Gourmet Cooking Schools And The Growing Demand For Quality!

By Abhishek Agarwal

Gourmet cooking schools are the high class educational centers focusing on imparting in-depth knowledge of not just history of the cooking techniques, but gives cultural and regional preferences and specialty learning info to all students besides ensuring that there is adequate personal interaction between teachers and taught. The highly qualified chefs and master-chefs, with a dedication to creating fine dining experiences the basis of all knowledge imparted to students enrolled herein, besides focusing on teaching in a customized format not available.

Most of these gourmet cooking schools are located in the metro cities in a nation and the top chefs, everyone knows, come from France! Earlier, cookery students keen to avail this highly specialized knowledge and base for continental cuisine styles and forms had to enroll in top cooking schools in France in order to understand and imbibe the finer nuances of French gourmand cooking; however, with technology and developments such as the internet and cooking shows on Television, this gap has bridged. Besides, many of the French chefs have opened training institutes in the heart of the United States along with setting up schools in other parts of the western world for those who love this artful cuisine.

Of course, the course fees don’t come cheap, but the top gourmet cooking schools do ensure quality training and comprehensive knowledge about all aspects about buying food, preparing and presenting it for varied occasions and people.

Knowledge you will gain at best gourmet cooking schools:

Some gourmet cooking schools focus on teaching regional cuisine, others on country cooking and still others on confectionery items; you need to decide your interest and aims before enrolling for a training here.

1. Among the 3 important things taught at gourmet cooking schools are in-depth knowledge of various kinds of foodstuff, the chemical composition of foods and their break-down in the cooking process besides choosing and planning healthy, balanced meals. Various techniques of chopping, dicing and cutting food are also taught here besides related methods of preparing food.

2. Different ways of preparing meats, veggies, seasonal fruits and fresh dairy produce besides methods of sauce and dessert making are taught too as are the uses of different types of cookware and cuisine techniques from provincial France, including the traditional methods.

3. Those signing up for the top gourmet cooking schools with the aim of becoming a professional cook need to also understand beyond the fundamentals of great cooking style, the need for kitchen safety and the skills for business development, management and customer service, useful for those planning to start their own restaurant.

In order to have a bright future as a professional chef or even a continental cuisine expert, this is the place to be!

Abhishek is a cooking enthusiast! Visit his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com and download his FREE Cooking Report and learn some amazing Cooking tips and tricks for FREE! Create the perfect meal on a shoe-string budget, while you keep the accolades! But hurry, only limited Free copies available!

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Gas or Coals - Which is the Better Barbecue

By Patrick Tang

When you invite your friends over for a Sunday afternoon barbecue, you want to get it just right, so how do you make sure that your barbecue will be the rave around town? This leads us to the eternal question - gas or coals - which is better for that backyard barbecue?

It is difficult to get a straight answer by asking your friends. Those who have gas will swear that their method is the new and improved version, with less mess, less fuss and more exact cooking. Those who have charcoal (or alternate solid fuel such as heat beats) barbecues will scoff in the face of those who don’t and question what the point of a barbecue is without the taste of the smoke on the food (and the fun of the fire). So what do you choose if you are buying your first Barbecue?

If you prefer the idea of the outdoors experience, the thrill of the fire or the macho sport of making a fire and then cooking over it, solid fuel based may be the way for you. It does require more attention - if you don’t catch it when its right, your perfectly grilled pork chop, could end up looking like a burnt chop.

If, however, you prefer the idea of simple and less stressful cooking with more predictable results, go for gas. The grill is ready when you are - you just turn the nob. You don’t have to light the fire and there are no ashes to chuck out afterwards.

Interestingly, there is not much else to choose between in terms of the gas versus charcoal issue. Tests done on the cooked results of both barbecue types, have revealed that there is no significant difference in the flavours of food cooked on gas or solid fuel based barbecues. This is mostly true for hamburgers or chicken. Items such as a roast, however, which require longer cooking time, thus allowing more time for the smoke to penetrate the food, have been said to taste better on the on solid fuel based grill.

