Learning to cook, any recommendations?

TheBiz

I'm 21, so I have basic knowledge and I can cook the basics, following the instructions, that general idea.
That was my mother prepping me for college so I don't starve or have to rely on takeaways.

My mother was a chef/cook for many years, from running hospital kitchens, to small well regarded restaurants so I have a good mentor.

I want to learn French cuisine, I'd love to learn to cook haute cuisine and just really know how to cook and not just read the instructions off the packet.

How do I go about doing that?
I'm already in college for something unrelated so going to college for it is not feasible.

My mother said she'd help me out but she also works full time and doesn't really have the time to go through everything with me, most of our dinners are things that can be left basically unattended, or something my dad can throw in the oven.
I'd love to treat them to something when I really get to know what I'm actually doing.

Are there any books, series, online courses or anything of the sort you'd recommend, or just some general advice?

I can cook a stir fry, I can buy the veg cut it, buy the chicken cut it and add a stir in sauce.
But I want to make the sauce, try something new, or replicate something from a Michelin star restaurant to the best of my abilities.. not just get by on the basics.

Thanks.

L1011

The 'basic' (some are quite large) cookery course books from any of the older celeb chefs are decent. Darina Allen's or Delia Smith's would probably be the two best known; Delia appears to have some video content for it now - https://www.deliaonline.com/learn-to-cook

Commercial sauce jars are vastly sugar and salt based, should that specific attempt to replicate not impress you at first!

Muahahaha

TheBiz wrote: »

Are there any books, series, online courses or anything of the sort you'd recommend, or just some general advice?

Youtube is great for recipes and cooking demos, just search what you want to cook and lots of options will pop up.

But I want to make the sauce, try something new, or replicate something from a Michelin star restaurant to the best of my abilities.. not just get by on the basics.

Thanks.

There are cook books out there specifically aimed at Michelin level cooking. I cant recommend any as Ive never purchased but I know that chef Michel Roux is considered the godfather of sauces and his books have excellent recipes that also tell you which sauces match which foods the best.

As far as French sauces go there are whats known as the 5 Mother Sauces -bechamel, veloute, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato. Once you know how to make these 5 sauces you can then go on to create tons of other sauces, eg from a basic hollandaise sauce you can add ingredients to turn it into a dijon sauce or a bernaise sauce.

The 5 mother sauces can be time consuming to make though as a few of them call for creating stock from bones which means hours of sweating the bones in a stock pot. Bechamel is easiest as all it requires is milk, flour and butter and from that you can make a whole variety of white sauces and cheese sauces. Instead of spending hours making stocks you can cheat with stock powders but for really good sauces I would avoid the stock cubes on sale in the supermarkets and go with a product like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DX05G4Y/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_8?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1
Its a veal stock used by lots of chefs and professional kitchens to save time while still delivering an excellent sauce. I use it for port and brandy sauces and it gives it the sauce a great base to work with. Using a professional stock like that makes all the difference rather than the Knorr or Oxo cubes which are just packed with salt.

grahamor

Check out Felicity Cloake on the Guardian website. She has 2 columns and there are loads of great recipes to try -

Masterclass - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/felicity-cloake-s-masterclass

How to cook the perfect.. - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/how-to-cook-the-perfect

My personal favorite at the moment is the Chow Mein recipe - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/15/chow-mein-recipe-felicity-cloake