How well can you cook? Which of these 4 catagories applies to you?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
I have done it all from prep work to cooking for large parties.

Well you have a very big knife there. Makes sense.

originally posted by: intrepid
Well you have a very big knife there. Makes sense.

Hah. But can it core an apple?

a reply to: nonspecific

I'm a 4. I love to cook and experiment with foods and recipes. I like making my own food because then I know exactly what is in it. Once you get the hang of making something it becomes easier, as a chef I'm sure you know that.

My next food adventure is going to be yogurt. I can not stand the sweet wannabe yogurt that is in the stores, and it is becoming increasingly harder to find just plain yogurt.

originally posted by: 2manyholes
a reply to: nonspecific

I'm a 4. I love to cook and experiment with foods and recipes. I like making my own food because then I know exactly what is in it. Once you get the hang of making something it becomes easier, as a chef I'm sure you know that.

My next food adventure is going to be yogurt. I can not stand the sweet wannabe yogurt that is in the stores, and it is becoming increasingly harder to find just plain yogurt.

try soy yogurt, its pretty easy to make and pretty similar i taste.

Commercial yogurt is often rammed full of sugar so as to offer low fat benefits.

I am basically a 3 with a walk in the 4 category when I want to find out if I can do more. It's just me and hubby so no more big meals and our tastes have changed and health problems limit lots of the 4 area (butter, lard, sweetbreads, salami, cracklins, cottage cheese, etc). It's not the cooking that bothers me so much, it is the clean up.

originally posted by: searching411
It's not the cooking that bothers me so much, it is the clean up.

It's all about soaking. Finished a sauce? Put the puppy in water. Hot or cold, doesn't matter...much. A little soaking takes a lot of time off of the clean up.

a reply to: nonspecific

I have my moments.

I can make cakes and breads from scratch, seasoning mixes for steaks and meats. If I make mashed potato, I always use actual potato rather than pre-packed, dried potato.

That said, a I am not above a quick fix when I need something that I can unwrap, consume, and forget. I like to stir fry also, although where creating pasta from scratch is concerned, I just do not have the option. Our kitchen space is limited as it is, and I do not think we could find a place to store the gear necessary for that.

However, I do like to make my own pie fillings and pastry.

The thing is that I am not the primary kitchen dweller in my home. My mother has always been quite territorial (although she would deny it) about some aspects of kitchen use, and her way of organising a kitchen makes me want to punch squirrels in the face. Its chaos in there.

I, therefore, get to use the full range of my creative instinct in the kitchen, very rarely. So I am capable, but at the same time out of practice. Depending on the situation, I can look like any one of the options you offer!

Put it this way though... Once, I staggered my mother on a Sunday. She had left some potato halves roasting in the oven while she visited with a neighbour, and wanted me to check them. When she called me to ask me to do so, I looked at them, and asked her if it would be alright if I just drizzled some olive oil onto them, followed by some freshly ground sea salt, as this would make the edges of the potato crisper. I dug out the mortar and pestle, ground up the salt flakes that we had in the cupboard, and did exactly that.

Those were some daaaaamned crispy, yummy roasties!

originally posted by: intrepid

originally posted by: searching411
It's not the cooking that bothers me so much, it is the clean up.

It's all about soaking. Finished a sauce? Put the puppy in water. Hot or cold, doesn't matter...much. A little soaking takes a lot of time off of the clean up.

Sometimes my dishes like to relax in the sink for 2 days soaking the current batch have been in there for about 27 hours

a reply to: nonspecific

I would rate myself a 3 but I am trying to work my way up to a 4. I am an avid cooking show fan. I admit to be a self professed lover of all things Alton Brown. It's the science combined with humor that does it for me. I admit to being a scnerd. (Science geek plus nerd) Or a Gneek. (Geek plus nerd) I'll admit I'm not all knowing all seeing, but when it comes to baking and cooking, I love the science aspect of it and when you combine it with my nerdiness, I'm so there. I live in a very tiny efficiency right now with no oven for the last 7 months. I only have 2 burners and a crock pot. It's in a campground area high in the mountains. It's not much, but I had less then 30 days to find the place, so considering my time constraints, it will do. I'm in the process of looking for another place, as I type, I've told everyone helping me look to make sure it has an oven. I miss baking homemade bagels, French bread and pretzels! The smells alone! Thanksgiving without my homemade Dutch Apple Walnut Pie just won't be the same, but I will hold a late Thanksgiving to make up for it. LOL

