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Sunday, October 1, 2023

Basketball: Sports and Cooking, A Natural Pair

Learn across domains. Cooking as analogy to sport comes naturally. I learned a lot of this through numerous MasterClasses on cooking.

1. "All cooking is about time and temperature." - Thomas Keller  That works for sports through time and intensity invested.

2. "Cooks cook to nurture people." Coaches coach to nurture, too. Be positive. Add value. Help players make memories. 

3. Use the tools of refinement. My second favorite tool of refinement in the kitchen is the 'offset spatula' (below). 


It's great for frosting cakes, turning fish in a pan, and serving brownies or cornbread out of a pan. My favorite tool for cooking and sport is PRACTICE.


4. Upgrade your flavor palette. Our palette helps us create great dishes. Samin Nosrat teaches "salt, fat, acid, heat." That reminds me about "four ways to score." What are your 'four ways to score'? If you can't enumerate them, they don't exist. 

5. "Make the gnocchi." - Thomas Keller  "Repetition makes reputations." John Wooden said of Bill Walton that "he never got tired of doing the little things, practicing footwork." Another Wooden staple, EDIRx5 - explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition times five. Gordon Ramsay says it another way, "Just #$%&ing cook." 

What are your three things? In The Bear, chef Sydney says most restaurants aren't great at desserts. In his leadership MasterClass, Jocko Willink says that one of his guys says, "I can only remember three things. What are they?"  


My second dessert is this ice cream topping from Amaretto, brown sugar, chopped almonds, and butter. Experiment with the proportions. You won't go wrong. 

I'm still looking for my third dessert. 

What are my "sports three?" 
  • No easy scores. Make opponents work for their scores. 
  • Take quality shots. 
  • Excellent teams don't give games away. "The ball is gold." Value the ball. Take care of the ball. 

Lagniappe.  

Lagniappe 2. 

 

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