Cooking schools- Great fun or Great rip-offs?

In the last 5 or so years cooking and chefs are everywhere! On the cover of magazines, movies, television shows, and Disney cartoons. In the World of ready made supermarket foods, organic markets and gastro shows are rapidly growing like mushrooms. Now everybody wants to cook and have a bite of the industry. New cooking schools are opening up for the ones who are interested, or want to go for a date, or just for the ones who want to impress their guests or want to learn a healthy living. To be honest there’s nothing wrong with that. The wrong part comes when one`s think that they can put together a decent lasagna at home, or like to host dinner parties instantly think they can make it in this business.

On TV and in the magazines it all looks so easy. A well organised chef in a well organised kitchen, cooks a fantastic looking meal within 30 minutes. The restaurant around the corner is packed every night “They sure do an amazing turnover, sure they don’t have money problems”. They don`t realise that the restaurant 2 blocks away closing down and opening again in every 6 months just because people who run it, don’t actually know what they are doing. If you are just about to go to culinary college, and you doing this because of the money, you better turn around and do something else. Yes you can earn, with hard work, and hard work,and hard work, you can also make it big with more hard work and a bit of luck.

Why am I writing this?

I been looking at some local cooking schools. The ones you can attend once a week or a month if you want to. You don’t need to be a chef, can learn some basic cooking ideas, and can spice up your life with some gastro knowledge and some healthy and interesting food. To be honest there are some really great ones Worldwide, not to mention some big city residents are just spoiled with choices. Pastry, japanese, cocktail, italian, butchery you name it. These are made for fun. You not going to be a kick ass chef, but hopefully you not going to burn your water. I`m actually a big fan of these schools, people can actually learn some stuff from basic cuts to complicated dishes. More about fresh produce, and how not to poison themselves with Chez Microwave best offs. Soon I will be working at one of these places in Budapest for a few months and Im very excited, especially about the working with people part. How non chefs see the kitchen and the cooking. It will be interesting.

But I came across some ads saying: “Open your dream restaurant” “Become a celebrity chef in no time” “Cook with the best”  “Learn everything you wanted to know about wines and food”- all these in 2 hours/week for 2 moths.  Before you sign up for any of these and pay at least of the amount of 500 pounds or more ask yourself the question: “Really?”  So really all you have to do is, attend this class and you going to know all about restaurants? cooking?wine? pastry?photography? design? accounting? menu planning? ingredients? So all the people who made it big just attended these classes for about 100 hours? There are really so many idiots in colleges and universities who don’t know about these offers?  No! Well, if you really have so much money to waste and a bit of free time  go for it! You might have fun with the other rich restaurant wannabe virgins. I’m sure it`s going to be fun to visit the cities nice restaurants and bakeries, which, to be honest you may have already done, or can de without parental guidance. It will be nice to cook for 2 nights with the second class celebrity chef who gives his/her name to anything just to get the 15 minutes again. To be honest for this amount of money they would even go to your house and get naked for you if you would ask them. But if you really want a chance in hospitality, You will have to know..its hard work, people are going to screw you as much as they can, you most likely end up living in a kitchen or behind the bar.

picture from http://www.globalmama.com

I saw people screwing up their lifetime savings, just because they had no idea what they get into. Cafes, restaurants closing down, because the owner thought sweet talking to the costumers is the way to go, and not buying ingredients and equipment for their chefs and kitchen. I saw guys running out crying from a busy kitchen. I’m sure all of these because..they didn`t attend those classes.

You should read Anthony Bourdains “Kitchen Confidential”, buy the “Larousse Gastronomique”  eat out, learn, read cookbooks…COOK AT HOME!  After all this you might get a general idea. Attend a good culinary college for at least 2 years. And if You still think this is for you, well man, Welcome Aboard!

Recipe: Italian Tomato and Bread soup

This recipe is very simple, and surprisingly delicious. I found it in Donna Hay`s “Modern Classics” cookbook and had to try it. To be honest unlike the Italians, I`m not a big fan of using bread in soups and salads. This version however made me interested.  It`s somewhere between a gazpacho and a liquid bruschetta. Fresh ingredient are must have, even thou I used my grandmothers own tomato pure instead of fresh tomatoes. The supermarket pures just wont do for this one. You need the fresh taste of tomatoes and fresh basil for this soup, and garlic, plenty of garlic!

Donna`s Recipe is the following:

• 2kg very ripe tomatoes
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 3cloves of garlic, sliced (I found that the more the merrier in this case)
• 200g wood-fried bread
• a handful of torn basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• cracked black pepper

To peel the tomatoes, score a cross on the skin on the base and place in a large saucepan of boiling water, leaving them there for 3 minutes. Drain, then peel.

Place the oil and garlic in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook for 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes. (If you use good quality tomato pure, you only need to bring it to boiling point, it happens very fast, also pay attention not to burn it. I also found that adding a bit of white wine is a good idea, gives it even a bit more sour taste.) Stir the tomatoes occasionally to break them up.

Remove the crust from the bread and tear the centre into chunks (I found, if you put the bread in the oven to dry over high heat, it will b chunkier in the soup)

Add the bread, stock, basil and sugar to the tomatoes and allow to stand for 5 minutes.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle with extra olive oil and sprinkle plenty of cracked pepper. Serves 4-6 ( I added some extra fresh parmesan cheese and some fresh onions for the taste)

It`s ready in no time, filling and tasty, and the ingredients are simple and easy to find as well. If you want to impress your guests with something special and interesting this soup is the way to go! Enjoy!