Find references to Jamil’s knife skills besides master chef. Add Book 4 knife skill mention.
Jamil says, “I’ve been cooking ever since I was a kid. The adults in the kitchen taught me how to properly fillet a fish,” with “the adults in the kitchen” possibly being a reference to the adult servants of the Asim household, though he has a voiceline of, “I’m no stranger to cooking. And I’ve learned from lots of people, not just my parents,” so it seems he has also learned from his parents as well.
Jamil says that he has a regular overn at home, and whenever he needs a wood-fired over he goes to Kalim’s house (Jamil’s home is on Asim property).
Jamil says, “When I was a little kid, one of the things I enjoyed most was baking fresh loaves in all kinds of different shapes and sizes,” and Najma says that he once took a burnt loaf she had made and “used it to make hamburger steak” (Jamil: “I wasn’t about to let food go to waste”).
Jamil says that “Najma got discouraged” by the burnt bread-load incident, so he “had to be the one to bake all the bread for (their) family” after that.
It is a little unclear how much of the family’s cooking is done by Jamil’s parents, or if it is usually done by Jamil and Najma: In addition to Jamil baking all the bread for the family Najma mentions making curry for Jamil after a fireworks festival, and Jamil says that she would bake cookies for him on his birthday, while Jamil also has a voice line about cooking at home.
Jamil says that he doesn’t find cooking to be “particularly engaging,” but as he also says that he enjoyed baking bread as a kid and Najma says “he still loves making it!,” he might enjoy cooking more than he is willing to admit (or maybe he just likes baking bread?).
Jamil has various voice lines about cooking, including, “A country’s cuisine reflects their culture and history. It’s a fascinating field of study,” and an NBC line of, “It was fun talking with Sally about cooking.”
We see this interaction itself during the event when Jamil has Sally taste test a dish he has prepared, wonders how to add “a little more astringence,” and she gives him advice.
On the subject of what new amenities he would like to have for their dorm rooms he says:
“A commercial-grade refrigerator!…Oh, how much easier my life would be if I had a fridge in my room! The dorm kitchen has one, of course, but that’s a long walk from my room. The last time I made a batch of ice cream, it was rough having to make repeat trips to the kitchen late at night to churn it. I was tired, and it was so far. It would be so much nicer to have a fridge right in our rooms. And while we’re at it, maybe a big sink, a stove, and an oven…”
Jamil talks about making a lunch of wet burgers for himself and other Asim household servants on a day when Najma stole the food he has prepared, and their compliments reached Kalim’s parents, who had him cook for them and the family as well (Kalim has approximately 40 younger siblings), and which led to him being expected to “make family lunch several times a year,” with Kalim explaining that he invites even more people over on those days.
Jamil says, “And these were not the sort of people who should be served simple home cooking from an amateur.” It is possible that Jamil is still expected to cook for the Asim family and their guests multiple times a year, despite having enrolled in NRC.
Kalim says that Jamil has made his meals ever since he enrolled in NRC and Jamil will also cook for Kalim’s parties. In a vignette where Kalim invites Idia to eat Jamil’s cooking Idia tries to refuse, saying, “it’d prolly be a real pain for jamil if i just suddenly showed like that,” but Kalim responds, “He always makes food for me anyway, so adding one or two more people to the mix won’t make that much of a difference,” and then also invites Rook and Cater. Ace, Trey and Cater have all complimented Jamil’s cooking.
In a vignette where Kalim tells Jamil to “do the cooking and the decorating” for a banquet for Crowley with less than 24 hours to prepare, Jamil goes to Trey for help, revealing that he has marinated meat prepared in advance because “Kalim loves to invite people over without notice, so (he tries) to remain prepared for that sort of thing on a daily basis.”
During his own birthday party Jamil says, “I’m glad to be here, but I confess it’s a bit strange as well. Most of the time when there’s a party, I’m usually the one doing the cooking, the decorating, the inviting…being the guest of honor’s an adjustment for me.”
Jamil might not appreciate Kalim’s penchant for throwing parties without warning and naturally expecting Jamil to cook for them (trying and failing to cancel such events multiple times), and when he declares that he is “through following others’ orders!,” and he is going to be free, one of the first things he does after over blotting is throw a party for himself, saying, “Bring on the food! Bring on the drinks!”
Jamil says that he does “really eat in the cafeteria much,” as he prepares “lunch for someone every morning” and makes one for himself on the side, and, “Soups are healthy and rich in nutrients. I put them in insulated containers for Kalim.”
Jamil says, “I don’t make anything all that fancy. I just throw something together using whatever ingredients happen to be on hand at the time,” but Trey responds, “You’re talking like that’s simple, but that sounds harder than pre-planned cooking,” and Jamil agrees, saying, “I suppose it does require improvisational skills not everyone has. I used to take requests, but that came with its own set of problems. I’d ask Kalim what he wanted to eat the next day, and he’d say, ‘Oh, just make something simple like croquettes,’ as if it’s that easy. He has NO IDEA how much work goes into making anything deep-fried!”
Jamil has a voice line of, “Deep-fried food tastes great, but what isn’t great is cleaning up and disposing of all the used oil. I’ll make it on request, though,” which he says while looking displeased.
Jamil mentions using the school’s cafeteria kitchen while “frying up some lamb rolls at Kalim’s request” in Book 2, and in Book 4 he is seen again using the cafeteria to cook for Kalim, mentions vegetables, thawed meat, nuts, spices and a traditional Scalding Sands soup. Later Grim compliments Jamil’s cooking, saying, “This veggie stir-fry with crunchy nuts is great. Oh, and so are these fried dough ball things!”
