- Eat well. You got to have a good taste and appetite, if you want to cook well. Try different cuisines and dishes.
- Spend time in the kitchens of other people. Watch them cook. You will learn a lot about the process and techniques of cooking, even if you don't learn specific recipes.
- First learn to make just one or two dishes. Let it be a staple and simple dish. Let it be a main dish, meaning something which can be served as part of the main course or the main course itself. I don't recommend learning to make an appetizer or any other minor dish first. We may or may not make appetizers and other minor dishes often. But if it is a simple, staple dish, the chances are good that we will make it often.
- Once you have learnt one or two main dishes, make them often. Make them for yourself, make them for others. Become an expert in making those dishes. Try small variations in them.
- Gradually add other main dishes to your repertoire.
- Once you have learnt to make at least 5-6 main dishes, expand your repertoire by learning to make other parts of a full-course meal, such as appetizers, soups, side dishes, desserts, etc.
- Cook for others. I can never stress this enough. Cook for a gathering of friends. Take a dish to potluck parties. Invite people over for meals and cook for them. Cooking for others is the only way for you to graduate from being a barely okay cook to a good cook.
- Last but not least, enjoy the whole process.
I do believe that cooking is an art. Like all arts, some people have an inherent talent for it, and some people don't. And like all arts, regardless of what your talent level is, if you enjoy it enough and practice enough, you can learn to do it well enough to enjoy your creations by yourself and with close family/friends.
Related: Two-Minute Cooking School: Prospectus
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This is really nice..U seem to be a motivator. Hey just asking u wht r u'r whereabouts in Bangalore. Some bangi connection "Sumne!"...I stopped by your blog n read many posts including your trip to Bangalore n the weekly tabs..it was around the same time I left to US....
ReplyDeletehey AS,
ReplyDeleteLooks like I am bumping into a bunch o CHites recently.
Anyways, so are you open to try some other 2 minute recipes not crafted by you? :-)
rads - Of course, I am always open to try new stuff. None of the recipes I post are actually "crafted" or invented by me. I just learn, try out and post.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to mention that your first suggestion of "Eat well" doesn't necessarily have anything to do with building a taste for good food. I know people who can eat well but don't have the aptitude for good tastes whatsoever. They can't even tell if a dish like dal (assuming it is consumed on a daily basis) on a particular day has more salt than usual or less. Hence, building the aptitude is dependent on something else - what, even I don't know. Maybe it just is an art.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteYou are confusing qualitative and quantitative nature of my suggestion. When I said "eat well", I barely meant "eat a lot"! :-)
LL
That't not what I meant either. These people eat all kinds of cuisines at all kinds of places, but can't for the love of god understand taste. I suspect they might eat at all the places just to feel "cool" that they visit happening places. Haven't you come across people like these?
ReplyDelete