Where can I learn to prepare fancy meals?

Question

I've never been to high-end restaurants ($50-100/person) until this past year due to some business dinners. The food and beverages were incredible. They looked great AND tasted great - yet I couldn't even pronouce half the stuff on the menu.

What are some good websites to visit so I can get receipes/instructions to prepare some of my own meals like the ones you find in a high end restaurant? For example, I'd love to be able to prepare a salmon dinner - but I have no idea how to prepare the salmon or what sides to serve it with.

Also, where can I find reciepes for making fancy drinks (non-alcoholic)? I had a drink a few months ago and it tasted very good. It was fruity, carbonated, and had little bits of green herbs/spices/or something or other floating around in it. It was not soda.

Answer 1

I am a chef, and I tutor both kids and adults. I highly recommend a magazine called Cook's Illustrated. I know they have a website where you can access their material, but I subscribe to the magazine (easier to have a magazine in the kitchen than a computer). They take recipes apart, step by step, and explain WHY this ingredient works with that ingredient, etc. They are very thorough, and they give you a much deeper understanding of foods/recipes that you thought you were already familiar with.

Other people have already mentioned this, but anything you do/see/learn online--even though the information is probably sound--just loses something in the translation. The only way to really learn is to do. And as I said, it's easier to have a magazine or a book (or even loose pages of paper) on your kitchen counter, than it is to have a computer there.

As far as such things as what to serve with salmon: I know you were merely making an example, but the answer is "whatever you like". Maybe it's traditional to serve (for example) a poached salmon with similarly-prepared vegetables (like boiled potatoes or steamed beans). But there's nothing stopping you from serving poached salmon with grilled mushroom caps...it's all a matter of what you and your family like.

As for mixing NA drinks...the sky seems to be the limit. You can browse through hundreds of recipes at
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Drinks/Main.aspx

Answer 2

wow, you got some great answers!
I am the executive chef at a really nice Lodge and have been to culinary school. I didn't know how to cook much of anything when I got into this business 13 years ago, but I started out making espresso drinks at this great brunch place in Atlanta, and moved into the bakery about 6 months later. I fell in love with the craft of cooking right away and have not looked back.
Resources I use the most are magazines like Gourmet, Fine Cooking, Food and Wine and Delicious (Australian), Websites I visit often are Epicurious.com (which is very reliable with the rating and comment system they have) Fine Cooking and Chef2Chef. If you are interested in building a vocabulary of cooking terms the Food Lover's Companion and the Wine Lover's Companion are must haves. You can check out what these books have to offer on the Epicurious website as these books are the text their online dictionary is based on. The food network is only helpful in learning techniques for preparing ingredients in my opinion, I don't like many of the recipes I see on their website and a lot of the celebrity chefs have questionable tastes in my opinion. Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay will take you down the wrong road, trust me. Good Eats with Alton Brown is great, and even though I find Emeril annoying, he is a great cook/chef.
Lastly, after you have done a little reading the only thing to do is jump in and try something.


On second thought check your newpaper or local community college for some short and sweet cooking class about some food or technique you are interested in. It could give you a great confidence boost.

Good luck and happy cooking!

Answer 3

I myself work in a very high-end restaurant, and there are only a couple sites I am willing to go to when am in need. I'll let you in on one of them. The site is basically where all the professionals of the culinary arts field get together and talk recipes and techniques. So, you know you're in good hands on this site, and that you're not going to end up cooking some bullshit recipe. The only drawback for you may be that alot of the recipes use terms you may not be familiar with, so, you may want to find some site where you can look up the definitions, or go buy the Food Lover's Companion book, which everyone should have. Anyway, the site is Chef2Chef.net check it out, you'll like it. And the drink you had sounds like a mojito, rum, brown sugar, lime, mint and club soda.

Answer 4

Personally I've been most lucky with www.eggrecipes.co.uk
they have simple recipes that don't need lots of ingredients. They go down really well at dinner parties. The food looks like it took a long time to prepare but it's quite quick to make. My favourite is the veggie egg pitta. Which only takes 10-15 mins to make, it's great when you have guests over and it's healthy. As for the drink I'm not sure what you're talking about but smoothies are a fruity drink.

Answer 5

I subscribe to Bon Appetit magazine- there are tons of gourmet recipes and instructions for both food and drinks, and there are often step-by-step photo instructions on how to prepare things.
Also, I'm not sure if you live near something like this but some of the major metropolitan areas now offer cooking schools, where you can pay for a series of classes and have someone teach you one on one.
Good luck!

Answer 6

start watching the food channel on TV ....after a while you will begin to learn the fundamentals of cooking and will see many recipes prepared..... also go on line and look up the chefs you have seen and the recipes for the shows are on line by day and time ....the web site is www.FoodTV.com

good luck it will not happen over night but if you watch it daily after 6 months you will much better prepared to eat out read the menu and even prepare some meals of your own....

Answer 7

I have become a good cook over the years but like everyone else i started off knowing very little.

I gradually experimented, and treated it as a science, starting with the basics, mastering them, learning from TV, friends, cookbooks and my own mistakes, and builtup my repetoir of things that i was confident with and things that i liked to serve to others and meals i liked to make for myself.
I branched out and did parties, special occasions and parties.

I love cooking now, and i have a good selection which i would proudly present to anyone, even things i consider quite high end.

The reason i have the know how is that i started learning the basics and worked from there......... just keep cooking!

this site is good!
http://www.azcentral.com/home/food/cooking101/

Good luck!

Answer 8

I honestly think the recipe sites online are unreliable. They can be submitted by anyone and therefore aren't tested in a "controlled" kitchen.
I would suggest investing in a good culinary text book. It'll have all the basics in there as well as some good recipes. After you're comfortable with that, then you can start to get recipes online and know what's wrong with and just use them as a guide.

Answer 9

Theres only one I could suggest. Food network.com. They also have shows on TV that show you how to prepare the meals,HGTV I have learned a lot from them.also try:
www.recipezaar.com

Answer 10

Pick up a copy of Bon appe'tit which has awesome pictures and recipes of gourmet food.