Next Step Chef

[parag81]

Hello all,

To start of I would like to tell you a little about my history. I went to Culinary school in Denver for about 6 months and had to quit for family reasons. I learned preliminary techniques, such as cuts and knife skills. Also, vegetable dishes, rouxs, so forth. Only experience I have is as a chef in an Indian restaurant where I ran the kitchen on my own. 2 employees plus one in the front of the house. I did a little purchasing but not meat or seafood. I was able to come up with my own recipes in that restaurant because of it being Indian. I am ofcourse indian so it came easy to me.

Now my question or help request is how to advance to becoming a non-recipe dependent chef. If I cook anything besides Indian I need recipes. My food comes out great; I even adjust recipes if needed but don't know how to not rely on them. I understand techniques fine but not capable of creating a dish on my own. If there is a book or any other way besides going back to school to learn this...that would be great.

[Fincher]

what do you mean you can't? sure you can!

It just takes practice, and trusting your own tastes.

Try making a salsa from Tomatoes, onion, cilantro, cucumber and lime juice. Just use your base intuition and let your taste guide you. There is no need to go looking up a recipe for how many tomatoes, onions etc..

Once you mastered the above try it with other applications.

also know your taste balances, fat balances out acid (example adding lemon juice to hollondaise)

Sugar balances out sweet (example cocoa and sugar to make choclate)

sweet also balances out acid ( bbq sauce, gastriques, lots of asian cooking)

You can use the ideas above to help you,,, if your making a bbq sauce and your using lots of vinegar sugar etc.. and when you taste it the flavor is too acidic you know to add more sugar.

Learning to salt is also key. always add salt until you can taste it, then take the last teaspoon out. This of course is a joke, but the principle idea is sound. Salt shouldn't be blatently perceptible unless thats the desired result. Salty crips bacon or proscuito for instance) It should enhance the food and be just
fainly perceptible. I taught a kid to season by making him season a gallon of soup. I first took out two cups of soup then made him season the rest until he could taste the salt. Then I added the other two cups back in, and the soup was nicely seasoned. By tasting the various stages he learned how to season, what wasn't enough and what was too much.

[justwingit]

For most applications the only time I really use/need a resipe is when I am working the pastry section as its very specific.

As for taste/flavour combos, start off with what you like, and take it from there.

Practice techniques, make things you would never even dream of trying. Recipes are only instructions, you can simplify them to suit, then as your confidence grows, you'll find you will need them less and less!

Hope this helps

Tom

[Derek Cooks]

Paraq81, you might get a copy of "Culinary Artistry" - which suggests all kinds of flavor pairings. It would a good starting point. Then, as Fincher says, experiment and trial and error. Or, as I say, "play with your food." And have some confidence. The great thing about this business is that you get to eat your mistakes....

[Fincher]

I once knew a great guy who always went around saying "play with your food" now who was that guy?...

[parag81]

thank you everyone for the advice. I have been starting to cook with random ideas...lets see how it works out.

[PeelingShallots]

You have a foundation in one of the worlds greatest cuisines. Indian food is awesome there is no reason you can't improve on it and refine it into fine dining. Remember fine dining is attention to detail. You should know how to use a lot of diffrent spices and flavor combinations other chefs from other cuisines don't know. Maybe if you took a job at a french bistro or staged at one you could learn another cuisine as a spring board. I know a lot of cooks with backgrounds from vietnemese, french, and italian food that just use what they know to work.Build on what you know with the new and try to get better and more refined. Never forget India is home to some of the best food on the planet.

[justwingit]

Too true, just had butter chicken for dinner...hmmmmmm

nan, red pepper basmati and red pepper-mango chutney!
lots of mirco brewery pilsner!

Tom