Hey guys, I have been cooking for years but about six months ago I started to really take things seriously. I set out to teach myself French cooking, which is considered some of the best cuisine in the world. I started just by googling dishes and stumbled upon the "mother sauces" which are the primary sauces which most others are derived from. In French cooking you very commonly take a certain amount of liquid and simmer or boil it with some aromatics, herbs and spices to reduce the total volume. This concentrates the liquid and extracts flavor from whatever you put in the liquid. These concentrated flavors in French sauces are why the art has the reputation it does.
I found a resource that I have to share with you all so everyone can become an accomplished cook. There is a chef in Lake Tahoe who puts out a series of lectures and videos that start from the basics(holding a knife, how to julienne vegetables, etc) all the way to the mother sauces and more recently bread making. He provides all of this at no cost whatsoever, but I am planning to send him a nice bottle of wine to thank him for the website.
The website is Stella Culinary
You start by going to the Podcast Index and clicking the like that says "SCS 1 Basic Knife Skills". You listen to a lecture on the correct tools and other aspects of the topic and then you can watch videos demonstrating technique. There is then a homework assignment, which for the first podcast involves chopping 20 lbs of potatoes. The first couple lessons are basic but very good. He has you jump immediately into making stock, which is the foundation of really good French food, followed by some cooking techniques(blanching, roasting, pan roasting, etc). By the time you get to the last few podcasts you should be qualified to cook just about anything and you will have the foundation to be able to understand just about any recipe.
I have gone through most of the podcasts and feel like I have the background and capability to handle just about any recipe, even those from a country like Japan. The fundamentals still apply, and making dashi is very similar to making stock, even if it is very quick to prepare.
He has a series of videos called "The Completed Dish" in which you build on the techniques learned to prepare very high end food.
There is a lot of prep time for this, but the results are phenomenal. Brining the fish really will turn a somewhat boring piece of meat into the plumpest, juiciest thing you have ever tasted. I made my Beurre Blanc sauce with a little bit slower technique because I don't have a high output gas range sadly, but it turns out just as well, but takes more time.
In short the guy who built this website, Chef Jacob Burton, has really done a great service to guys who want to cook extremely high quality food, for a fraction of the price of going to a restaurant. This is how to live well. The attention to detail and quiet persistence is what makes a culture truly great. It is so wonderful to visit the countries where cooking has been raised to an art form, particularly in France and Italy. The English speaking countries need a cultural revival, and food should be a large part of that.
If you are willing to put maybe twenty hours of work of concentrated effort in getting a handle on the fundamentals you can save yourself years of frustration and mediocre results. I have become a better cook in the last six months than in the previous six years. I can make any recipe, any sauce, debone animals, gut and filet fish and many other skills. The skills also transfer over to the cuisine of other countries and even if I don't know what a particular ingredient is, after a little bit of research I understand what is going on. So go forth and become excellent cooks.
The website focuses more on the technique and not so much the dietary implications. Do you research on the paleo diet and what kind of oils/fats you want to put in your body. Good luck and feel free to ask if you have any questions.
I found a resource that I have to share with you all so everyone can become an accomplished cook. There is a chef in Lake Tahoe who puts out a series of lectures and videos that start from the basics(holding a knife, how to julienne vegetables, etc) all the way to the mother sauces and more recently bread making. He provides all of this at no cost whatsoever, but I am planning to send him a nice bottle of wine to thank him for the website.
The website is Stella Culinary
You start by going to the Podcast Index and clicking the like that says "SCS 1 Basic Knife Skills". You listen to a lecture on the correct tools and other aspects of the topic and then you can watch videos demonstrating technique. There is then a homework assignment, which for the first podcast involves chopping 20 lbs of potatoes. The first couple lessons are basic but very good. He has you jump immediately into making stock, which is the foundation of really good French food, followed by some cooking techniques(blanching, roasting, pan roasting, etc). By the time you get to the last few podcasts you should be qualified to cook just about anything and you will have the foundation to be able to understand just about any recipe.
I have gone through most of the podcasts and feel like I have the background and capability to handle just about any recipe, even those from a country like Japan. The fundamentals still apply, and making dashi is very similar to making stock, even if it is very quick to prepare.
He has a series of videos called "The Completed Dish" in which you build on the techniques learned to prepare very high end food.
There is a lot of prep time for this, but the results are phenomenal. Brining the fish really will turn a somewhat boring piece of meat into the plumpest, juiciest thing you have ever tasted. I made my Beurre Blanc sauce with a little bit slower technique because I don't have a high output gas range sadly, but it turns out just as well, but takes more time.
In short the guy who built this website, Chef Jacob Burton, has really done a great service to guys who want to cook extremely high quality food, for a fraction of the price of going to a restaurant. This is how to live well. The attention to detail and quiet persistence is what makes a culture truly great. It is so wonderful to visit the countries where cooking has been raised to an art form, particularly in France and Italy. The English speaking countries need a cultural revival, and food should be a large part of that.
If you are willing to put maybe twenty hours of work of concentrated effort in getting a handle on the fundamentals you can save yourself years of frustration and mediocre results. I have become a better cook in the last six months than in the previous six years. I can make any recipe, any sauce, debone animals, gut and filet fish and many other skills. The skills also transfer over to the cuisine of other countries and even if I don't know what a particular ingredient is, after a little bit of research I understand what is going on. So go forth and become excellent cooks.
The website focuses more on the technique and not so much the dietary implications. Do you research on the paleo diet and what kind of oils/fats you want to put in your body. Good luck and feel free to ask if you have any questions.
