Picture this. A budding chef, determined to make a nice desert for Sunday supper. At the ripe old age of eleven she had already mastered the fine art of making a Betty Crocker cake and had even ventured as far as making cream puffs, but this desert had to be special. So while her parents were off visiting with friends, she ventured into the kitchen armed with a recipe for orange meringue pie. With fierce determination she followed the recipe, step by step.
First, the crust. Done. Check.
Next, the orange filling. Mix. Taste. Perfect.
Finally, the meringue. As she began to mix up the ingredients her know-it-all older brother sauntered in and leaned against the counter.
“What are you going to do with that electric beater?” he asked.
Now our chef at this point in life, figured big brother may actually know more than she, so she explained how she was going to whip the meringue.
“Oh no!” he exclaimed. He told her that using the electric mixer would ruin it. He even pointed out in the recipe where it said mix, but nowhere did it say with an eclectic mixer. After much debate she relented, after all he was three years older and therefore had to be smarter right?
So using a wooden spoon she mixed and mixed and mixed. There were no stiff pikes in the bowl, but perhaps those came when she cooked it. Having convinced herself that all would be fine she poured the eggy substance over the orange filling and popped into the oven and watched anxiously to see if the top would puff.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the outcome of this story. The meringue topping never emerged and what did come out of the oven tasted a bit like orange flavored fried eggs that sadly only the family dog and the chef’s four-year old brother would eat. Disheartened, the young chef did not pick up a wooden spoon again for many, many years.
I share this story of one of my biggest culinary failures with you to make you understand that not everyone is born as natural chef. Even Julia Child had to go to school to learn, but you do not need a formal education to learn to cook. You don’t even need a fancy kitchen filled with tons of kitchen gizmos. What you need, is for something to spark your inner culinary genius.
For me that spark was love. First it was the love of a man, and then it was the love of food.
In order to try to dazzle him with my culinary skills I turned to the grandmother of one of my friends. Nona, as known to close friends and family was more than happy to have me in her kitchen and she taught me the basics of Italian cooking. She showed me how to make a tomato sauce that made your mouth sing but took all day to cook, and how to make pasta and gnocchi from scratch.
Having Nona, as mentor was the experience of a lifetime, she kept me motivated with her stories about her learning experiences. She instilled me with a great respect for the art of cooking and helped me to appreciate how cooking can bond generations of families together.
The problem was, I was a young adult with lots of things to do and places to be and found that Nona’s style of cooking didn’t work in my life. So, except for special occasions I rarely cooked more than a quick macaroni and cheese dish, or something equally unimpressive. But, the passion had been sparked so over the years I dabbled with different cooking styles and cuisines.
Years passed, the man was gone but my love of good food remained. I continued to hone my cooking skills and often turned my family into my test subjects. Through trial and error I learned what things worked well together and what things should never, ever be mixed. I poured over cookbooks, learning all about the basics of foods I loved, and was eventually able to tweak recipes I read to be even better, or to recreate dishes I had at favorite restaurants.
By finding this love of cooking I was able to give elaborate dinner parties and cook huge holiday meals for friends and family. I became a co-owner in Il Primo restaurant and evidentially opened The Kitchen Gnome, a personal chef service.
Today, I typically cook Italian or Mexican foods for my family because I found that style of cooking best fits in with my lifestyle. Finding the style that works best for you is key in learning and progressing in your cooking skills. If you don’t like to eat gourmet food why would you lean to make it?
So for those of you out there, who believe that they cannot cook, give up the negative thoughts. Find your spark, experiment, have fun and remember that even experienced chefs sometimes cook turkeys upside down or make scrambled egg pies.
