Simple cooking is the best cooking. There, I said it for the 1000th time! No matter where I travel, no matter to whom I speak, those people and cultures that know good food say the same thing. In Paris, the spice store shared his incredibly simple secret to eating healthy, “Simple things are good things”.
In a fish market on Hawaii, the local fish monger advised me to cook my tuna very rare and very simply. “Only scare the fish with a fry pan, it will be Ono”, he said. Ono is “delicious” in Hawaiian.
From the pierogi at the Polish Festival in Riverhead, Long Island to the grass-fed beef rancher in Nebraska, they have all told me that the best ingredients, cooked simply yield the best results.
Yet, food TV shows will have you believe that elaborate meals are the only way to truly be considered a good cook. Few people have need of complicated dinners, most are just trying to provide interesting, flavorful meals for their families every night. Why would cookbooks and food TV want to make you feel as if your cooking were inadequate? So you’ll buy more cookbooks and watch more food TV!
When you discover just a few basic cooking methods, then you can break this cycle. Imagine the benefits you would enjoy if you stopped searching for recipes and avoided the influence of celebrity chefs who make you feel unworthy of a kitchen.
What if you were empowered with this concept of simple cooking? What if you could just choose items already in your pantry and improvise a delicious, nutritious, quick and easy meal every night of the week?
You would then begin to improve your lifestyle through food. You needn’t be on TV, nor need to write a cookbook to know what type of food YOU like. No celebrity chef or recipe author can tell you what you should be eating or how you should be cooking it. Only you can decide that.
Cook simply and you’ll enjoy the following benefits:
1) Freedom – You’ll gain freedom from written recipes and vague instructions that make it impossible to cook consistently. You’ll have the freedom to eat what you want, how you want it.
2) Confidence – Once you gain your freedom from others telling you how to cook, you’ll have the confidence to create your own recipes, using the ingredients you desire. Or, you can change any existing recipe to come out just like you want it to.
3) Health – With confidence comes a desire to cook new ingredients, more wholesome, fresh, farmer’s market ingredients. Once you discover simple cooking, you’ll want to try it out on items you were afraid to purchase before because you couldn’t find a recipe for the item.
4) Family - You’ll reunite your family over the dinner table. When they actually look forward to your cooking, when you enjoy preparing healthy meals with confidence, you’ll spend more time together. Also, cooking is a social skill. You’ll find yourself entertaining more, making friends and meeting new people.
5) Money - When cooking in your home moves from the living room as entertainment and back into the kitchen as art, you’ll save money. You’ll order less take-out food. You’ll purchase less convenience items and make better decisions at the grocery store. You’ll stop buying cookbooks. Simple cooking will save you money.
Something else I’ve said 1000 times is that cooking is an art. There is no other art form that comes with a strict set of instructions to follow. Your cooking should come from your heart, using basic cooking methods with the ingredients you and your family desire. Otherwise, you’re giving the responsibility of something as important as your health and nutrition to a guy on TV.
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Tags: simple cooking
"Chef Todd's style of teaching is great. It's funny and entertaining, while sharing a wealth of knowledge - knowledge that I haven't found anywhere else."
"I now have the confidence and ability to change recipes, using ingredients on hand."
"There is something here for everyone at every level of experience"
"Learning these cooking skills has actually saved me a lot of money overall."
"I now have more knowledge which has given me a lot of new ideas and enabled me to learn a lot of new dishes & new flavors."
"I am now Experimenting in the kitchen, trying new foods, and trying healthier foods."
"Chef Todd's cooking instruction has given me the quick tips I need to cook without a cookbook."
I have learned knife skills, lots of new techniques and now cook with confidence. Do it! Join up, You will love Chef Todd and his method of teaching and his funny additions.
"Before Web Cooking Classes, I considered myself an excellent cook. But now, I have more joy, confidence and pride when I prepare a dish. I have gained the ability make more tasty and more nutritional meals, and (most valuable) is the understanding of the hows and whys involved in cooking processes and ingredients."
“When I discovered Web Cooking Classes, I was an adequate cook, looking to eliminate the "Hit or Miss" factor in cooking. We used to eat out three times a week and now cook at home almost every night. We also entertain for friends at least once a week, and even our most mundane meals are improved through better cooking methods. Web Cooking Classes is a great investment and will change your life for the better."
