Mastering the Art of Cooking: A Beginner's Guide

[kant]

Can anyone help?

 

[Evo]

There are several good sites,

http://www.bettycrocker.com/allabout/cooking/aac.asp

http://busycooks.about.com/od/howtocook/

http://www.cookingforengineers.com

 

[Cyrus]

Forget those fake chefs on the food network. Discovery channel used to have real chefs on a program called great chefs of the world, and great chefs of USA.

There is one lady on PBS? That has a cooking show, she’s an Italian lady, and her food makes your mouth water. She does not go for presentation like in Great Chefs of the word, but she does have good tasting food. I'll never forget this one beef roast she made that she glazed with honey and made it golden brown like in those photographs you see, but can never actually make yourself.

As for food network,...sigh... Just watch Iron Chef for motivation. They make good food with excellent presentation. Other than that, you will get sub-par cooking with fakes like Emirl, Rachel Ray (Why does a woman whose never been to a culinary school have a TV show eludes me) who makes meals from things like canned food, disgusting. Bobby Flay, god what a horrible and predictable stage name, has a cooking show. He does make some good stuff from time to time.

I would say your best bet is PBS, hands down. If you want to get good, you should learn how to mince, dice, glaze, chop, etc to the right sizes. If you are watching a good chef on TV, they won't make comments like, 'oh, cut it anyway you like'. I think an important thing also, is to know what you’re making before hand. For example, if you’re making a sauce, there are two ways of making it. You could just make the sauce by following what’s you read or see, and hope it turns out good, OR, you can do the more correct thing, and know what kind of flavor your trying to achieve, that way you will be able to better judge what proportions you need to get the taste your after.

Go buy yourself some good knifes, and learn the proper way to hold them and cut with them. You should keep the tip of the knife on the board, and cut with the back end in a scissor like action.

 

[fourier jr]

i learned some of that stuff while working at a restaurant for a while; now I'm working at a bakery & learning even more about baking (bread) than i learned about cooking at the restaurant. i think i know enough of the basics to be able to follow a moderately serious baking book. working at a restaurant & at a bakery is how i learned the basics (esp the bakery). re: inspiration i wouldn't watch any tv for it since everything on those shows is rigged (maybe not so much iron chef). all their ingredients are laid out in front of them in perfect proportions, etc & all they do on camera is dump/pour everything together. i would think the real skill comes with the prep & coming up with a recipe (what ingredients to use, how much, etc) & those shows don't give any of that insight. they just say use this much of such-&-such, put it together in a pan, etc. they don't explain why they do something, which imo is the least useful/helpful thing they could do. actually i kind of liked the urban peasant but he probably isn't aired everywhere. there are books for that sort of thing; i know of a baking book (haven't read it at all but i would very much like to) that has chapters on each possible ingredient & also has exercises & experiments to try at the end of each chapter, just like a textbook. the real good books always have excellent pictures of the food; a guy at the bakery referred to one book of his as "gastro-porn" the pics are so good.

re: gear i wouldn't spend too much $$$ at the beginning. after all you're interested now but after cooking for a while you might find that it's not for you. that happens. all i mean is if someone were to become interested in golfing i wouldn't recommend going out & buying a $5000 set of clubs right away. i think it would be much better to get a 'beginners' set (of knives, golf clubs, etc) & get good with that stuff.

 

[Jelfish]

Not all Food Network shows are like that. "Good Eats" with Alton Brown is an exception. He gives detailed explanations for everything he does when he cooks.

 

[Cyrus]

Alton Brown is more like a Bill Neye the science guy. He fits in the category of not a professional chef, sorry.

 

[Jelfish]

If you want to buy very sturdy and quality knives and kitchen things, I would suggest going to a restaurant/hotel suply surplus shop. They have stuff there that's meant to last for a very long time.

You should keep the tip of the knife on the board, and cut with the back end in a scissor like action.

