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I would love to know the experience of the food lovers here.
- Thread starter denice
- Start date
No formal training other than some minor Asian cooking classes...
...in my own kitchen with a group of friends when we lived in Tokyo.
My mom was a good cook and an even better host, who could serve anyone who showed up at the door...and many did, coincidentally, around dinner time. A famly saying was "FHB"...family hold back...if she thought there wasn't quite enough to go around. She had the twin "Gourmet" set but mostly just read them rather than cooked from them. I read them, too. In the 60s she "frenched" a mean steak...made "chop suey" from scratch...wowed her friend with shrimp creole and smothered beef tenderloins in wine mushroom sauce...she made us peel the mushrooms for some reason. She was always amenable to us messing around in the kitchen so we experimented a lot. Hence my first cake made with baking soda instead of baking powder.
I started cooking because I love to experiment and to eat...My idea of hell would be to have to cook, or serve food, for a living and I admire the people who do.
I love to make things differently every time...I love the reaction from people who don't "cook"...I like the experimental nature and chemistry of tweaking a recipe...I love knowing how to "rescue" a boring dish with a shot of lemon juice or a dash of tobasco...I read cookbooks like novels and learn technique and combinations even though I many never make the dish...I'm appalled by what people eat in boring chain restaurants and consider "good". I want to take them home and say ..."try this...this is what food can taste like".
I'm sad when friends are "afraid" to cook for me. I really enjoy just about anything someone else makes for me but I can't convince most people of that. I'm sure many of you experience this.
Professionaly, I've been in education for 30+ years. YIKES! I have always worked with students who have disabilities...mostly LD/ADD/Psy types. I'm going on my 8th year working at the college level and I LOVE it! I have fun everyday at work...but then I'm a big believer in people being as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Way more than anyone wanted to know but it's all typed up so I'll hit "submit reply"...
...in my own kitchen with a group of friends when we lived in Tokyo.
My mom was a good cook and an even better host, who could serve anyone who showed up at the door...and many did, coincidentally, around dinner time. A famly saying was "FHB"...family hold back...if she thought there wasn't quite enough to go around. She had the twin "Gourmet" set but mostly just read them rather than cooked from them. I read them, too. In the 60s she "frenched" a mean steak...made "chop suey" from scratch...wowed her friend with shrimp creole and smothered beef tenderloins in wine mushroom sauce...she made us peel the mushrooms for some reason. She was always amenable to us messing around in the kitchen so we experimented a lot. Hence my first cake made with baking soda instead of baking powder.
I started cooking because I love to experiment and to eat...My idea of hell would be to have to cook, or serve food, for a living and I admire the people who do.
I love to make things differently every time...I love the reaction from people who don't "cook"...I like the experimental nature and chemistry of tweaking a recipe...I love knowing how to "rescue" a boring dish with a shot of lemon juice or a dash of tobasco...I read cookbooks like novels and learn technique and combinations even though I many never make the dish...I'm appalled by what people eat in boring chain restaurants and consider "good". I want to take them home and say ..."try this...this is what food can taste like".
I'm sad when friends are "afraid" to cook for me. I really enjoy just about anything someone else makes for me but I can't convince most people of that. I'm sure many of you experience this.
Professionaly, I've been in education for 30+ years. YIKES! I have always worked with students who have disabilities...mostly LD/ADD/Psy types. I'm going on my 8th year working at the college level and I LOVE it! I have fun everyday at work...but then I'm a big believer in people being as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Way more than anyone wanted to know but it's all typed up so I'll hit "submit reply"...
May I just slip in here and tell you all that Pat is possibly the most talented non-professional
cook that I have ever run across. One can train or just love food and cooking and become a very fine cook but, like so many other talents, there is a natural-born sense of food and entertaining that either you've "got" or not. Pat has it in spades.
cook that I have ever run across. One can train or just love food and cooking and become a very fine cook but, like so many other talents, there is a natural-born sense of food and entertaining that either you've "got" or not. Pat has it in spades.
Starting around the age of 3, I stood at the wood burning stove wooden spoon in
hand on a white painted chair. Mum was keeping me occupied with scrambled egg making, sometimes I did the porridge..oats, until I got a big splat on my cheek, which put me off for a bit.
We lived in Africa and I used to go out to the servants 1/4s in the afternoon when they were starting to gather the food in their cast iron pots that they would cook over open fires. I loved the smell and camaradie that went into the preparation of these meals...
Later my grandparents had a farm on the banks of a river (their retirement) they grew corn which we picked (if the hippos hadn't got into the meilie lands and flattened everything first)and I picked mushrooms, milked cows, gathered eggs etc and then joined the adults in preparing and, more importantly, eating all these wonderful fresh, fresh foods.