“I liked to cook but lacked the confidence to experiment. Learning techniques in Web Cooking Classes changed all that and completely eliminated my stress over cooking. I now cook 5 to 10 times every week using the skills I learned from Chef Todd."
“When I discovered Web Cooking Classes, I was a total novice with one main goal: to be able to cook and serve up nice meals for my family. What I ended up with was confidence in the kitchen, which I didn’t have before. I used to panic! My cooking has increased 100% considering I did none previously. If you want to be able to cook nice meals for your family, and you are considering investing in Web Cooking Classes, I say, ‘go for it!’”
"Web Cooking Classes has eliminated the expense of cooking with recipes from my life. I now have confidence in my cooking, ability to think beyond the recipe and the skills to focus on cooking with what we have in the house, which is a big money saver. I have quit cooking with recipes, and have expanded my cooking repertoire by cooking at least 3-4 times per week, using what I've learned in the online course. I've already been telling friends about your course, and telling them the fun that cooking has become through structured success--and through freedom from recipes."
"I cook for myself and (cooking classes) made me want to cook more. I've always cooked, but it's more fun now...it gives you confidence...I feel much more at home in my own kitchen."
"I was already a good cook, but wanted to cook with flexibility, not having to rely on recipes, and being able to use whatever's in the kitchen. With Web Cooking Classes, I have learned basic knife skills, saute method, making pan sauces and so much more! I no longer need to look through tons of recipes to decide what to make to eat. This is a great price on culinary skills through videos that are fun and educational."
Since joining Web Cooking Classes, I am taking more risks to try new things and using only what is in my cupboard/fridge, which saves me money and time. I cook something new - made up in my own head - at least 2x / week now."
"I go to the store and look at the meats, and before, I didn't know a top round from a flank steak...now I can say 'yeah I know what to do...I want this piece of meat as opposed to that piece of meat and I know what to do with it...I can tell the difference between braising, broiling, sauteing..."
"Todd's style of teaching method versus recipes just changed the whole way I thought about cooking."
Leave A Reply 7 comments
Gerome Gotabigone
Wow, you cooked for 15,000 people at NSA? Were you the Executive Chef for the entire NSA campus?
cheftodd
Hey Gerome!
No, I was a "Chef/Manager" of one of the 9 cafeterias on the campus at the time. However, we were all required to report to the main kitchen each day after closing our individual units, and participate in production for the next day. Often, it was hundreds or thousands of chicken breasts. I remember one day making Lasagna in a mixer that 5 men could stand in. It was an incredible experience.
Debbie Holland
All of this is oh so true. I know I have certanly enjoyed getting away from frozen dinners and take outs and found that with your method teaching it does'nt take much time to cook fresh and nutritious meals. Even when I am too tired to cook. And I tastes so much better. God bless and thank you so much Chef Todd.
Debbie
cheftodd
Thank you for "getting it", Debbie! Too many people trade convenience for nutrition because of their fears of cooking. I can't blame them. Cookbooks and Food TV are confusing and make people feel inadequate in the kitchen. However, once you can internalize the basics of cooking, then all the benefits of fresh ingredients are yours....forever!
Chef Todd.
charlie
you and my (English) grandmother - both. No boiled cabbage at her house.
))
"How long do I cook it, Gran?" "Just 'til it's done, dear, don't spoil it by overcooking."
-- a very hands-off teacher, but boy did she teach me. Who needs the CIA!
Roasts, veg., pastries, bread, her own beer ! what else? if it was anything to eat or drink for a household of up to 10, she could do it - and she mad darn sure I could too.
(I still can, I think, and I'll be 70 in a couple of months
chas
cheftodd
It seems to me Charlie, that the best cooks are those who cooked with Grandma. No matter where I travel, or what cooking class I'm teaching, I can always tell the people who were introduced to the kitchen at a very young age. They are less tentative, and enjoy cooking so much more because it doesn't seem a chore. It seems like having fun with Grandma.
It's the best gift you can give the young ones.
I once had a women come to my cooking school with fears of the kitchen. She later explained that her mother always told her to "shoo, the kitchen is dangerous, you'll burn yourself..." when she was a child. Gee, I wonder why she has fear of the kitchen as an adult.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I have had an English Grandma as well, from Wimbledon, just passed at 102 last year. However, it was my German Grandfather who taught most of the cooking in the family.