Lick Your Fingers

I’ve always eaten with my hands and licked my fingers as I cooked, but when I started teaching professionally, I absolutely did not lick my fingers in class. I associated finger-licking with bad manners, lack of social graces and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Ironically, my mom–who’d always chastised me for eating with my hands–showed me the error of my ways. She explained that no less a culinary icon than Julia Child advocated finger-licking. Armed with that knowledge, I changed my approach, incorporating finger-licking into the curriculum of my cooking classes!

Roasting vegetables is perfect for this demonstration. My students drizzle olive oil onto the chopped vegetables, sprinkle salt with their hands, and then grind fresh pepper. “Is this enough?” they ask every step of the way. “Probably not,” is my usual answer.

I insist they use their hands to mix everything together. Predictably, about half of them immediately rush to the sink to wash off. No, no. Stay right where you are. I make an example of them: Lick your fingers.

Pause.

How does it taste? If the answer is “good”, we’re done. If they aren’t sure, my response is usually to add more kosher salt.

You’re responsible for your food, and the only way to know if it’s good is to taste. The purest way of tasting food is directly from your skin. Be thankful that you’re not a restaurant chef, but rather a home cook who can pleasantly dip a finger directly into the pan to decide what your food needs. If you want others to have a visceral reaction to your food then you have to get primal with it. Lick your fingers.