Where to start?

     Being the only southern boy on staff at a major ski resort, it was natural that any time that there was a “southern” menu for a party I was the one to work it. If there was a Tex-Mex, Bar-B-Que, or a Cajun menu to prepare it was sent my way. This was not just a stereotype it actually makes sense, who should know better a regional dish than one who grew up there and had been influenced by those cultures. 

     Who would you put in charge of a Lobster Boil, someone from Maine or someone from Possum lick Arkansas? That is not to say that there are not people all over the US who can’t put on the Q or do justice to good Tex-Mex, after all Rick Bayless has the widely successful Frontera Grill in Chicago and Bobby Flay (groan) is doing great Mexican food at the Mesa Grill in New York City. (Get a rope!)      

     So what’s the point?  You do not have to learn Classical French to learn to cook.  You don’t have to know French or Italian words to learn how to cook.  My granny could have cared less what a chiffinade is or what a paillard is because that woman could cook, and what she did was good old fashioned farmhouse fare.

     What you do need to do is start where you are. Get a good grasp on your local food and kick it up a notch. Learn the food that your family has been cooking all your life and figure out how you can dress it up.  You are going to cook with the tastes that you like anyway. My rib rub has southwest flavors and I put chipotle peppers in my marinades and dips. Start with the cuisine outside of your window and build from there.

     I’m going to give you the same advice that my first Chef gave me. Read cookbooks. Pay attention to the ingredients that they put together, the techniques that they utilize. Do they poach, do they sauté’, do they use a corn starch slurry or do they use a roux, is it home grown or is it upscale. Don’t just get cookbooks from the United States. Pick cookbooks from all around the world with different cuisines and figure out what kind of food you really like to cook. More importantly figure out what kinds of food you like to eat.

     There are about five cuisines that I love to eat and cook. That is not to say that I don’t like other cuisines but I gravitate to these five or six Cuisines. These cuisines range from Tex-Mex to Cajun, to Thai to Japanese, to Midwestern to Indian, and Italian. You have to see what kind of cooking interests you and after you figure that out study what those cultures and foods are about.

     This last part I can’t express enough. You need to buy yourself a few books that are just on the basics. You need cookbooks that are going to serve as your go to books when you need to know basic recipes. Not only will you not have to reinvent the wheel when you need a basic pasta dough recipe, but you can go to these sources when you need an idea of something to cook.  

     You can tell my go to books because they are the dirtiest and dog eared books on my shelf. My other cookbooks are clean and in amazing shape because they never see the inside of my kitchen but my go to books are coffee stained and flour dusty not to mention usually held together with Duct Tape where the bindings are coming loose. I would not give for any of these books.

     Start where you are, at whatever skill level you are currently. Read a few cook books; find out the kind of food you really like. Eat as many different foods that you can get a hold of, and pick a couple of cuisines to study.  Just start cooking...