I'm an excellent or horrible cooking teacher

[blissful]

I was teaching my 19 year old how to cut up a chicken. First I cut off the thigh leg and then wrastled the joint open and cut them apart. Then I wrastled the wing joint open and cut that off.

Then he starts in on the other side of the chicken. He was a little squeemish about the wrastling joints open part and I told him, you know, it's already dead, you can't really hurt it anymore. Then he cut off the wing and folded it.

We cut the back off (for soup) and went through all the cleanliness issues with chicken (sink, cutting instruments and cutting board) while cutting the breast up. He was good about using brute force to get through the bones in cutting up the breasts.

He's out there grilling chicken pieces now--first time ever. He has a sauce and basting brush and a thermometer to measure internal temperature.

I am in the family room giving him space. ALL OF A SUDDEN I hear something hit the patio window *CRASH CRASH* where he is grilling. I RUN out to see what is wrong!! Is it burning, he doesn't know what to do, there must be an emergency!!??

He says, nothing is wrong. He says two birds flew into the window. They must have been protesting our chicken grilling event.

I'm either an excellent teacher or a horrible micromanager for a teacher. How about you? Do you cook with people or teach cooking in your family or for work?

 

[Selkie]

...Do you cook with people or teach cooking in your family or for work?

My daughter, age 35, is a fair cook, and although I didn't teacher her much (she ate out a lot at Taco Bell or at the movie theatre where she worked while in high school), what little she did pick up has been useful to her, she says.

But my son, age 38 is a different story. He did enjoy learning to cook, and now has sixteen years experience in the restaurant industry, starting as a cook, but also went to on-line university and got his bachelor's degree and has now been a restaurant manager for a major chain for the past twelve years. He still takes his hand at the restaurant grill sometimes just because he likes to cook! He's also a hard-core BBQ griller at home, in Yuma, Arizona!!

They both make me proud!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I have only known one person who I could really work with in the kitchen. We could anticipate each others next move.

Now I usually explain what needs to be done and then get out of the way. If I hang around I get caught up in my way of doing things instead of letting the student come up with a system that works for them.

As long as we get the same result that is really all that matters.

 

[Andy M.]

Both my daughters call and email me regularly when they need help. I guess I do OK. They keep asking.

 

[babetoo]

same for me, both son and daughter are good cooks. i still get the odd question . i really didn't teach either one. they learned by watching me.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm the specialist in our family. Whether it's cooking or special diets. I do a lot of telephone and e-mail cooking.

 

[Claire]

I have three younger sisters and a multitude of nieces and nephews, all of whom have spent time in my kitchen(s). We live far apart right now, but it is not unusual at all to get a call or email from one of them on a quest for a dish or spice or other ingredient. The past two holiday seasons a couple of my sisters called and/or emailed for help with tourtiere; most recently my nephew wanted help to impress his girlfriend with an Afghani dish (he is a returning vet, and of all my nieces and nephews, is the most likely to try to cook something and call Auntie for help).

I take a lot of pride in the fact that I'm probably the cooking guru of the family. Mom's a great cook; but I have more experience in different cuisines and I just love it when they call me.

 

[buckytom]

i taught my wife how to make meatballs, she taught me how to drive stick. it's benn a silly story repeated in my family many times.

when i'd reminded her of this recently, she objected and for the first time said that was ridiculous about the meatballs.

apparently, i also never taught her how to grill chicken, make pan grilled asparagus, bake whole fish, or make piccata, or lobster boils, or linguini alla vongole, or pea soup, or clam chowder, or so on.

i think it's funny how some people, when they take something to their heart and make a recipe their own, forget their first few steps and who guided them.

i hope all of your students remember you for your part in their culinary life.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Tom mate your largess knows no domain, I have taught a lot of women to cook but I would never teach one to drive. I find alcohol to be a great aid for educating the unskilled in most things, after a good few scoops they all look like Monroe on an air vent and I dint give a damn if the meatball was Swedish, Italian,American, native American, Hungarian,welsh, English, jamaican, Asian or any other country that I indulged my then love of a juicy meatball
Blimey I forgot the beautiful Spanish Albondigas spicy fragrant and two in a sandwich is heaven.

 

[msmofet]

I was teaching my 19 year old how to cut up a chicken. First I cut off the thigh leg and then wrastled the joint open and cut them apart. Then I wrastled the wing joint open and cut that off.

Then he starts in on the other side of the chicken. He was a little squeemish about the wrastling joints open part and I told him, you know, it's already dead, you can't really hurt it anymore. Then he cut off the wing and folded it.

We cut the back off (for soup) and went through all the cleanliness issues with chicken (sink, cutting instruments and cutting board) while cutting the breast up. He was good about using brute force to get through the bones in cutting up the breasts.

