The Picky Gourmet Gets Schooled

Hi ho, Picky Gourmet here (Kermit the frog style.) Those of you who know me in real life have surely heard (incessantly) about the fact that I enrolled in a professional series at a local cooking school. Those who don't know me in real life are hearing it now! In September I started a 20 week course outlining the basics of professional cooking in the traditional french style.  There are 12 students in the class, all of them sweet, smart and supportive and a teacher and a teacher's aide. The class meets once a week for about four hours and I LOVE it. It's given me new confidence in my cooking.

My teacher is a tough cookie but she has imparted so much knowledge and, even more importantly she has hammered home the concept that there are some rules to cooking but there really are no exact recipes (we're talking cooking here, not baking. Let's not go crazy), the trick to cooking is to make it taste good and if the recipe says 350 degrees for 40 minutes and it comes out burnt, cook it less or at a lower temp! If the recipe calls for an 1/8 tsp of salt and that doesn't bring out the flavor, add more! Breaking free from following a recipe to a tee, separated the cooks from the chefs. And I want to be a chef when I grow up! SO without further ado I would like to unveil my NEW blog (don't worry, this one isn't going anywhere.) If you'd like to glean some of the recipes and know-how I've absorbed in class, visit http://pickyggetsschooled.blogspot.com/

I hope to see you there!