Simple cooking is the best cooking.
There, I said it for the 1000th time! No matter where I travel, no matter with whom I speak,
the people that know good food say the same thing.
“Simple things are good things”
In a fish market on Hawaii, the local fish monger advised me to cook my tuna very simply.
“Only scare the fish with a fry pan, it will be Ono”, he said. Ono is “delicious” in Hawaiian.
The multi-generational spice store owner in Paris told me his secret for cooking with herbs and spices.
“Simpler is better”
The grass-fed beef rancher in Nebraska I spoke with said his steaks get only salt and pepper on the grill.
The restaurant owner in Spain that I dined with didn’t have complicated recipes, he bragged that it was the simple things done well that really impress his customers.
Yet, food TV shows will have you believe that elaborate meals are the only way to be considered a truly good cook.
Why would cookbooks and food TV want to make you feel as if your cooking were inadequate?
So you’ll buy more cookbooks and watch more food TV!
When you discover just a few basic cooking methods, then you can break this cycle. Imagine the benefits you would enjoy if you stopped searching for recipes and avoided the influence of celebrity chefs who make you feel unworthy of a kitchen.
What if you were empowered with this concept of simple cooking? What if you could just choose items already in your pantry and improvise a delicious, nutritious, quick and easy meal every night of the week?
You would then begin to improve your lifestyle with simple cooking. You needn’t be on TV, nor need to write a cookbook to know what type of food YOU like. No celebrity chef or recipe author can tell you what you should be eating or how you should be cooking it. Only you can decide that.
Cook simply and you’ll enjoy the following benefits:
1) Freedom – You’ll gain freedom from written recipes and vague instructions that make it impossible to cook consistently. You’ll have the freedom to eat what you want, how you want it.
2) Confidence – Once you gain your freedom from others telling you how to cook, you’ll have the confidence to create your own recipes, using the ingredients you desire.
3) Health – With confidence comes a desire to cook new ingredients, more wholesome, fresh, farmer’s market ingredients. Once you discover simple cooking, you’ll want to try it out on items you were afraid to purchase before because you couldn’t find a recipe for the item.
4) Family – You’ll reunite your family over the dinner table. When they actually look forward to your cooking, when you enjoy preparing healthy meals with confidence, you’ll spend more time together. Also, cooking is a social skill. You’ll find yourself entertaining more, making friends and meeting new people.
5) Money – When cooking in your home moves from the living room as entertainment and back into the kitchen as art, you’ll save money. You’ll order less take-out food. You’ll purchase less convenience items and make better decisions at the grocery store. You’ll stop buying cookbooks. Simple cooking will save you money.
Something else I’ve said 1000 times is that cooking is an art. There is no other art form that comes with a strict set of instructions to follow. Your cooking should come from your heart, using basic cooking methods with the ingredients you and your family desire.
Otherwise, you’re giving the responsibility of something as important as your health and nutrition to a guy on TV.
Discover how to use the freshest ingredients
in my upcoming FREE Webinar,
“Buy Fresh. Cook Simple. Eat Well”
Click HERE to reserve your spot for the FREE event.
the people that know good food say the same thing.
“Simple things are good things”
In a fish market on Hawaii, the local fish monger advised me to cook my tuna very simply.
“Only scare the fish with a fry pan, it will be Ono”, he said. Ono is “delicious” in Hawaiian.
The multi-generational spice store owner in Paris told me his secret for cooking with herbs and spices.
“Simpler is better”
The grass-fed beef rancher in Nebraska I spoke with said his steaks get only salt and pepper on the grill.
The restaurant owner in Spain that I dined with didn’t have complicated recipes, he bragged that it was the simple things done well that really impress his customers.
Yet, food TV shows will have you believe that elaborate meals are the only way to be considered a truly good cook.
Why would cookbooks and food TV want to make you feel as if your cooking were inadequate?
So you’ll buy more cookbooks and watch more food TV!
When you discover just a few basic cooking methods, then you can break this cycle. Imagine the benefits you would enjoy if you stopped searching for recipes and avoided the influence of celebrity chefs who make you feel unworthy of a kitchen.
