WHY DO I HAVE AN OBSESSION FOR COOKING?
I grew up from day one, from the day I was born in food shops, like take aways, cafes and restaurants (less so). And the first two decades I dreaded it. But once I was in a different industry and started to teach myself how to cook, I started to love cooking, year by year. I'm the type of person who loves to try new things out all the time and with cooking there is ALWAYS something new to test out. Sometimes my friends are my taste testers, and we laugh at some of the mishaps. Lucky for them, I always have sandwiches or toast as a backup. We don't want to starve now, do we?
WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING I EVER COOKED AND HOW OLD WAS I?
I was 16 and I found an amazing recipe for potato jackets with sour cream and chives. I remember cooking it for my family and they absolutely loved it. I had no help from anyone, but it did take over 2 hours to prep and cook. I didn't want to start with just boiling an egg, I went straight into the deep end. Like I always have.
It took me a few more years before I could cook in my own kitchen, but my exes' mother also helped me learn a few recipes. Although the majority of my recipes came from the tv, magazines and then cookbooks. Some from family.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY OBSESSION WITH COOKBOOKS?
At one point a few years ago I had more than 2,000 cookbooks. I must admit though that I only ever used 10-15 of them, and only a few recipes from each.
I had accumulated most of my favourite recipes before I bought the books, so most of them were not needed. I did learn to cook sweets the most from these books.
But since I don't eat sugar (like I mentioned in a previous blog post), I don't actually need any of the sweet cookbooks. Although I kept my favourites.
I have less than 100 left now and even those are not all useful to me.
Now when I need a specific recipe, I start by looking thru the books and then I resort to the internet. But I always like to keep a copy or print of it until I test it out and if it doesn't work for me, I scrap it. But at least this way I have the chance to keep it if I love the outcome. I don't rely solely on the internet.
THIS IS HOW I LEVELLED UP MY COOKING GAME:
A few years ago, I completed my culinary certificate at TAFE with my Commercial Cookery Course in Certificate III. I was so proud of myself to call myself a pseudo chef. It was a dream I had for decades. I say pseudo as I was never an apprentice, I had all the experience before studying it, if that makes sense. I can now say I am not afraid to cook any dish, and have experience in a huge variety of dishes, least of all from the decades of working in the family businesses. Coming home smelling like a burger. Only the people who grew up with me know this about me, plus my best friend from high school who got her first job working for my parents (while I was studying photography part-time and working the other days with my parents), for our first two years out of high school.
DO I LOVE TO COOK EVERY DAY?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is I do not always make complicated dishes every day, it may even be a salad or fish or something else that is easy.
But I will always make food from scratch, no matter how tired I am or hungry.
And yes, it is for health reasons, but mainly coz I love the taste of fresh food.
Plastic food does not fill me up, nor does it feel good or taste good (to me).
WHAT IS MY FAVOURITE DISH TO COOK?
I do not have just one, I have many. And these dishes change from time to time.
Since quitting all meat (except for seafood), I do not cook any dishes with meat.
But I love seafood even more now. It took a while to get used to not cooking meat, but now I hardly ever miss it. With the exception of 3-4 dishes I used to love.
But my philosophy is that I do not want to kill a cow for my pleasure.
A PHOTO I TOOK OF ME WHEN I GRADUATED FROM CULINARY SCHOOL:
Thanks for reading another little bit about my colourful life. The more I write about my own life, the more I realise how much I have accomplished in my life the more I realise I do not give myself credit for them. Do you do that to yourself too or are you kind?
I'd love to hear about your life and what you have done or are up to, email me at:
I will see you on the next one, have a lovely day, bye!
A ZEN LIFE, by The Style Secrets.
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