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How many AudiogoNers are amateur chefs?

I know this is WAY off topic, but I am curious as to how many of you folks fancy yourselves as amateur chefs. I ask this as I just completed my first day of culinary school. This is not a school for training pros (we meet on Fridays for the day), but for those folks who want to become better cooks, learning to prepare menus, pairing foods and wines, etc. I still have my full-time profession, so this is for home.
slipknot1
swingman
30 posts
 
I'm another weekend stove jockey. Got into it mainly because I love to eat (too much?). Still relatively low on the skills curve, but I've been reading a lot and experimenting here and there.

My best stuff is Cajun: each year my wife and I put on a Mardi Gras party for 100-125 of our closest friends. We make jambalaya, red beans and rice, gumbo, and spicy boiled shrimp. I would put our food up against anything from anywhere outside of Louisiana. . . Now I'm working on learning the fancier stuff.

BTW, where's Trelja? I think he's a pretty experienced cook, if I remember right.
trelja
3,226 posts
 
There is only one hobby that supercedes audio for me, and that is food. My only regret in life is that I don't spend nearly as much time as I would like cooking or listening.

The passion that comes from really getting in to the moment of cooking is something that is practically without equal. It's a very ZEN kind of thing. Something where you are totally immersed in the moment, and the rest of the world becomes forgotten. I can't compare it to anything else, but I can correlate it to there being perhaps no higher means of showing someone you love them. You pour your heart, soul, love, and entire being into it.

Despite feeling this way, and having a lot of people in my family in the food business(hey, we're East Coast Italians!), I have always made it clear that it was never something I wanted to make a career of. I have always feared that mixing something one loves with work is a recipe to poison the well.

Good eats!!!
limomangus's avatar
limomangus
1,650 posts
 
Ever since I was a kid watch the Galloping Gourmet I was....eating, cooking ,drinking wine and listening to good music through a good system....
david12
1,454 posts
 

Amature, AMATURE, how dare you! Seriously, I do enjoy cooking, but it's tough if I don't, my wife and mother in law, who lives with us, are diabolical. The latter was a Professor in a catering school and she is just awful. A case of, if you can't do something, then teach it. How does it go on. If you can't teach, then teach teachers.

If you haven't tried it, try baking. Cakes are easy and always a welcome gift if you're invited to someone's house. Some of my favourite recipes are American, I'm English.The other thing is soups. I do love a good soup and if you've got a blender, couldn't be easier.

markpao
525 posts
 
I love to cook. What amazes me most about a lot of folks (I'm talking about going to friends or relatives for dinner or whatever) is that almost everyone overcooks everything. Beef cooked to 180, poultry to over 200, veggies cooked to mush. You cooks know what I'm talking about.
 I grilled some sirloins for my inlaws the other day, nice char on the outside, warm red in the center. They put theirs in the microwave for 15 minutes! Food cooked to the right temp is the ticket to amazing dishes.
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