This also started me on the gardening/landscaping life I love so much.
I did Home Ec in high school and the class was told often that there was only one girl in the whole school who obviously HAD to help prepare food in her family, as SHE could peel potatoes! This always made me feel very odd man out as we all came from the same sort of background with many servants, including a cook.
I also went to art school from a young age and as far as I'm concerned art, design, colour is life, it's there on paper, in landscaping, in table setting, in cooking and plating.
I just loved to prepare, plate and of course eat.
All through my school years I went to as many vacation cooking courses for the young as I could.
Saturdays were special, it was Dad's turn to shine, he usually made lunch. He was the adventurous one, loved curries and using strange ingredients much to our cook's dismay. He would go to "buy cigars" and come back with outlandish and very expensive things from the fancy supermarket down the road....it was the fore-runner of the deli's of today.
Mum was the baker, still is. Her tarts, cakes and pies are fantastic, I've never quite managed to be as good as her. She told me last week, it is because I am too impatient and don't MEASURE carefully. She's 81 and I hate to admit it, she's quite right!
We spent a lot of time in the African bush, camping is fun, I like to cook in cast iron pot/over the fire cooking...food always tastes so good eaten out in the open.
I can quite happily cook, bake and BBQ now if we loose power after a hurricane. Coals do not phase me at all.
After high school I trained as a draughtsman in land survey (no women in those days)
I also attended a cooking school, gained a few diplomas, also did as many different ethnic courses as possible where-ever they were held.
Some were for a few months and some were a few hours....Indian/advanced, Chinese/advanced, Greek/Mediterranian/Italian, Morroccan and an American cuisine course which covered hamburgers, pickled eggs and things set in jellies if I remember correctly (back in the late 70's.)
I took baking, fish, meat and veggie courses.
All of these courses showed me how I could diversify when we used fresh ingredients we fished, picked or shot ourselves.
Magazines were fantastic sources for recipes, I had plenty for the children to cut and paste with too.
I started collecting recipe books. A wonderful source as so many know.
During this time I gave cooking courses at home. I taught children and gave courses to servants who wanted to learn to be the cook in the house.
I also loved entertaining at home for big groups and small, often trying out dishes on my guests for the first time (glad to say there were few disasters but those were really bad ones when they happened LOL!)
I started doing some outside catering too but time was a big factor I didn't have as I was into having a landscape gardening business by this time.
Then we decided to build a yacht and go cruising and so I took a chefs course for "cooking at sea". This included storing and using dehydrated and dried foods, canned stuff etc....
Once cruising I started working as a chef on various yachts over a period of ten years and in between doing various catering jobs. I liked the welcoming parties the best, those that had finger foods, lots of flowers on the table and rum punch fountains!
Every country we've sailed to I try to go to cooking classes or learn from the locals.
My favourite was Brazil, there I learnt to make the gadget to scrape fresh coconut and to use the coconut, also learnt to cook with very different ingredients...LOVE Brazilian foods. But never mastered climbing the palm tree to get the coconuts, darn!
Now-a-days I mostly entertain, at least once a week, anywhere from 6 to 20 plus guests. I don't follow strict rules of what to eat/serve or drink unless I'm doing a theme. I just cook according to taste buds...right or wrong..... everyone seem to come back for more, using what's fresh, in season or available.
We are so lucky to get prolly the largest variety of fresh produced all year round from all over the world, the real thing.
If, for instance avos are not in season from the North then we get those that are in season from the South!
Asian cuisine......Indian, Thai, Vietnamese etc are what I seem to do mostly these days.
It's all just such fun.
I guess I live to cook (and eat)
And then I have those days where I just don't want to enter the kitchen, like tonight....my mind is a blank.
I have eggs, tomatoes, long beans, bok choy, pawpaw, herbs from the garden??????
OK, it'll be scrambled eggs, asparagus and baked tomatoes. Simple is VERY good too.
hand on a white painted chair. Mum was keeping me occupied with scrambled egg making, sometimes I did the porridge..oats, until I got a big splat on my cheek, which put me off for a bit.
We lived in Africa and I used to go out to the servants 1/4s in the afternoon when they were starting to gather the food in their cast iron pots that they would cook over open fires. I loved the smell and camaradie that went into the preparation of these meals...
Later my grandparents had a farm on the banks of a river (their retirement) they grew corn which we picked (if the hippos hadn't got into the meilie lands and flattened everything first)and I picked mushrooms, milked cows, gathered eggs etc and then joined the adults in preparing and, more importantly, eating all these wonderful fresh, fresh foods.
