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| Lessons in the Culinary Arts |
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Making meals and
being a cook is two different things. For years, I used to slavishly
follow recipes but then I realized that isn't what cooking is about.
The culinary arts is knowing about blending ingredients and using different cooking methods. I still collect recipes but I can do my own experimenting. If I don't have ingredients, I know how to adapt with substitutes. There are a set of ingredients that you should never run out of. These are the ones that form the basis of the culinary arts you favor, whether they be cuisine from Mexico, Italy, Spain, China or wherever. For example, if you like cooking Indian food, you should never be without garam masala, the blend of spices we all know as curry. Learning by trial and error is a great teacher. You will make mistakes but it doesn't matter if you learn from them. If you prefer a more structured approach to the culinary arts, there are cookery classes available. I would like to go on one of those cookery vacations, perhaps to Italy. You combine a sightseeing vacation with learning cooking skills. I guess there is no excuse for not learning to cook these days. There has never been so many cookery books and articles in magazines. Today is the culture of the celebrity chef and there is an entire TV channel dedicated to the subject of food. We're told however, that a lot of us are watching the programs etc., but we're actually cooking less. Everyone is busy working and many people have stopped making meals from scratch. The culinary arts are being neglected in kitchens devoted to ready meals and processed food. To add to the problem, schools are not teaching the next generation about nutrition and how to cook proper meals. Being from the UK, I'm aware that British food has a bad reputation. It's true that we did tend to over boil vegetables and everything was a bit unadventurous. In my country's defense, I think that situation has much improved. The influence of the culinary arts from other countries and our desire to eat at restaurants more has educated us at last. I think the state of the British food scene has never been better. In addition to embracing the food from other lands, we recognize the culinary arts of our own traditions. We have some great dishes from the English regions, Scotland and Ireland too. We have simply re-learned how to present them properly. |
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