It’s been 14 years since I enrolled in a year-long culinary school program, and I\u2019ve regrettably lost more knowledge than I\u2019ve retained. Rich little memories will occasionally resurface, however: finding a spiny sea urchin on top of a locker in the changing room one night after class; holding a kelp-like piece of vinegar mother<\/a> and fearing it might crawl across my hand like an inchworm; watching the two googly eyes of a flatfish stare back while I As my career path veered away from the professional kitchen and to the writing table, many of the hard-won rewards from that year of practice fell by the wayside in favor of long-held cooking habits. But it took some time and distance to realize I\u2019d retained a few fundamentals that forever changed the way I cook and see food, even if the dishes I prepare week to week remain mostly the same.<\/p>\n These lessons fall into two camps: the economical and energy-saving practical learnings every cook should have access to, and the less empirical, albeit beautifully tactile, lessons that will live forever in my sentimental mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to overstate the obsession with waste\u2014or rather, not<\/em> wasting\u2014that suffuses professional kitchen settings. Waste directly translates to money lost, which can jeopardize the survival of the business and, by extension, its owner\u2019s livelihood. For nonprofessional cooks, it\u2019s easy to conjure the ingredient-related frugality side of this equation, which mirrors many of our own home kitchens. Keep vegetable and meat scraps and bones for stock. Save those egg whites for consomm\u00e9 or meringue. (But don\u2019t store them in used plastic containers, which retain grease and make the whites harder to whip up!) Don\u2019t throw away that excess yellow duck fat; render it slowly for confit, which itself acts as a preservative. Of course, the stakes are lower in culinary school: Don\u2019t you dare neglect that pot of boiling water, or leave so much as a shred of mustard green behind on the stem, or we\u2019ll dock points from today\u2019s practicum.<\/em><\/p>\n Yet my chef-instructors spent just as much time retraining us inefficient home cooks to never waste movement, energy, or time. Always prep your mise en place before you start cooking so you don\u2019t forget something when you inevitably get flustered. Don\u2019t lean over your work; bring it to you. I still smile almost every time I chop something, as I recall my first instructor Pierre Pollin\u2014the longtime chef-owner of bygone restaurant Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights, Illinois\u2014scolding me in his gravelly, French-accented voice: \u201cWhy are you leaning over that cutting board? Pull it in closer to you!\u201d<\/p>\n My instincts still fool me into reaching for the smallest cutting board or skillet because I just don\u2019t feel like fussing with or cleaning the larger, heavier ones. As I heave my salad ingredients into a larger bowl while cursing myself, my chef-instructors are there too, in a chiding chorus: \u201cAlways use a bigger bowl, pan, or cutting board than you think you need!\u201d<\/p>\ndestroyed<\/del> filleted my first fish.<\/p>\n