What if you were empowered with this concept of simple cooking? What if you could just choose items already in your pantry and improvise a delicious, nutritious, quick and easy meal every night of the week?
You would then begin to improve your lifestyle with simple cooking. You needn’t be on TV, nor need to write a cookbook to know what type of food YOU like. No celebrity chef or recipe author can tell you what you should be eating or how you should be cooking it. Only you can decide that.
Cook simply and you’ll enjoy the following benefits:
1) Freedom – You’ll gain freedom from written recipes and vague instructions that make it impossible to cook consistently. You’ll have the freedom to eat what you want, how you want it.
2) Confidence – Once you gain your freedom from others telling you how to cook, you’ll have the confidence to create your own recipes, using the ingredients you desire.
3) Health – With confidence comes a desire to cook new ingredients, more wholesome, fresh, farmer’s market ingredients. Once you discover simple cooking, you’ll want to try it out on items you were afraid to purchase before because you couldn’t find a recipe for the item.
4) Family – You’ll reunite your family over the dinner table. When they actually look forward to your cooking, when you enjoy preparing healthy meals with confidence, you’ll spend more time together. Also, cooking is a social skill. You’ll find yourself entertaining more, making friends and meeting new people.
5) Money – When cooking in your home moves from the living room as entertainment and back into the kitchen as art, you’ll save money. You’ll order less take-out food. You’ll purchase less convenience items and make better decisions at the grocery store. You’ll stop buying cookbooks. Simple cooking will save you money.
Something else I’ve said 1000 times is that cooking is an art. There is no other art form that comes with a strict set of instructions to follow. Your cooking should come from your heart, using basic cooking methods with the ingredients you and your family desire.
Otherwise, you’re giving the responsibility of something as important as your health and nutrition to a guy on TV.
Discover how to use the freshest ingredients
in my upcoming FREE Webinar,
“Buy Fresh. Cook Simple. Eat Well”
Click HERE to reserve your spot for the FREE event.
Loving this class. I am learning so much. Cooking, gardening and throwing pottery for a great natural look for all the delicious foods are my favorite things to do. Thanks so much Chef Todd!
Just did my fifth assignment and have learned again in cooking, as with most everything, simple is better. Sautéed salmon has become my signature dish and simple couplings ate the best! THANKS CHEF!
I used the fond of simple slow browned hamburger meat for my “famous” eggs bhurji for a brand new taste! Excellent. I am beginning to make up my own dishes, and I love it! THANKS, Chef!
No more vegetables going off and thrown out as all used whilst fresh. Left over sauces, fond etc.etc all kept and used in another dish within a few days. Kitchen costs down and everyone enjoys the meals………..As for all the celebrity chefs shows…..well I watch them only for fun now and that has declined as I am in the kitchen doing my own thing. Thanks Chef Todd and all the crew!
A certified master chef that I know has the best definition of a gourmet meal:
A gourmet meal consists of good ingredients prepared well. “
Excellent!
I am continually mesmerized by celebrity chefs and gourmet magazines. Very rarely is a substitute given for certain ingredients. It’s something you have to come up with yourself. But, if you have basic cooking skills, know your methods and spices, and have a well stocked pantry, you’re going to do pretty well, despite the call for hard to find ingredients.
I have an old cookbook from the 1940’s that I use as a base cookbook. What’s cool about the book is a War Time Cookery in the very back that gives good substitutions for hard to find war-time rationed foods. I can use that today to look up a substitute for something I might not have in my pantry. The book is also interesting because what we consider now servings for 4, back then was serving for 6. So, no wonder we have an obesity problem in this country.
This is not to say that I don’t watch celebrity chefs and subscribe to gourmet magazines like Sauver. I do, I thoroughly enjoy them. I watch, or look at the recipe, see if it’s something I want to make, and then I make it. If I don’t have something that costs a fortune at Williams Sonoma, like Saigon cinnamon, well then I use regular cinnamon instead, just a tad more. I made pealla a few days ago which calls for smoked paprika. I don’t like smoked paprika, so I used regular paprika instead. It was delicious!
Of course, you can’t really do this with baking because of chemical reactions, you pretty much have to measure and follow instructions to get a good product. Flavoring, however, is up to you.