Once I do move though, I plan on making one major meal I have not had since my Nana passed in 1985. I'm desperate for it and I MUST have it! Lamb chops with mint jelly and Yorkshire pudding with garlic mashers and garlic green beans followed by chocolate cream pie and coconut cream pie. Yum! Every Christmas my Nana would make my Pop his boyhood meal that his mother made. He was British. The following day we would have her homemade Hungarian Goulash that her mother would make her as a girl. I've gotten lots of compliments on that! Everyone loves my Goulash, (Not that American macaroni crap!) but I've never attempted her lamb before. I'm very determined to try!

originally posted by: nonspecific
Fishfinger sandwiches are a secret guily pleasure of mine.

Crappy shop bought white bread, four across and one on top. My only addition is some shop bought tatar sauce and a big squish to bring it all together.

Don't feel bad, I'm a type 3, but my daughter loves nothing better than a good ole American Tuna fish, or PB&J now and then. And heck with it, no matter how refined we may like to think we are, I enjoy it too on occasion. LOL

a reply to: douglas5


I started out when I was about 6. If our sitters refused to make us something to eat, we went to bed hungry. After awhile cooking became self preservation. I remember standing on a chair next to the stove making box mac and cheese. It wasn't much, but it was food. When Summer came, I would beg to watch my grandmother cook in the kitchen. I ended up learning more from her, plus my other grandmother whom we'd visit as well. (One Italian, the other Hungarian.) My stepmother could burn water, but my father would run a restaurant should he so chose. We had the fire department come to our house 3 times growing up, all 3 times were because of my stepmother. Thankfully once, the fire chief lived next door and was able to put the fire out quickly with salt. One time she tried to heat oil up faster by putting a lid on the pan to fry fish in. As soon as she took the lid off the whole pan caught on fire. What does the dingbat do? Takes the flaming pan of oil dumps it in the sink and turns on the water as I'm telling her do NOT turn on the water! WHOOSH! go the curtains and our ceiling! Aye yie yie! Thankfully the whole house didn't burn down. My dad should have made her sign a contract promising never to cook again! LMAO

I'd say I'm midway between 2 & 3, so 2.5 in the sense that sure, I can mix things together and not poison anyone with food. I'm the only woman I know that can't stove fry or bake chicken, beef, pork, or fish without either overcooking or undercooking it. But I can season & roast a duck like a pro. From the first one I oven-baked on the rack with a pan under on the lower rack for drippings, I've never effed up a duck o.O Go figure that one out.
My eggs tend to be edible, if you like them dry. I haven't figured out that moisture retention thing.
If you don't mind burned or soggy roasted veggies, I can do that, too.
If you want a wheaty door stop loaf, or a hockey puck with your meal, I can get you set up. Try as I might, breads are a consistent fail for me no matter what I do.
If you don't mind burned rice or undercooked rice, I can do that, too.

I do have a few things I can do well that my husband considers miracles. I can actually make mashed potatoes from scratch and not have any undercooked bits. I can roast duck, mentioned above. And most amazingly, I can make flan. Flan. With all those eggs in it. Never failed that one, the first and all subsequent flans have always come out nearly perfect (always a hair too long in the oven, it's a finicky dessert)

It's a good thing my husband not only likes to cook, but can do it very well. The kids generally refuse to eat what I make, lol.

originally posted by: Nyiah
My eggs tend to be edible, if you like them dry. I haven't figured out that moisture retention thing.

Start by whisking two or three eggs with a few tablespoons of water, salt and pepper until frothy.

Heat butter in a skillet over medium-low until melted. Add eggs and allow to begin to set. Pull cooked eggs towards middle and allow uncooked eggs to move to edge. Cook until just set, stir once more and serve. Top with fresh herbs if desired.

It sounds counter intuitive but adding milk to eggs makes them watery and water makes them fluffy. The lower heat keeps them moist and not moving them around too much will also help make them fluffy.

originally posted by: nonspecific

originally posted by: intrepid

originally posted by: nugget1
I can bake desserts like nobodies business, though! Don't like dinner? Have more dessert!

