These are excerpts from the author’s book “Deep,” which contains eight of his small books published in the form of Wisdom Literature covering different aspects of life: Facing troublemakers, dealing with pain, personal financial issues, gastronomy, reading, criticizing, inspiring, and feeling always good to go.

Series 4: Cuisine – Feeling Food

Week 63: You as a Mentor

Do not despair of your junior cook, no matter how unpromising he or she seems to learn. He or she will come out at the end of the educational period better than he or she entered. The difference depends—bypassing the learner’s personal abilities—on your patience and energy to inspire.

• Teaching cooking does not necessarily mean looking for the mistakes of novice cooks to correct them. Deal with the dish prepared by your student neutrally, and give yourself the opportunity to savor it and discover any pluses or even creativity potentials before you start to comment on mistakes.

• The most difficult cooking test for cooks is to let them observe how a dish is prepared and then ask them to prepare the same dish. It’s like an open-book exam. Although implementation differs from observation, the skill here will not be demonstrated only in the craftsmanship of execution, but rather in the techniques and tricks that each of them must invent to show their uniqueness from the rest.

• Like any inspirational mentor, encourage your pupils by highlighting their strengths and what distinguishes each of them. Talk about their weaknesses only to guide them on how to get rid of these weaknesses and thus build more confidence in their abilities.

• As you teach your students a recipe, do not focus only on the ingredients of the recipe and the details of how to implement it. Make sure also to alert them to the tricks that benefit any chef during cooking in general and with regard to the techniques of that particular recipe alike.

• Being a skillful and meticulous mentor does not mean being dry and rude. You can maintain and even increase your students’ passion for cooking as you teach them the most complex cooking skills.

• While you practice teaching cooking, do not miss the opportunity to benefit from your students, whether through the surprises of the rare talents’ manifestations of those students or even out of their mistakes that will undoubtedly help you in one way or another in improving methods of communicating information to students in subsequent lessons.

• As you direct your students to the ideal methods of cooking, be careful not to use the word wrong to describe methods of cooking you do not like or do not know much about.

• Cooking in peace and tranquility is one of the most important features of a professional chef. This is something that is not indoctrinated, but rather is transmitted to your students through being a practical role model.

• As you answer a question from one of your students, do not focus literally on the question he or she is asking, but try to get to the essence of what he or she is facing to open the way for him or her. The learners, especially the beginners, may get confused in the matter so that when they ask they cannot summarize or define the problem facing them.

• It is not a shame to discover and acknowledge that your student possesses skills that surpass you in some aspects of cooking. The important thing is how you are persuasive and inspiring when you reveal to him or her what distinguishes you in the areas you teach him or her.