Just finished watching an episode of “Worst Cooks in America” on Food Network. In my amazement at how epically bad some of these folks were, I realized that I can pinpoint specific things that have helped me with my cooking knowledge and technique. I won’t say I’m the “Best Cook in America”, but I think I do a pretty good job.
It all started with the fact that I got home from school probably about an hour before the rest of my family rolled in. That gave me an opportunity to make myself creative snacks. In the early days, I wasn’t allowed to use the microwave, stove or oven when no one was home. But I was allowed to use the toaster. I clearly remember “inventing” the toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich (2 slices of toasted and buttered Home Pride Butter Top Wheat, Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter, and Smucker’s Elderberry Jelly). I sometimes would pretend I was hosting a cooking show while preparing this delicious dish.
By the time I was in high school, after having some tutoring from my grandma, mom and dad, I graduated to full appliance privileges and used to start dinner in the evenings. Around that time I became obsessed with collecting recipes from magazines and food labels, and was given the opportunity to try some of them out. With success I might add. I also took a semester of “Culinary Arts” in high school. More of a survey class…not too in depth because we had a very short class period, but it was helpful.
While dating my husband George in college we experimented quite a bit with cooking together, which was a really good jolt forward because I had a second brain helping me out, both failing and succeeding along side me. We went through a Chinese Food phase. Decided we wanted to make a couple of things for a New Year’s Eve dinner. Turned out so well that we cooked Chinese for my family for New Year’s the next year, and repeated the tradition for quite a few years after that.
I discovered Cooking Light Magazine my senior year of college, and used it almost exclusively for the first couple of years George and I were married. Until I discovered Williams-Sonoma. From Soy Margarine to European Style Butter in the blink of an eye! That’s when I discovered 2 things.
1) Though we had an exquisite set of All-Clad cookware, we were still low on cooking tools, and
2) I was the PICKIEST AND LEAST ADVENTUROUS COOK IN AMERICA. I went as far as to alter recipes by taking out ingredients I decided I didn’t like. i.e. onions, peppers…whatever. After a while, no matter what magazine or cook book I worked from, EVERYTHING TASTED THE SAME.
So slowly but surely over the years I began to make things as recommended by the recipe regardless of my prejudices. That plus the fact that George and I had assembled quite a collection of cooking tools like cast iron, thermometers, a scale, a food processor, various spatulas, additional All-Clad, etc., allowed my pallet to mature at an incredibly accelerated rate.
My last growth spurt, that started about 5 years ago or so I credit completely to Mario Batali, Alton Brown, and America’s Test Kitchen. When following the recipes for Battali and ATK, I have never had a bad dish. I have not had all of Alton’s recipes turn out the way I want them, but he is on my list because of what he, Mario and ATK gave me, which is better than recipe that I can find.
TECHNIQUE.
I have learned so much about the art and science of cooking from these folks that I find myself pulling some of my favorite Cooking Light and Williams-Sonoma recipes out and making them better than ever. And in the past couple of years, I have even started to finally have the confidence to cook completely on the fly. My time at my local farmer’s market the past couple of summers allowed me to put that new skill to work 🙂
So tonight I made a pan of Chicken Marsala (using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe…Cook’s being the magazine from which ATK was born) for a friend who is making her triumphant return to the office after knee replacement surgery. This is the very first time I have ever made the dish, so I’m crossing my fingers. If it’s good, I bought double the ingredients so I can make it for home.
If not, I need to create an inventive NEW dish using chicken breasts, pancetta, and mushrooms. Hmmmmm…..
xo
en