Tristin Farmer is an annoying man. He may be a good cook – he is, after all, at the helm of one of Singapore's finest fine dining establishments – but this doesn't make him any less annoying. And I'll tell you why.
If Farmer, and to a certain extent Malcolm Gladwell are to be believed, hard work can get you anywhere. In his book, Outliers, Gladwell posited the theory that 10,000 hours of practise would be enough to truly achieve expertise in a specific skill – although he did stipulate that the practise itself had to be effective. Good practice, if you will.
He used the example of the Beatles in the 1960s and the countless hours (more than 10,000, obviously) during which they honed their craft in some seriously dingy clubs in Hamburg, Germany. It was in those years (1960 to 1964, roughly) when they logged in the Gladwell hours and were, presumably, well glad (see what I did there?) of the experience that enabled them to go on to conquer the music world.
Farmer would seem to suggest that the same is true of cooking, and in the 22 years since he started taking the whisks (excuse the speech impediment) inherent in a difficult job in a competitive world, he's certainly done the 10k and more, and looks