Jamil turns his cooking into a trap during Beafnfest, preparing shawarma for Kalim for being parciuarlly aromatic, which will “be a dead giveaway of his location. It would only make sense for monster students to follow the smell and capture Kalim.”
While he is preparing Lilia recognizes the ingredients he purchases at the school store as being for shawarma (Jamil: “How can you be so knowledgeable about cooking when you’re so atrocious at it?!”).
Jamil cooks for Kalim and the rest of the library group during the Lantern Event at Crowley’s request, mentioning a “spicy chicken sauté,” as Kalim has said the day before that he’d wanted meat.
When Jamil and Deuce begin to argue later on, Kalim tries to defuse the situation by offering to get Jamil to cook them more food.
Jamil does cook an additional meal for the group later on, having Ace deliver kebabs on his behalf.
During New Year Jamil prepares “a hot drink with coconut milk and fresh tapioca pearls” for Kalim and a “a hot sandwich made with (his) special egg salad” for Deuce.
Jamil prepares fish for the basketball team during Vargas Camp, telling Floyd and Ace to forage for wild edible plants for him to serve with it and leading to Ace getting kidnapped by Vargas when he decides to leave foraging to Floyd and take a break instead.
During the NBC event Jamil serves tea made from thistles that he found to the other students.
Jamil has a Master Chef voice line of, “This tastes good and looks good too. There shouldn’t be any complaints about it looking “plain” this time,” and struggling with the presentation of his food seems to be a theme for Jamil: he asks Deuce “What kind of food makes you happy when you see it?,” and seems pleased by Deuce’s responds of Trey’s tarts being “so colorful and pretty” that he never fails to be impressed.
Jamil presents a tray of fritters with colorful sauces to Azul to judge and related a time when he had cooked for the school’s basketball team during a training camp and, after complimenting the taste, Floyd and the other students comment on how his food looks “kinda plain,” “all the same brown color,” and, “Presentation matters, y’know. Makin’ stuff look appealin’ is how you get people hungry even when they don’t wanna eat.”
Jamll says, “I was shocked to find out they were all dissatisfied with my cooking. My sister’s made the same comment before, but I was taken aback to hear it from the whole club.”
Jamil says that he also prepared honeyed lemons for the basketball club on occasion, saying, “I used to just make them for myself, but everyone likes them so much I ended up sharing. They’re always gone in seconds.”
In a vignette Trey helps Jamil with the presentation of his food, saying, “It’s brown, brown, brown, as far as the eye can see. Color contrast is essential for plating,” and providing edible roses to help with the appearance.
Jamil says, “My younger sister used to always chide me for producing such bland-looking food. We often fought over it, in fact. Now I realize that the problem was a lack of color…perhaps I can surprise my sister the next time I go home.”
This is referenced again during NBC when Jamil says, “The most important thing is flavor. Enjoying delicious food is what cuisine is all about…Which is why you should ignore people complaining about food looking too boring…”
After Jamil pretends to try Sally’s cooking however, he says, “I take back what I said about flavor being the most important part of cuisine. Appearance, smell, and taste are ALL vitally important elements when cooking.”
Trey and Jamil share a conversation during the event about cooking, both complimenting each other, saying they hope to learn from one another, and downplaying their own abilities, with Trey saying, “I hear the Scarabia students talk all the time about how good of a chef you are, and how vast your repertoire is.” Jamil responds, “To be honest, fancy party food is not my specialty. I’m especially bad at plating things. I do fine with home cooking, but still…”
During Port Fest Jamil creates a salad dressing that meets Vil’s requirements of being “Oil free, low calorie, low sodium, yet with a flavor that is second to none,” with Jamil saying, “It took considerable effort to get it right—Vil has such exacting standards, and I had little time to come up with the recipe.”
Vil says, “It’s a marvelous dressing. I’d expect nothing less from you,” and Jamil gives his permission for Vil to share the recipe with students of Pomefiore.
During the Master Chef course Deuce goes to Jamil for advice on what he should cook for his mother, but Jamil responds, “You shouldn’t be asking us that. An idea should come to you when you think about the person you’re cooking for,” leading Deuce to conclude, “Mom thought about me, and then would make my favorite foods or things that were easy to eat. That’s what the chef meant when he said to cook from the heart!”
Deuce says, “Jamil’s so quick with a knife, I can’t even tell what he’s doing. I wanna be able to fillet fish the way he does,” and, “Look at how he handles the knife. That’s so cool! It’s like he knows exactly what he’s doing,” and Kalim says that even his family’s head chef is impressed by Jamil’s knife-handling skills.
In an early vignette Jamil might have been the only student out of his and Riddle’s potionology classes who was able to identify the reason why the components of a potion they are assigned to create won’t stay together due to his cooking experience.
Jamil explains, “Emulsification is basically when you mix two things that would never normally mix together. A pertinent example would be mayonnaise. The key ingredients in mayonnaise are cooking oil and vinegar. In other words, it’s made when you mix oil and water together. It clicked for me the moment Riddle said the components weren’t mixing. They weren’t being properly emulsified. That’s a common mistake for beginner chefs…We’re not supposed to mix water into oil.
We’re supposed to mix oil into water. And you can’t mix it in all at once. You have to add the oil in a bit at a time and mix it continually…I do a lot of cooking, so… *shrug*”
