Soba Noodles | The Master & The Novice

The Guardian recently published an article on soba noodles and the author took a turn learning to make the famed buckwheat noodle. The video immediately reminded me of soba master Hiromitsu Takahashi at Sobakoh on East 5th Street in NYC, making noodles in his restaurant.


It's amazing when you watch an expert perform a task he has mastered over years and years of work and one that he executes many times a day -- he makes it look so simple, streamlined, effortless and pure.


When you watch a novice learning the same movements, they are slow and clunky. It's not that watching the newbie is painful, it just that it emphasizes how exacting and perfect the master is.


Below are two videos: the master and the novice:


The Master




The Novice