He's out there grilling chicken pieces now--first time ever. He has a sauce and basting brush and a thermometer to measure internal temperature.

I am in the family room giving him space. ALL OF A SUDDEN I hear something hit the patio window *CRASH CRASH* where he is grilling. I RUN out to see what is wrong!! Is it burning, he doesn't know what to do, there must be an emergency!!??

He says, nothing is wrong. He says two birds flew into the window. They must have been protesting our chicken grilling event.

I'm either an excellent teacher or a horrible micromanager for a teacher. How about you? Do you cook with people or teach cooking in your family or for work?

ROTFL!!


My older DD told me I can never die!! I will have to cook forever!! I do the prepping, she fetches and stirs and does the spice corrections. She is learning cooking slowly BUT she has the complaining DOWN PAT!! LOL

 

[Claire]

Oh, the chicken and bird thing just hit my little gray cells. One Christmas we were in Lafayette, Louisiana, camping (for those who don't know, my DH and I spent 3 years on the road in a camper-trailer, looking for our next home). I'd decided to grill a duck. It was something I'd never cook inside the camper because they tend to be very smokey when the fat starts sizzling. We were on the shores of a small lake, and I thought we'd die laughing when every duck in the campground started to gather around my feet to watch the cooking process. We thought it might be a protest march, or maybe they thought it was a funeral pyre for one of their own?

 

[Selkie]

Oh, the chicken and bird thing just hit my little gray cells. One Christmas we were in Lafayette, Louisiana, camping (for those who don't know, my DH and I spent 3 years on the road in a camper-trailer, looking for our next home). I'd decided to grill a duck. It was something I'd never cook inside the camper because they tend to be very smokey when the fat starts sizzling. We were on the shores of a small lake, and I thought we'd die laughing when every duck in the campground started to gather around my feet to watch the cooking process. We thought it might be a protest march, or maybe they thought it was a funeral pyre for one of their own?

That's funny!

 

[Rocklobster]

I enjoy cooking with my kids. My son likes to cook and calls me frequently for advice. My youngest daughter isn't really interested in anything other than baking. Fair enough. We bake.

At work, as a kitchen manager, I have become very tired of training cooks. One of the things I don't enjoy about my job. One reason is the repetitive nature of it over the years. Another is the nature of the trade. It can be a very transient buisness, so you know many people you are training won't stick around. I hate to give up my hard earned experience and expertice to somebody who could care less. And, you can tell within a few days if they are into the job or just there for the paycheck.

 

[sparrowgrass]

My dear DIL watches me closely while I cook--and wouldn't ya know it, the last time she was here, everything flopped. My yeast was dead, so the pizza was flat, and I don't know what I did wrong with the tom kha, but it was not as tasty as I would have liked.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Oh, the chicken and bird thing just hit my little gray cells. One Christmas we were in Lafayette, Louisiana, camping (for those who don't know, my DH and I spent 3 years on the road in a camper-trailer, looking for our next home). I'd decided to grill a duck. It was something I'd never cook inside the camper because they tend to be very smokey when the fat starts sizzling. We were on the shores of a small lake, and I thought we'd die laughing when every duck in the campground started to gather around my feet to watch the cooking process. We thought it might be a protest march, or maybe they thought it was a funeral pyre for one of their own?

ROFL!!!

Cannibal ducks?

 

[blissful]

When I think back to my grandmothers' teaching me, or my mom, or friends, I remember the time we spent so very fondly. I doubt they were thinking, let's teach her this......we were just sharing time together to make a meal, and some history or heritage about it. I carry those memories with me every time I make those meals or share them with my boys, friends, or relatives.

Claire-funny duck story.

Rocklobster-maybe they don't appreciate you, those you train in your work.....but remember this. We (any of us) meet a new friend, we make a meal together and they say 'once I worked in this kitchen with Rocklobster, and I was taught how to do xyz this way and it's really good'. Or they say 'I once learned this very cool cooking trick/tip for making xyz, let me show you'.

You've touched many lives and although you may not hear the end of the story--how many people have been touched by your help--it still is happening. Your sharing has been passed down through those people to their friends, relatives and more.

In one kitchen I worked in, I prepped dozens of heads of lettuce, a certain way for salad, and a dozen chickens each day for the rotisserie. I was taught by a manager, Mr. Ummmm Something. The point is he gave me his best and I carry it with me to this day and I appreciated it, then and since then.

So, maybe, cooking with others is like a Random Act of Kindness (RAK) and it's a gift that gets repeated time after time as it is passed on.

 

[Andy M.]

ROFL!!!

Cannibal ducks?

Not cannibals, just attending an old friend's funeral.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Not cannibals, just attending an old friend's funeral.

Are you sure they weren't waiting for scraps

Maybe I read too much Gary Larsen.