This also started me on the gardening/landscaping life I love so much.
I did Home Ec in high school and the class was told often that there was only one girl in the whole school who obviously HAD to help prepare food in her family, as SHE could peel potatoes! This always made me feel very odd man out as we all came from the same sort of background with many servants, including a cook.
I also went to art school from a young age and as far as I'm concerned art, design, colour is life, it's there on paper, in landscaping, in table setting, in cooking and plating.
I just loved to prepare, plate and of course eat.
All through my school years I went to as many vacation cooking courses for the young as I could.
Saturdays were special, it was Dad's turn to shine, he usually made lunch. He was the adventurous one, loved curries and using strange ingredients much to our cook's dismay. He would go to "buy cigars" and come back with outlandish and very expensive things from the fancy supermarket down the road....it was the fore-runner of the deli's of today.
Mum was the baker, still is. Her tarts, cakes and pies are fantastic, I've never quite managed to be as good as her. She told me last week, it is because I am too impatient and don't MEASURE carefully. She's 81 and I hate to admit it, she's quite right!
We spent a lot of time in the African bush, camping is fun, I like to cook in cast iron pot/over the fire cooking...food always tastes so good eaten out in the open.
I can quite happily cook, bake and BBQ now if we loose power after a hurricane. Coals do not phase me at all.
After high school I trained as a draughtsman in land survey (no women in those days)
I also attended a cooking school, gained a few diplomas, also did as many different ethnic courses as possible where-ever they were held.
Some were for a few months and some were a few hours....Indian/advanced, Chinese/advanced, Greek/Mediterranian/Italian, Morroccan and an American cuisine course which covered hamburgers, pickled eggs and things set in jellies if I remember correctly (back in the late 70's.)
I took baking, fish, meat and veggie courses.
All of these courses showed me how I could diversify when we used fresh ingredients we fished, picked or shot ourselves.
Magazines were fantastic sources for recipes, I had plenty for the children to cut and paste with too.
I started collecting recipe books. A wonderful source as so many know.
During this time I gave cooking courses at home. I taught children and gave courses to servants who wanted to learn to be the cook in the house.
I also loved entertaining at home for big groups and small, often trying out dishes on my guests for the first time (glad to say there were few disasters but those were really bad ones when they happened LOL!)
I started doing some outside catering too but time was a big factor I didn't have as I was into having a landscape gardening business by this time.
Then we decided to build a yacht and go cruising and so I took a chefs course for "cooking at sea". This included storing and using dehydrated and dried foods, canned stuff etc....
Once cruising I started working as a chef on various yachts over a period of ten years and in between doing various catering jobs. I liked the welcoming parties the best, those that had finger foods, lots of flowers on the table and rum punch fountains!
Every country we've sailed to I try to go to cooking classes or learn from the locals.
My favourite was Brazil, there I learnt to make the gadget to scrape fresh coconut and to use the coconut, also learnt to cook with very different ingredients...LOVE Brazilian foods. But never mastered climbing the palm tree to get the coconuts, darn!
Now-a-days I mostly entertain, at least once a week, anywhere from 6 to 20 plus guests. I don't follow strict rules of what to eat/serve or drink unless I'm doing a theme. I just cook according to taste buds...right or wrong..... everyone seem to come back for more, using what's fresh, in season or available.
We are so lucky to get prolly the largest variety of fresh produced all year round from all over the world, the real thing.
If, for instance avos are not in season from the North then we get those that are in season from the South!
Asian cuisine......Indian, Thai, Vietnamese etc are what I seem to do mostly these days.
It's all just such fun.
I guess I live to cook (and eat)
And then I have those days where I just don't want to enter the kitchen, like tonight....my mind is a blank.
I have eggs, tomatoes, long beans, bok choy, pawpaw, herbs from the garden??????
OK, it'll be scrambled eggs, asparagus and baked tomatoes. Simple is VERY good too.
Ok. I'm not very interesting, but love food tasting and cooking.
I guess after living in so many domestic cultures I have picked up many ideas. From my Mom, I have been given the idea/gift/weirdness of caseroules. From FL, fresh fresh fish off the docks with little or no preparement, so I focused on the sides.
From MA- I really miss the induvidual butcher shops fish shops or farmers markets.
From AZ, not much. I suppose the trip to MX for their version of shrimp coctail right out of the sea.
Here in TN I love the bbq, but would prefer the fish.
Uh oh- rambling again...
my edu is in Physical therapy and massage therapy.
My goal is somehting in food. Part time for now, but full time in the future. I have just not wanted to to the weekend and night hours.
