In a rough economic climate like this one, almost everyone is looking for ways to cut back on their spending while creating a platform for a better tomorrow. While for some people, this means going to culinary school to learn a new trade, others may be looking for a bigger shortcut – even going so far as relying on cookbooks and popular cooking shows in place of formal training.
Unfortunately, self-taught skills can rarely rival what you learn in a real kitchen or culinary training facility – particularly when it comes to landing a job. But that doesn’t mean there is no value in getting into the kitchen and learning what you can.
Adages like “trial and error” and “practice makes perfect” often turn out to be true, and you can develop quite a few skills (and learn about yourself) by learning what you can, however you can.
Basic Techniques: Cooking shows have an advantage over cookbooks in that you can actually watch someone performing the techniques you want to learn. Basic tasks like dicing, mincing, and sauteeing can be learned at home, but it may take you a bit longer to get things down right, and even then, you might learn a shorthanded way rather than the “real” process. As long as you perform your tasks safely and with enough speed and accuracy to meet your goals, this process can work just fine.
Measuring Progress: Culinary courses are designed to build on skills in a progressive manner. Many of them start with knife skills and then move up through courses like salads, soups, main dishes, and pastries. When you learn from television shows or cookbooks, you might be missing a few integral skills before you move on, which can make for complications further on down the road.
Relying on Taste: When you cook at home by yourself, there are few measuring sticks for quality other than your tastebuds and the tastebuds of your culinary volunteers. While this can be a setback if you have a narrow palate, it does require you to step back and critique your own work – which is an important step for any budding chef.
If you do plan on going to “culinary school” via your favorite recipe shows, make sure you have a VCR or DVR on hand. These shows tend to condense a few hours worth of work into 30 minutes, so you’ll need to pause, stop, and rewind as necessary.
It’s also a good idea to remember that you can always complement this kind of self-taught approach with one or two basic culinary courses as a way to get a good mix of skills development and more in-depth recipe work.
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