No matter how long you have been cooking or how much you already know, there comes a point when you want to learn a new skill in the kitchen. Where do you turn? A trusted cookbook, a knowledgeable teacher, a YouTube video?
Lately I have been wanting to improve and expand my butchery skills, and for me, an in-person class seems to be the way to go, with video tutorials a distant second. I learn best when I can see a demonstration of a process and then practice the new skill myself, with feedback from a teacher.
For the most part though, I have learned to cook via cookbooks, blogs and TV shows — the old Food Network show Cooking Live taught me so much! — and I am wondering: who or what do you turn to to learn new cooking skills? Are you exploring any new sources this year?
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I'm fortunate to have some professional chef & baker friends and if I wanted to learn a new skill that was best taught visually, I'd probably turn to them first. Otherwise, I learn from old episodes of The French Chef, blogs, and cookbooks.
I just...do them! As plain as that sounds, if I want to get better with knife skills, I pull out a knife and some veggies and go. A new pastry technique, I find a recipe and follow it. If its something VERY specific, I'll youtube a video of how to do it, but only in rare cases.
Google and YouTube are my friends. I'd love to do in-person classes, but they're just too expensive. As a runner-up, I'm hoping some family members chip in and buy me a Rouxbe membership for my 30th birthday.
There are some wonderful blogs which always inspire me :) and then there are cook books too,..:)
I read a lot of food and cooking blogs and have watched PBS cooking shows since I was pretty young. For techniques, I usually look for youtube/vimeo demonstration videos and then practice doing the same. Learned how to break down/carve a chicken/turkey recently by doing that.
When I dabbled with the idea of becoming a professional baker I took a cake decorating course at a local baking supply store and while it was fun, I don't think it was worth all the money. When I was willing to commit, I took a part time job at a local grocery store. I worked 4 hours in the early morning and then went to my regular job. It was great being paid to learn.
Now that I'm not baking professionally anymore I'm keeping my skills in check by baking the first Baked cookbook from front to back this year. After that, I'm going to graduate to Flour.
For demonstrations I always go for youtube, for say fixing something that has gone wrong, i never do, usually takes far too long for them to get to the point.