Catering & Hospitality Section
"Have you ever followed a recipe exactly, only to be disappointed it did not turn out how you expected?" Now you can follow any recipe, and cook the food to perfection, creating the most delicious meals. Amaze your family and friends with your new found professional cooking skills. You will be able to give advice and answer peoples culinary questions with confidence. Common Sense Guide to Cooking Series 39 Individual Presentations Packed with Expert Knowledge & Guidance This is a must for any person who is passionate about food, whether you are looking to gain skills as a professional or simply improve your personal knowledge & skills. Learn to cook using your judgment of Touch, Taste, Smell, Vision & Sound. Thats right, your Common Sense's. Never rely on Recipe Guidelines Again. What makes these cookery books different?
Easy, by purchasing, you will have opportunity to develop your cooking skills to a professional level. You will find information in these books that has previously only been available to people going through catering college. When you learn to cook with judgment, you will be able to cook with most recipes, even poorly written ones. You will be able to see what might be wrong with a new recipe before you try it and to make
adjustments in it. You will know how to substitute ingredients or use different equipment. You will even be able to create new recipes. What is a recipe?
A recipe is a set of instructions for producing a certain dish. In spite of their importance, written recipes have many limitations. No matter how detailed a recipe may be, it assumes you already have certain knowledge, that you understand the terminology it uses. No written recipe can be 100% accurate. What makes a great cook?
Many people believe that learning to cook means simply learning recipes. Knowledgeable cooks, on the other hand, are able to prepare food without written recipes, if they have to, because they have a good understanding of basic principles and techniques. A recipe is a way of applying basic techniques to specific ingredients. With the Common Sense Guide to Cooking Series you will learn techniques and procedures you can apply to any recipe. The purpose of this series of presentations is not to teach you how to cook without recipes, however, but to understand the recipes you use. Some recipes supply very little information, and some supply a great deal. But no matter how detailed it is, a written recipe can’t tell you everything, and some judgement by the cook is always required. There are several reasons for this: 1. Food ingredients are natural products. One tomato may be riper than another, one carrot more tender or sweeter than another, one oyster saltier than another. Such variations may affect how the ingredients are handled, how long they are cooked, what proportions are needed, and how much seasoning is required. 2. Kitchens do not have the same equipment. Different pans distribute heat at different rates. Different broilers heat to different temperatures. Liquid evaporates from wide pots faster than from tall, narrow ones, and so on. 3. It is impossible to give exact instructions for many processes. How do you set the burner if the instructions say “Cook over medium heat”? How thick is a “thick” sauce? How long do you broil a rare steak? 4. What are the cooking times? Most of the recipes do not give exact cooking times, except as general guidelines to help you plan the meal. This is because cooking times are too variable to be stated exactly. I know of cooks that have followed recipe instructions exactly, only to find the item burnt, overcooked dry etc. because the oven they use is simply different to the one used by the recipe author. With this series, you will learn how to test for doneness by observing changes in the product. You will be able to judge when a product has reached the right temperature, the proper texture or consistency, or the desired taste. When you make a recipe for the first time, you will be able to apply your knowledge and thinking about the recipe in relation to the skills you have learned. In particular, you will be able to determine the following points:
What are the basic cooking methods? What are the characteristics of the ingredients? Is it lean or fatty? Tough or tender? How do these traits affect cooking?” What are the functions of the ingredients? What about the vegetables? With this set of presentations, you will be able to easily answer these questions, and lots more. You will know what ingredients contribute to flavor, to texture, or to body, and how they do it. This presentation is a must for any person who is passionate about food, whether you are looking to gain skills as a professional or simply improve your personal knowledge & skills. They have been developed by industry professionals, which mean they contain the most relevant information to help you achieve your maximum potential. Remember, with the Common Sense Guide to Cooking you are not just learning a collection of recipes; you are learning to cook and to understand what you are cooking. No matter how carefully a recipe is written, the judgment of the cook is still the most important factor in making any meal turn out well. |