And btw- it seems like we all are artists in our own way!!! i like that!
I guess after living in so many domestic cultures I have picked up many ideas. From my Mom, I have been given the idea/gift/weirdness of caseroules. From FL, fresh fresh fish off the docks with little or no preparement, so I focused on the sides.
From MA- I really miss the induvidual butcher shops fish shops or farmers markets.
From AZ, not much. I suppose the trip to MX for their version of shrimp coctail right out of the sea.
Here in TN I love the bbq, but would prefer the fish.
Uh oh- rambling again...
my edu is in Physical therapy and massage therapy.
My goal is somehting in food. Part time for now, but full time in the future. I have just not wanted to to the weekend and night hours.
And btw- it seems like we all are artists in our own way!!! i like that!
vicki-in-tucson
Well-known member
Absolutely--you have a unique story.
vicki-in-tucson
Well-known member
My mother is a fabulous cook, and taught me a lot; mostly, not to fear the kitchen.
She can pull a gourmet meal together out of nothing and two pans and a knife, whereas it took me forever to learn how to coordinate the vegetable, startch, and meat so that they were all ready at the same time. (If I have a dinner party with many dishes I have to write myself a little schedule to follow) Over the years, I've learned how to recognize good recipes (Michael in Phoenix's point) and have assembled a bunch of great recipes that I cook well. I really rely on my mother, and often call to ask for advice. I used to follow every recipe to the letter, but I've gotten much more comfortable tweaking things to taste.
I'm really in my element baking; cakes, in particular. When my job got really bad a couple of years ago, I fantasized about opening a business called "Dessert by Amanda" and selling my cakes and such. Didn't do anything about it, of course!
By day, I'm a freelance editor/writer (mostly educational materials). I think that's why I like baking so much--it's very precise and you have to follow the rules very closely. Editors are all about following the rules!
She can pull a gourmet meal together out of nothing and two pans and a knife, whereas it took me forever to learn how to coordinate the vegetable, startch, and meat so that they were all ready at the same time. (If I have a dinner party with many dishes I have to write myself a little schedule to follow) Over the years, I've learned how to recognize good recipes (Michael in Phoenix's point) and have assembled a bunch of great recipes that I cook well. I really rely on my mother, and often call to ask for advice. I used to follow every recipe to the letter, but I've gotten much more comfortable tweaking things to taste.
I'm really in my element baking; cakes, in particular. When my job got really bad a couple of years ago, I fantasized about opening a business called "Dessert by Amanda" and selling my cakes and such. Didn't do anything about it, of course!
By day, I'm a freelance editor/writer (mostly educational materials). I think that's why I like baking so much--it's very precise and you have to follow the rules very closely. Editors are all about following the rules!
vicki-in-tucson
Well-known member
Just saw punctuation typos in my email--some editor, huh? Oh well. I'm off duty!
I agree-it made me think about where my love of cooking comes from which of course brought me back
to growing up Italian in a 1st generation family in an Italian Boston neighborhood where, on Sundays, you could walk the streets and smell incredible aromas from nearly every house, not to mention the tiny bakery that was three houses away from mine and baked bread in big brick fire ovens. Traditions meant everything and Dad had his specialty meals - polenta with rabbit, saffron rice with chicken livers. With everyone in the kitchen and one of Mom's meals covering the table, there was no room to remember that perhaps this was not the most functional family in the world. Cooking, especially for others, certainly brings a satisfaction that goes beyond what's on the plate. I am more of a quantity cook than artistic - heaps of this and big bowls of that. My knowlege comes from practical hands-on but I collect cookbooks and read them all. And I love this forum for its contributions. The neighborhood has changed and I am grateful to have the memories that I do.
to growing up Italian in a 1st generation family in an Italian Boston neighborhood where, on Sundays, you could walk the streets and smell incredible aromas from nearly every house, not to mention the tiny bakery that was three houses away from mine and baked bread in big brick fire ovens. Traditions meant everything and Dad had his specialty meals - polenta with rabbit, saffron rice with chicken livers. With everyone in the kitchen and one of Mom's meals covering the table, there was no room to remember that perhaps this was not the most functional family in the world. Cooking, especially for others, certainly brings a satisfaction that goes beyond what's on the plate. I am more of a quantity cook than artistic - heaps of this and big bowls of that. My knowlege comes from practical hands-on but I collect cookbooks and read them all. And I love this forum for its contributions. The neighborhood has changed and I am grateful to have the memories that I do.
andreaindc
Well-known member
Yes - it's great to hear everyone's stories. Thanks.