I would love to know the experience of the food lovers here.

Hmmmm, interesting question!

I have no formal culinary education. I learned the very basics of cooking from my mother, who is a person who cooks because she needs to eat.
I got turned on to experimenting in food by my MIL, who was a devotee of Julia's, and who subscribed to Gourmet, and was adventurous in her cooking. She gave me copies of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" before they were popular. (I wish I had taken them to be autographed one of the times I met with Julia)
My employ is in the clinical research field....not exactly food related.
I just love to eat, and if I can cook it, so much the better!

 
Food is my hobby, my passion and my ...

profession.

Growing up we lived in Italy for 8 years and we were fortunate to travel quite a bit. When most normal people ventured to museums, churches, and tourist attractions we drove hours on end for restaurants, vineyards and food finds. My parents are amazing cooks and my Italian grandmother is truly mind boggling with her basic Italian cooking. She bakes 12 loaves of bread at a time, cuts her pasta by hand (no hand cranked pasta here) and so on. I visit her every other week and try to absorb all her magic. Hence the hobby and passion part.

By profession, I am a registered dietitan (but the kind that actually likes food and knows food (and sadly we are a rare breed)) and currently I work as a contract dietitan so I can stay home with my children. I teach weight management to children (it is a tragic epidemic) and have started teaching some healthy cooking classes (adults).

I would love to pursue formal culinary training but that will have to wait for now.

So that is my food background.

 
I'm un-educated and under-employed...

I have no culinary training and all my restaurant experience was as a waiter. Like Judy, I learned from books, mostly Julia's. I've always enjoyed good food and cooking and now I work part-time as a caterer/personal chef, a business I started on a whim a few years ago. (My real occupation is in retail, and I'm also an artist, which I do have formal training in).

My clients are surprised that I don't have a culinary degree. They assume it's required to start a food business. (It's not--anyone can buy a chef's coat and get a business license.) But I think I have a slight advantage in that I'm used to cooking in home kitchens under imperfect conditions, and I'm getting busier as people try my food. It really just takes curiosty and a love of good cooking.

This forum (and its predecessor Gail's) has been invaluable to me in filling in the gaps in my cooking knowledge and experience. I don't know how I'd function without it.

 
None. My mom didn't even teach me to cook.

My grandma taught me to bake cookies, and when I was in university I had a part-time job in the kitchens, mostly working with the pastry chef making desserts but doing a little bit of everything. That's where I got most of my basic cooking knowledge - that, and Food TV.

My employ is often food-related but rarely has anything to do with actual cooking. Writing product descriptions for Cuisinarts, the occasional article on food written to promote one of the products here, moderating this board, etc.

 
I am an ambiguity, wrapped in an enigma...

...rolled in Panko crumbs and pan fried to a deep golden brown.

Sorry. I love saying that.

I've always loved to eat. Good tasting food of any level of sophistication was fair game, as long as I can remember.

I helped my Mom make boxed, Appian Way pizzas when I was a kid, and my first "recipe" happened when I discovered that if you fold a slice of Kraft American Cheese in half and then in half again, the resulting pieces fit perfectly on a saltine cracker.

When I was 8 I baked a chocolate box cake with my Mom, and cut up large jet-puffed marshmallows to form little bunnies on the sides of the cake. If I ever find the pic of me holding that cake and smiling broadly, I'll send it to Peg to post.

I used to fake being sick in elementary school so I could stay at home and watch the Galloping Gourmet get soused and proffer his sardonic brand of gastronomic seduction. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

When I was an older teenager, I met my best friend. He was a very fun, very boisterous and clever guy who liked to cook. His sister's hubby was an 'amateur gourmet' (which means he knew how to poach salmon), so we both tried to emulate him.

Quite soon after that I discovered how overwhelmed a young lady would always become when her date cooked her a nice meal, and set a candle-lit table. I was sooooo bad.

Now, having seduced the woman of my dreams, and overwhelmed her into having two wonderful sons, I gleefully continue on as the family cook and soup-carrier of our circle of friends.

Thanks fer askin'!

Michael

 
The junior high school that I went to....(more)

had an auto shop class for girls called
"Powder Puff Mechanics" (I kid you not),
and a home economics class for boys
called "Bachelors Anonymous".

I took "Bachelors Anonymous" in ninth
grade, and our teacher was supposed to
give us the basics of cooking, sewing
and ironing, but she didn't know how
to sew or iron, so all we did was cook,
and I've been cooking ever since.

That was 33 years ago.

 
I love to cook it, smell it cooking, eat it

I've got a passion for food. It is really all one needs. I think most of the time too much training gets in the way.

My Mom and Grandmother were great cooks. Mom had me in the kitchen stirring cake batter at the age of three. In Seventh grade Home-Ec class we had to create a dish for a panel of "judges" and others were busy frying the perfect egg, baking a cake from a mix or making a nice Jello salad. Me? I boned and stuffed a chicken and roasted it. Always the over-achiever.

