Food TV Won’t Teach You To Cook

Watching Food TV won’t teach you to cook. Perhaps you shouldn’t believe or attempt everything on your flat screen that’s designed for entertainment value, not educational value.

Neither will you learn to cook from a cookbook. Written recipes won’t teach you to cook any more than sheet music teaches you how to play piano.

However, with 5 basic skills, you can empower yourself past the advertising and written rules to cook the way you want, with what you want.

I consider the Food Network to be the MTV of food. MTV used to play music, now they’re entertainment about music. Food TV is entertainment about food; they don’t teach anyone HOW to cook.

Neither should there be any crying in cooking, unless you’re chopping onions. On Food TV reality shows, contestants CRY when their dishes come out. They’re crying because they could be ELIMINATED from the kitchen! What pressure!

Cooking is not crying. Cooking is not a competition. Cooking is an art form that everyone can interpret for themselves. You don’t have to cook like a celebrity chef, or imitate Martha Stewart to provide wholesome, nutritious, soul-satisfying food for your family.

If I ran The Food Network, I’d concentrate on 5 basic elements that will free all cooks from written recipes. Then again, if I did that I’d probably destroy Food TV itself. I’d be out of a job quickly when all the advertisers left because viewers were actually in their kitchens…cooking!

First, don’t trust recipes. They have inherent variables and flaws that make them impossible to duplicate. You are allowed to change recipes for your desire. Use them for inspiration if you’d like, but cook with the ingredients and in a fashion to your liking, not the authors.

Second, practice your knife skills. To use fresh ingredients in cooking, you’ll have to do some prep. Farmers market ingredients don’t come already cut-up in little glass dishes like on Food TV.

Third, understand the transfer of heat. A few basics in HOW cooking works, rather tha
WHAT you’ll be cooking will empower you to cook everything! The differences between direct and indirect heat, dry and moist cooking will make you a skilled home cook.

Fourth, stock your pantry. Have condiments and ingredients ready to become instant flavor profiles. Sautéing a chicken breast on the stove top can become an ethnic dish from Mexico if you add Salsa to the pan. It can be from Asia with some Soy Sauce, or India with jarred Masala.

Lastly, sauce-making is the key. If you can make a smooth, flavorful sauce, you can create an endless number of dishes. A great sauce will save a poorly cooked piece of meat, but the worst sauce will certainly ruin the best prepared items.

Write it down? Why would you ever have to write it down? When you use these five simple skills in combination, you can create a new dish every night. Just think of the extra cabinet space you now have where all the cookbooks used to be!

Why duplicate when you can create? Food TV wants you to keep watching Food TV, not actually learn HOW to cook. That’s my job.

See Chef Todd’s Video that explains Why Food TV http://www.norecipelifestyle.com/food-tv/cooking-basics doesn’t want you to learn to cook.