Cooking Tips from Me (b/c they were sort of asked for)

Back story: This weekend I was asked by a friend to give him cooking lessons. First of all, this is weird to me because I'm still not confident in my own abilities to even say that I can cook (though my roommate insists on calling me a chef to everyone he introduces me too). At best I am cook, and at the moment a home cook. I work at a "fast-casual" restaurant for pete's sake and the most real cooking we do is putting a bag of preseasoned meat on a flattop grill and flip halfway through. I did however come to the conclusion that I have learned some things that have made my cooking 1,000 times better.

1) Salt and Pepper- Seasoning is everything. If you don't use salt and pepper your food will be bad. If you're following a recipe use the measurements for salt and pepper as a guideline not the law. Taste the food until its where you want it to be in terms of salt content. Personally, I prefer using coarse salt (not in a salt shaker) because it is easier to manage and see how much you have used. Also, coarse cracked pepper (in a grinder or not) is easier to deal with than a super fine ground pepper in a shaker.

2) Fat- Use it! It tastes good! Butter and cured pork (Bacon or otherwise) are staples.

*Note on butter; it has a low smoke point mix it with some oil in a pan and it wont burn so easy.
*Note on oil; a good EVOO is great if you're going to use it raw. If you are going to put it in a hot pan don't waste your money and use your cheap oil of choice.

3) Good Stuff- For the most part if you put good stuff in good stuff comes out, and the other way around, if you put sub par ingredients in you get a sub par end product. Fresh veg is awesome and fairly easy to find if you know where to look (in Greenville? check out the Boss Hog's parking lot on 14th).

4) Medium Heat- Grown men (and probably women) love fire and really hot fire but when cooking its usually not the way to go. Unless you're trying to boil water or quick seer meat (and some other stuff), bring the knob down a bit.

5) Acid- This I have not quite mastered yet, but according to Top Chef and top chef's the perfect dish is a balance between fats and acids. Sounds easy but it isn't. However, don't be afraid of citrus, vinegar, mustard, etc.

Watch this video and get some of the same stuff that I just said but from one of the best chefs in the world. http://blog.aveceric.com/category/videos This an easy recipe and he is a bad ass. Ignore the white pepper thing though, you're cooking at home not in a 4 star kitchen, and the taste isn't that different.


That's all I can think of. If I can think of anything else I'll let you know. If anyone else has anything to add or corrections, by all means.