My only "formal" training was 6 mo of classes at Le Cordon Bleu in London, then many other cooking classes that were given at L'Hotel Sofitel where I used to live- they had a program where they rotated chefs from their properties in France to their U.S. hotels- and some of the teachers were great. Several other cooking classes scattered throughout the years but the most memorable was being able to take master classes from JC for 4 days.

I owned and operated a catering biz for 10 years, taught cooking classes for several years (I am hazy- maybe 8 years) and worked as a menu consultant for several restaurants. My "REAL" formal training is not in cooking but it has always been the great equlizer for me. Couldn't do without it.

Now I just cook for fun- am in the travel industry and am too busy (and too old!) to cook for a living. I somehow like it better just doing it for fun.

 
Wow, Joe. I have to 'second' your validation of what Gail's and Finer Kitchens...

...has done for my skill level.

I think the most important thing these boards have taught me is how to spot a good recipe. I am not making too many 'duds' anymore. I've learned from the talent present here how to examine a recipe and visualize what will come of it once it is prepared.

I think the greatest learning experience along that line is reading a recipe posted here, and then reading responses that range from questions about technique to tweaks that might be possible. Then, when I read posts from cooks who have made the recipe, I find insight into how those folks approached the actual execution of the dish and the things they tried (or discovered) that worked, or didn't work.

To me, this is the internet at it's best. What used to happen between Grandmother, Mom and children, over coffee, or at a family gathering that required feasting and, hence, excessive amounts of food preparation, now happens on this board. Notes are compared, tips shared, and experience lent... all in an atmosphere of friendship and gentility.

Do I hear Kumbaya playing softly in the background?....

Michael

 
I attended Le Cordon Bleu and now working in contract catering...

feeding 150-200 people every night! It's actually a lot of fun... Contract catering here refers to "catering" companies that are hired by big companies, i.e. law firms, accountancies, to provide their employees with breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc... I'm not sure what this is called in the USA - all the food is actually prepared on site by a team of chefs that work dayin and day out at the client's kitchen, which has usually been custom built - think of your office cafeteria, but I'm working on the hospitality side of things and doing the higher end dinners...

I also run a catering/personal chef business on the side, read weekends...

I have been cooking forever, my speciality has always been Mexican as I come from there, but I can make just about any dish, give a recipe, and usully end up giving it my own twist...

 
I love to 'dine'... not just 'eat'. Mom and Grandma were the inspirations...

So much thought went into their meals. Grandma was more meat and potatoes, but oh how she presented them! And her gravy to die for. She provided the uber-important basics of cooking for us. Her dinner (and breakfast and lunch) table was a work of art. And her words that stayed with me..."Honey, you can never cook with 'too much' butter and 'too many' onions!" My Mom was an artist with no money and loved to cook gourmet on a budget. Her presentations were also beautiful and her recipes beyond the norm of the day. She instilled in us an appreciation of color, variety and form on the plate that was always attributed to the real Creator (divine) of the food. And of course the food had to taste outstanding. I have since expanded my expertise from cookbooks, Food Network, cooking classes, Bon Appetit and these great forums. I'm a scientist in renal (kidney) clinical and research work. It is so demanding...so I love to unwind by grocery shopping (it's a stress-reliever for me) and special cooking on weekends and special occasions. Summer is grill-time. Can't wait.

 
Sorry, I just can't get it right...

I'm asking what formal culinary education you have, what inspires you, and what you do for a living if it has anything to do with food.

 
My Mom taught me the basics. She and both Grandmothers and

Aunts are/were great cooks. My Mother-in-law has also taught me to make good family recipe mexican dishes. I took what was called a "gourmet cooking class" offered at my high school and have been hooked on cooking ever since.

I don't know if anyone remembers Good Food magizine from the 80's, but that my guide as begining cook.

I really enjoy cooking and find it relaxing and feel a great deal of accomplishment when I see my guests enoying a good meal.

 
I envy you all who learned from your family...

My mom was not much of a cook - there were a couple of things she did well, but she just didn't like to cook, and some of the stuff we had when I was a kid was downright revolting.

It's not really her fault - my maternal grandmother's cooking was even worse - as I found out when she came to take care of us when my parents went to Europe for two weeks. I don't ever remember my dad's mom cooking, but I learned a few tricks from her cook - mostly garnish tricks. I did inherit my dad's mom's recipe book - so she MUST have cooked at one point. A lot of French things - am not sure if it was because she liked to cook them or because it was the 60s-early 70s or because she was good friends with Julia Child.

I think I like to cook so much because food at home was so bad. I started cooking 15 years ago, when I got married, and I realized - wow! you don't have to go out to a restaurant to have food that tastes good. I've loved it ever since.

I'm in architecture, which I like. If I had to choose another career, it would be in the food industry. I'm always inspired by stories of people who set up their catering business/bakery, etc. - maybe someday! But my brother-in-law owns a restaurant, and I wouldn't want his hours!

I've learned - mostly from cookbooks. I took one class at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD, which was great. I'd love to take more.

 
Food TV Network

I always would watch the food tv network. I was and am so fascinated by watching them create great dishes, and I thought to myself, "I can do that", and so it began. I then started taking cooking classes. I was just so sick and tired of heating my meals.

 
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