Continued from part I.
After college, I had a long-hours-low-pay internship for two years. I didn't have a lot of more or energy to go out and do things when not at work. I didn't have homework in the evenings. So instead I started expanding my cooking skills. It was either right after college or soon into my internship that my interest in cooking really took off. I was home visiting my parents and decided to make soup. Not from a recipe. I have been able to follow recipes since high school. No, I thought I could use the principles I picked up from Food Network and Edible Magazines to make something new. (Edible Magazine publishes locally in cities around the US. I found a copy of Edible Memphis that led me to the website that has links to online versions of most of the magazines. I read alphabetically by city and am around 'I' currently.) So I threw together some ingredients and made the Everything-I-Know-About-Cooking-I-Learned-By-Watching-Food-Network-Soup. To my surprise, it was delicious.
Taking charge of the ingredients I was putting into my food gave me a sense of empowerment. I could expose myself to small doses of new things using cooking techniques that I knew worked for similar foods I already ate. In addition, all of the reading and TV watching was paying off by educating me about the best uses and preparations for different foods. I already knew I didn't care for canned and boiled vegetables. But the flavor differences between boiled and sautéed vegetables was a revelation. A new idea was forming—food isn't icky as long as it's prepared correctly. Here 'correct' means whatever tastes good. And I now had enough knowledge of food to know how to make something taste good. For the first time in my life, I was excited by the possibilities and challenges of finding/cooking/eating food.
My parents couldn't have been more shocked. They used to joke that I would need to marry a chef. Now, they expect me to handle at least a few meals every time I go home.
Somewhere along the line, I realized I have reached a complete reversal in attitude. I will try (almost) anything once. And that is very liberating.
After college, I had a long-hours-low-pay internship for two years. I didn't have a lot of more or energy to go out and do things when not at work. I didn't have homework in the evenings. So instead I started expanding my cooking skills. It was either right after college or soon into my internship that my interest in cooking really took off. I was home visiting my parents and decided to make soup. Not from a recipe. I have been able to follow recipes since high school. No, I thought I could use the principles I picked up from Food Network and Edible Magazines to make something new. (Edible Magazine publishes locally in cities around the US. I found a copy of Edible Memphis that led me to the website that has links to online versions of most of the magazines. I read alphabetically by city and am around 'I' currently.) So I threw together some ingredients and made the Everything-I-Know-About-Cooking-I-Learned-By-Watching-Food-Network-Soup. To my surprise, it was delicious.
Taking charge of the ingredients I was putting into my food gave me a sense of empowerment. I could expose myself to small doses of new things using cooking techniques that I knew worked for similar foods I already ate. In addition, all of the reading and TV watching was paying off by educating me about the best uses and preparations for different foods. I already knew I didn't care for canned and boiled vegetables. But the flavor differences between boiled and sautéed vegetables was a revelation. A new idea was forming—food isn't icky as long as it's prepared correctly. Here 'correct' means whatever tastes good. And I now had enough knowledge of food to know how to make something taste good. For the first time in my life, I was excited by the possibilities and challenges of finding/cooking/eating food.
My parents couldn't have been more shocked. They used to joke that I would need to marry a chef. Now, they expect me to handle at least a few meals every time I go home.
Somewhere along the line, I realized I have reached a complete reversal in attitude. I will try (almost) anything once. And that is very liberating.
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