For the "Culinary Challenged"

[licia]

I suppose we all see lapses in our training. My mom always cooked from scratch, but she did have 4 kids in 7 years so had quite a bit to do so our meals were nourishing, but not fancy. She never taught us "techniques" of cooking, etc. We just picked them up and I suppose that was about the way I taught my kids also. My dd is a very good cook, but much of what she does is entirely different than how I cook and my ds is a good cook also but sticks to basics mostly. Although as I think back - my cooking is vastly different than what my mom's was also - progress or not, we all learn along the way.

 

[luvs]

my Parents and Grandpa taught me some, but i learned so much of what i know on my own. Pap taught me how to cook w/out measuring and my Dad taught me to love foods of all sorts. one night we'd have beef and gravy and the next, lobsters, and then another we'd go out to eat, so i was exposed to many foods early on. hot peppers, pig's feet, blind robbins (those are fish), sardines, all by the time i'd started kidnergarton. i still don't like those pig's feet.
i had my first 4 cookbooks by the time i was 7 or 8 and was already in the kitchen creating my own recipes. my Parents just let me go in the kitchen, and i am so glad they did. i was a little kitchen queen by 9, and by 11 as adept with the hot oil and appliances and utensils ('cept for the knives- i just learned how to use a knife properly and wasn't so good at chopping as a kid) as any adult. i used to love to make fudge, lollipops, tempura, cakes, lemonade and fried eggs and potatoes. i fervently looked forward to when i could watch 'great chefs'.
i was born to be in the kitchen, i think.

 

[secretgarden]

Anyone have experience in the resturant business? I need help in getting a good menue together. I have four meat salads,two pasta salads, two vegtable and a fruit salad. I make everything from scrach and takes a while to get everything done. Would like to be able to talk to someone that I can get new ideas from. I's hard to find someone to help me since my resturant so small.

 

[ironchef]

Ask away. Please make sure that your questions are specific though and not just generalized so that we can help you better.

Also, read my response on this post:
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13203

 

[secretgarden]

Since I have been on this site for a short while I think I'm going to like it.