Baking and cooking. Two unrelated processes that are linked. Sort of like Physics and math.

I agree, cooking is about love and experimentation. It is about time and adjustment and tweaking as you go.

Baking is about exact measurement, temperature and adherence to scientific method.

Totally agree, and it's funny, but in our house, I am the English Creative Writing degree, but I'm the big baker. My husband, on the other hand, is the scientist with dual degrees, and HE's the big cook and experimenter!

I used to be able to consider myself a near 4. Now I'm working back up to three. It's really frustrating some days and has severely messed with my desire to go play in the kitchen. I used to be able to root through a pantry and come up with just about anything, but once I was forced into this celiac diet, it all went downhill. I destroyed and threw away at least a couple of hundred dollars worth of food trying to make my own bread and other things from scratch.

I'm slowly learning the new techniques to make things come as close as normal as possible. It's really a matter of relearning the food science of new ingredients. I have had a lot of help from folks here actually with technique and substitutions. I have made sushi, mayo, and butter before, as well as most of my own sauces and dips. I catch and smoke and can my own fish and grow, harvest and store much of our food. We cheated a lot this summer though, I discovered Zatarans rice mixes are gluten free and they provided a quick base for an easy meal after being out and about all day.

I am a 3.

I have trouble making things from scratch. But my cooking list is pretty small, i try to make what i make better.

I pretty much modifiy food i already make.

Like Omlette with Hash brown together.

a reply to: woodsmom

For me, if i am eating any part of a grain, it is the gluten.

I am fairly sensitive to carbohydrates, although not like celiac. I know a guy with celiac. biggest rice eater i have ever met. He loved the stuff and would just eat plain, steamed rice for lunch on most days.

I get it. I love the taste of steamed jasmine rice, plain and sticky like its supposed to be.

i could live with celiac. I love corn and rice quite a bit.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It's the gluten that binds everything!! As a bread and pasta person, it has been interesting. I miss things like a good cheeseburger, but my honey brought me a pack of soft regular sized gluten free hamburger buns from the store just last night. He also brought me a couple of pounds of Angus. My local store just picked up a new line of items, and so far so good! I even got to have a real BLT last night before all of my tomatoes are gone.

Luckily we are also rice people, my husband actually prefers it, and many of my rice casseroles were safe or relatively easy to alter. I grew up in the corn fields of NE and will always be a corn girl too, except for tortillas, I'm still working on a substitute for those. I did make a passable batch of cheesy fishy crackers recently, they were even salmon shaped. Maybe it's time to attempt the tortillas.....

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: nonspecific
Can I ask if you were a real chef, I assume you where but I know a lot of chefs that I would call food heating and serving technicians.
It is a dying art in my opinion.

Yes. I started cooking in restaurants while I was still in high school and ran two of my own, along with my mother, for 13 years.

I have done it all from prep work to cooking for large parties.

My mother had a great little restaurant for years making everything in-house rather than buying in frozen she worked 16-18 hour days 7 days a week for years she did well .

For 20 years she was a manager of a Italian restaurant . Like you i learned plenty from making ice cream to every dish on the menu from the age of 7 on i went after school and by 12 was doing 50 hrs a week but now kids are not allowed to work part time much in the U.K .

Then a big supermarket [ Tesco ] came to town with a big store and business slumped as they put out food for peanuts to get at every small coffee shop or food outlet in the area , and it worked .

I bankrolled her for a year as the takings slumped 80 % staff and help was laid off to cut costs fast forward years and they now charge $ 3.50 for a cup of crap coffee and the food is real bad , i got a breakfast one morning and it arrived with beans ? and chips at 10 am .

I was going to take it over from her but she went and cancelled the lease of the restaurant saying it would be to hard to survive bang went my dream of running my little place as she sold off all the equipment before i knew about it .

Now all this little town has are empty shops due to the big supermarket everyone now avoids the restaurant but to start or survive here is almost impossible due to rent/rates that have skyrocketed and stupid health and safety rules .

what were your thoughts on running your own place in America

It's in my capacity to cook like a number 3. When I feel like it. But I prefer to cook like a 2. Just too lazy most of the time to cook a big meal from scratch for 7 people. Especially when the kids can be picky about certain foods.