honestly theres holes in both arguments. The multiple fingers for tasting thing to me makes no sense, so you dip your finger in a sauce, lick it then continue to work. Then you dip your second finger in a soup or something, shove it in your mouth then continue to work touching utensils , food , plates, with your hands that you've just put saliva all over?

To me everyone needs to accept that in a real busy commercial kitchen it is impossible to be perfectly sanitary. Anyone who thinks they are... I take my hat off to you.
I think people need to stop being so precious

 

When I worked as a cook at Village Inn (yes, Village Inn lol...long story, and it only lasted a year or so from 19-20yrs old lol)...we'd taste stuff all the time. Same spoon. I always just kept a bleached rag at whatever station I was working at and wiped off the spoon with it when I was done and put it back in my apron.

Seems a pretty easy thing to get around as far as that goes?

 

As someone who spent almost 5 years working as a nursing assistant with people in all kinds of conditions/situations....I totally agree.

 

I have a Kunz spoon that lives in my back pocket that never gets used for tasting, but had been used for plating, basting, prying the manhole cover off a grease trap, undoing flathead screws, moving oven racks, opening beers, lifting hot pots, eating ice cream, and a ton off other tasks. It always gets washed before returning to the pocket, usually in a hand sink. I used other spoons before being given this one, and maybe would buy another, I really like the shape.

The small ones are great quenelle spoons, if you are into that kind of thing.

 

Agreed.
And I know the fingers thing is just about the way you say it is, for some rotten cooks, Ive seen that too: A chef priding himself with working at two stars in Lyon, who licks the sauce off of two fingers then sticks very same fingers in again. Or mixing too cold an ice cream with his naked dirty hand
For me it looks somewhat different. I have two knife cases and in both theres a special hinge for a fingernail brush. Bottom line. Before I even knew knives layout, the brush brackets were in position.

So lets clarify
At service spoons in hot water are a must, running any station, damn, I do that when hosting a dinner party at home! maybe sauce could do without depending on the menu, basting routines at the place? But anyway, at service there would always be a spoon in my right hand - or a tongs, spatula or pincette.
At the prep however, how many different products are you seasoning/finishing at the same time? If you have your mise en place properly sorted and set you should have jobs ending back to back not at the same time is it? So for me the five fingers is more about seasoning one thing properly at a time, adding by a small amount and checking often. Obviously, some liquid foods are better tasted from a spoon, at least for me. Wouldnt really reach to a blender with my finger to taste a puree either.
What Im saying theres nothing wrong with clean hands touching food.
And finally, if I would just plate food, ideally would not touch food at all with my right hand very little with left.