Watching Food TV won’t teach you to cook. Perhaps you shouldn’t believe or attempt everything on your flat screen that’s designed for entertainment value, not educational value.
Neither will you learn to cook from a cookbook. Written recipes won’t teach you to cook any more than sheet music teaches you how to play piano.
However, with 5 basic skills, you can empower yourself past the advertising and written rules to cook the way you want, with what you want.
I consider the Food Network to be the MTV of food. MTV used to play music, now they’re entertainment about music. Food TV is entertainment about food; they don’t teach anyone HOW to cook.
Neither should there be any crying in cooking, unless you’re chopping onions. On Food TV reality shows, contestants CRY when their dishes come out. They’re crying because they could be ELIMINATED from the kitchen! What pressure!
Cooking is not crying. Cooking is not a competition. Cooking is an art form that everyone can interpret for themselves. You don’t have to cook like a celebrity chef, or imitate Martha Stewart to provide wholesome, nutritious, soul-satisfying food for your family.
If I ran The Food Network, I’d concentrate on 5 basic elements that will free all cooks from written recipes. Then again, if I did that I’d probably destroy Food TV itself. I’d be out of a job quickly when all the advertisers left because viewers were actually in their kitchens…cooking!
First, don’t trust recipes. They have inherent variables and flaws that make them impossible to duplicate. You are allowed to change recipes for your desire. Use them for inspiration if you’d like, but cook with the ingredients and in a fashion to your liking, not the authors.
Second, practice your knife skills. To use fresh ingredients in cooking, you’ll have to do some prep. Farmers market ingredients don’t come already cut-up in little glass dishes like on Food TV.
Third, understand the transfer of heat. A few basics in HOW cooking works, rather than WHAT you’ll be cooking will empower you to cook everything! The differences between direct and indirect heat, dry and moist cooking will make you a skilled home cook.
Fourth, stock your pantry. Have condiments and ingredients ready to become instant flavor profiles. Sautéing a chicken breast on the stove top can become an ethnic dish from Mexico if you add Salsa to the pan. It can be from Asia with some Soy Sauce, or India with jarred Masala.
Lastly, sauce-making is the key. If you can make a smooth, flavorful sauce, you can create an endless number of dishes. A great sauce will save a poorly cooked piece of meat, but the worst sauce will certainly ruin the best prepared items.
Write it down? Why would you ever have to write it down? When you use these five simple skills in combination, you can create a new dish every night. Just think of the extra cabinet space you now have where all the cookbooks used to be!
Why duplicate when you can create? Food TV wants you to keep watching Food TV, not actually learn HOW to cook. That’s my job.
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Man, you can just about take Eldridge’s post and duplicate it right here under my name.
I, too, spent a long time being skeptical before I finally took a chance and ordered the DVDs. But within ten minutes worth of viewing, I knew all the claims made for them were going to be true. I haven’t used a recipe for the last year and a half and I’ve been eating some of the best food I’ve EVER had. From anywhere.
Also what’s cool is, for the last few months, what with the money I save on my food budget (yes, even that claim ends up being true) I’ve been eating more steak than hamburger! And that doesn’t count the money I DON’T spend any more going to a fast food place.
Read all the testimonials on Chef Todd’s website – there’s no exaggeration there. And LEARN TO COOK.
You’ve brought up another great point, Dan.
You can certainly save money by learning HOW to cook and not WHAT to cook.
Or, you can use that money to upgrade the foods you’re eating.
From steak to hamburger, from the mega-market to the farmers market.
Hi Chef Todd:
You ain’t kidding…. I used to watch the Food networks and get frustrated because I never learned much. H*ll, I didn’t learn anything. Then I searched and searched on the internet trying to find cooking dvd’s that started from step 1 in cooking.
I continued to search until I found your site. I was a touch skeptical when I first bought them (Burn Your Recipes 1,2, and 3.) but I was happily proven wrong. It was literally chef school for the beginner which was exactly what I was looking for. It was worth every penny.
Now I watch the shows for ideas and the basic ingredients that the chefs use, then I am cookfident enough to “wing it” and it usually comes out great. You could NEVER learn what your dvds and online videos teach on any food network. NEVER.
They have been a treasure chest of useful information. I recommend them to folks all the time.
EK
Yes Eldridge! Testify!!!
Thank you for your kind words.
You’re a shining example of what can be done with a little curiosity and some imagination.
My goal is to empower the entire world to cook the way they want, with wholesome ingredients.
It would solve a lot of global issues.