I don't think that's the best way to cut. It's kind of akward for your wrists if you're cutting something like an onion or tomato (I know how to hold a knife properly). The best way to cut is to angle the tip slightly downward (there's no need to keep it on the cutting board) and push the knife forward and downward while arching your wrists slightly upward. That way, your wrists are moving in a very natural manner. Remember, a knife is a slicing tool. Anyway, what's more important is the way you hold your other hand..

 

[Cyrus]

All the top chefs on tv cut with the tip on the board, I think they know what they are doing.

 

[Jelfish]

Alton Brown is more like a Bill Neye the science guy. He fits in the category of not a professional chef, sorry.

Apology accepted. A chef needn't be a professional with a restaurant to be a good cook. And a professional chef isn't necessarily the best instructor. You also don't need to have gone to culinary school to be a good chef or teach someone how to cook.

 

[Jelfish]

All the top chefs on tv cut with the tip on the board, I think they know what they are doing.

If their tip is on the board, then that means they're using the back of the blade (which is correct) for cutting something very short, like green onion. Their tip might be on the board then, but that's the result of what I described above. You don't purposely put and keep your tip on the board. Watch a cook cut an onion. It's not the same.

 

[Cyrus]

Well, if your on tv, and your making up crap from a can for $20 bucks a meal, I'd take the professional chef anyday. The hole point of a chef on tv is to teach you something. I'd want a teacher trained in a cooking school to teach me how to cook, not a floozie like Rachel Ray.

http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ciqtips-aug03-chefknife.htm

When finely chopping or mincing some foods, such as small bunches of herbs or garlic, the handle may be held in one hand while the other hand rests on top of the blade. The tip of the blade is kept in contact with the cutting board. The blade is rocked up and down until the food is chopped to the desired size.

 

[Cyrus]

http://www.fantes.com/knives.htm

This knife is generally used on a cutting board by rocking it on its gently curving edge, using the tip as a stationary pivot. Its broad blade keeps knuckles from hitting the cutting board.
Use its back to break chicken bones and scrape foods from the board. Use the flat side for crushing things like garlic.

A well-trained chef will use his knife properly.

 

[Jelfish]

Notice it's "herbs or garlic" and not onion or a potato. I told you that by virtue of the size of those things, your blade is on the board. However, that is not generally how you cut everything.

And Rachel Ray might not be a culinary genious, but the point of her show is to give people ideas on how to combine household ingredients into something different, and to do that quickly. Different shows on the Food Network cater to different types of people. If the network's sole purpose were to train people to be professional chefs, then there would be a lot less people watching it.

 

[Cyrus]

Well, duh. Thats obvious.

And Rachel Ray might not be a culinary genious, but the point of her show is to give people ideas on how to combine household ingredients into something different, and to do that quickly. Different shows on the Food Network cater to different types of people. If the network's sole purpose were to train people to be professional chefs, then there would be a lot less people watching it.

Good, then they would put Great Chefs on the world back on the discovery channel. Rachel Ray is pathetic. Making soup from a can woop-de-do! I think food network caters to morons. I hardly ever see them making anything great on there. Only once in a blue moon.

 

[Jelfish]

Your second quote is actually closer to what I had said. Using the tip as a stationary pivot does not mean keeping it on the board. However, if you dip while raising your wrist as I mentioned, then the tip does act like a stationary pivot.

 

[Cyrus]

My point is u will see people like Ray using the knife incorrectly to chop things. Its quite painful to watch.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I think Jelfish and Cyrus should have their own cooking show. It would be very entertaining!

 

[Cyrus]

I think we would do a bang up job!

 

[Jelfish]

My point is u will see people like Ray using the knife incorrectly to chop things. Its quite painful to watch.

She does do some very unwise things just to fit her show in 30-minutes real time. Most of it involves not cooking meat long enough.

I think Jelfish and Cyrus should have their own cooking show. It would be very entertaining!

We'd constantly have a knife at each other's throat, though I'd be holding mine correctly

 

[Cyrus]

She does do some very unwise things just to fit her show in 30-minutes real time. Most of it involves not cooking meat long enough.

Exactly my point! She can't even cook the damn food from a can correctly! What an idiot! Who the hell can't spend 1 freakin hour to cook a meal for themselves. Morons, I tell you that show is for morons!

