What about us?
In our kitchen, should we do the same?Not with as much rigor of course, but we can still be inspired by it, and then especially it makes life easier on the work surface. In practice, it's always better to work in one direction, which varies if you are right or left handed.
Here is a specific example: breaking eggs in a bowl, simple? Simple! but a little method is not bad either, see :
On this picture, we are going to break eggs to put them in the bowl of a food processor in the middle, it's really quite simple, but :
- The eggs are on the right hand side (for a right handed person), easy to access
- You break them on top of the bowl which is in the middle
- When it's done, you put the shells on the left hand side, not on the right hand side, and on a sheet of newspaper that preserves the work surface
- Once it's done, we fold the newspaper on the shells and go to the bin. The work surface remains clean and clear.
The eggs have thus followed the direction of the green arrow, the "forward march".
Of course for a left-handed person it would be more convenient the other way around.
This way of doing things, all French apprentices learn it at the very beginning of their training, they never put peelings, shells, trimmings or any other waste directly on the work surface, they always have in a corner a "dustbin" (a simple bowl for us) where all the waste goes which is never left for a long time near the food.
It's quite simple, more hygienic, more practical and a very good way to work in your kitchen.
To sum up: Think of always working in the same direction on your work surface, to avoid crossing clean food with raw food.
