Are there any Chefs here, or has anyone been to cooking school?

[OldLady]

I am pondering going to cooking school. I'll be retiring in 3 years and I want to do something completely different. Something fun and I like to cook already.

I'm not thinking about becoming a chef, too much work and I'm going to be retired. I just want to be able to create dishes of my own. I want to learn what to do if my dish contains say, cauliflower. What kind of spices go well with that or what meats or other vegetables.

Anyone here able to do that now?

One of the first things to do is get the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It is an incredible guide on all things cooking. Like an encyclopedia for cooking.

Isn't it just recipes?

Not at all. Tells you what spices are, their interactions with foods, substitutions, you name it. Read this link. It is over a thousand pages of knowledge in cooking.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer

No one who takes the time to read the intro to the sections and follows directions can fail. The book that taught me to cook half way decently.

I still will run to it on occasion 30 something years later.

Classics never go out of style.

 

[Thunk]

I'm not thinking about becoming a chef, too much work and I'm going to be retired. I just want to be able to create dishes of my own. I want to learn what to do if my dish contains say, cauliflower. What kind of spices go well with that or what meats or other vegetables.

Anyone here able to do that now?

I've been doing that since age 3 when I dragged a chair over to the stove to stand on & my mom showed me how to make scrambled eggs.

I can make the best red sauce known to mankind...I still suck at making breads from scratch!

Every herb & spice in my cupboard I have used too much of atleast once & ruined the dish.

I'm still always mixing different things together to see how they taste...every once in a while...it's a hit.

Mom & sis always used me as a taster to tell them what to add to a dish.

Cooking is all trial & error & remembering it (but your failures seem to be easy to remember).

For a cake, you mix all the liquids completely before adding the flour and other dry ingredients.

I put garlic into my red sauce at the beginning, middle, and end of the simmering...it'll give different flavors depending on how long it's cooked. (think raw onion Vs. sauteed onion).

 

[Thunk]

I'm still always mixing different things together to see how they taste...every once in a while...it's a hit.

Latest hit...

Mix a spoon full of mayo with a spoon full of hot horseradish then mix in the pack of tuna for the best tuna sammich you've ever tasted!