 

[fourier jr]

no of course the tip of the knife doesn't have to stay on the cutting board at all times. since there are so many type of foods to cut i can't imagine that there would be only one way to cut them all. nothing wrong with cutting potatoes or onions with the tip of the knife off the board.

 

[Cyrus]

I know, but for certain things it should be, but the bad chefs on tv can't do it. Thats all I am getting at.

 

[Evo]

Rachel Ray is not a cook.

Emeril in real life was a terrible chef, the truth is he was a hack in the kitchen that got lucky because he could shmooze. He still has no clue what he's doing, it's appalling to watch him, even with his staff preparing everything for him and giving him step by step instructions.

 

[Cyrus]

I Love You Evo! Yesss! Someone Sees The Light I am Not Crazy! Rachel Ray isint even good looking to be on tv! FOOD NETWORK IS FULL OF TWO BIT HACKS! VIVA discovery channel and 'Great chefs of the world', bring that show back for all its glory!

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Kant wasn't exactly clear on what sort of cooking he wanted to learn. He may just want to know more than how to heat something up in a microwave. In that case he may not mind watching shows with mundane cooking instructions and recipes. Ofcourse Emril is just obnoxious.

 

[Mk]

Though Cyrus has a good point, I'm with Jelfish.

Ha ha, look at this

Wikipedia - Rachel Ray:
On her television programs she has coined catchphrases such as "E.V.O.O... extra-virgin olive oil" (explained with each use, defeating the apparent purpose of the acronym), "Yum-O!", and "How good is THAT?"[1].
Her signature tool is the santoku chef's knife. She claims to dislike baking desserts and to be notorious for burning bread under the broiler. Ray says her late Sicilian maternal grandfather, Emmanuel Scuderi, served as a strong influence on her cooking. To critics of her shortcut techniques, Ray responds, "I have no formal anything. I'm completely unqualified for any job I've ever had."

Oh and

In 2003 she posed for the men's magazine FHM. The New York Times wrote, "The shots feature Ms. Ray in short-shorts with an exposed midriff, licking chocolate off a big wooden spoon, eating a strawberry and sitting in a sink, laughing as suds cascade down her thighs."

It doesn't say if she was only wearing short-shorts.
And how do you lick a spoon and eat a strawberry at the same time? I'm going to go try.

 

[Mk]

She does do some very unwise things just to fit her show in 30-minutes real time. Most of it involves not cooking meat long enough.

Jelfish and Cyrus should have their own cooking show, it would be very entertaining.

On my show we cook jellyfish

You just want them to have their own Naked Chef show. What do you think of his chefing abilities?

 

[Jelfish]

I haven't had a chance to see Naked Chef yet. I've heard that show is pretty popular though.

 

[ek]

Ok, first of all I'm no chef, but I did take seven cooking (yes seven) cooking courses in high school. I used to watch the food network A LOT. I still watch it a bit, but only a bit. It used to be my most watched channel. But I know the food network, believe me I do.

Emeril knows what he's doing. He is a master chef.

Rachel Ray is pleasant looking. Her wardrobe on "30 minute meals" is just REALLY frumpy. She seems to wear the same 90s high rider black pants and red cardigan every episode. On her other show "$40 a day" she looks MUCH better. It is really astounding how they make her look so bad on one show while making her look quite nice on the other show. I always have a laugh about the EVOO thing. She really does define it everytime. A little bit of trivia, the set for "30 minute meals" was used as a tv set set on Law and Order in season 15.

The best shows on the food network imo are Molto/Mediterranean Mario (Mario Batali) and Licensed to Grill (Rob Renford). I have also been known to watch Bobby Flay's shows Grillin and Chillin and Boy Meets Grill, both of Rachel Ray's shows, both of Emeril's shows, The Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten), and the one with the pretty italian girl whose name escapes me right now.

 

[Mk]

Maybe the Sisterhood could help you on the show. They and we (Jelfish, Cyrus, Mk (director+producer)) could do some chefing with us. How are their chefing abilities?