The majority of barbecue owners own a gas grill and love it. They have more features than you would ever use. This can be a negative selling point as well. Solid fuel based grills are cheaper, although they are being developed with more and more features. Charcoal grill owners find a certain satisfaction out of conquering the barbecue and being the big macho man of the party. And let’s face it, what barbecue cook-off contestant would ever be caught dead using a gas grill!

If you are environmentally aware, gas barbecues may be the better option for you. They use natural products - propane or natural gas and are only mildly noxious. Solid fuel based grills on the other hand, produce noxious fumes and lots of smoke.

Recipe of the Day - Barbecue Ribs

In this recipe, the type of rib is based on what is referred as the American Barbecue Rib, which is mainly available in our supermarket. If you required ribs with more meat, you might need to see your local butcher for a special cut.

The serving quantity will depend on what else you will be serving and what you expect yourself and your guests to consume.

This recipe also required that your barbecue store has a cover such as a weber.

Ingredients

1. 1 kg of American Barbecue Rib
2. 1 cup of Gourmet Barbecue Sauce
3. Salt & Pepper to taste
4. 1 packet of Hickory wood chip

Method
1. Mix the rib and gourmet barbecue sauce in tray; add salt & pepper to taste. Cover the tray and refrigerate it overnight.

2. Soak half of the wood chip in water for at least an hour prior to cooking. Mix the soaked and dried wood chip and bag them using aluminium foil. May sure it is not too thin. Use a thin sharp knife to poke holes into one side of the bag. Prepare this only when the store as described in Step 3 below is ready.

3. Once your barbecue store is read, preferably after the flame has reached pass its peak to allow a slow cooking process, place the bag of the wood chip right onto of the heat beats or charcoal (if solid fuel barbecue stove is used) otherwise place it on the side but on top of a gas burner, make sure not to smother the flame.

4. Rub the marinating sauce all over the ribs again and brush them with some cooking oil. Place it on the barbecue stove and close the cover. Adjust the air hole/gas mark to low to allow an hour of slow cooking.

5. After 30 minutes, turn the rib over but do not leave the lid uncover for too long.

6. Once it is cooked, cut them into bite size pieces and serve it as appetizer or as main meal with some more barbecue sauce.

If you couldn’t find any gourmet barbecue sauce, here is a good recipe. Mix the following together:

1. 1/2 cup of worcestershire sauce
2. 1/2 cup of honey
3. Blend a slice of ginger, 3 small onions and 2 garlic cloves
4. Add 6 macadamia nuts into the blending
5. 1 tspn of horseradish

Patrick Tang is the author of this article. His passion for good quality gourmet food and gifts has driven him to setup Fabulously Gourmet (http://www.fabulouslygourmet.com.au) for the Australian Community.

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The Best Way to Barbecue Fish - By Patrick Tang

By Patrick Tang

When coming to barbecue fish, there is a general fear that all the fish will end at the bottom of your barbecue stove as opposed to the well presented pictures in any recipe book; more importantly, remaining as on whole piece at the end of the process. So how does one get that delicious barbequed fish, just right? How do you prevent your fish from sticking to the grill and falling apart?

The primary reason why food sticks to the barbecue grill and falls apart is that the grill is not hot enough when the food is placed on it. You need to get the grill hot enough to not only produce the aromatic sizzling sound but also will continue to do so during the whole cooking process.

Secondly, you need to ensure that your grill is clean. Often food particles get stuck on the surface of the grill and these are areas that your fish may stick to. Keeping a clean grill will reduce the chances of your fish sticking.

Fish normally do not take a look time to cook and it is very important to be very aware of this a barbecue setting. People tend to over cooked it causing it to dry out rather than the deliciously juicy flesh. To ensure that you don’t over cook your fish, make sure it is not frozen and it is at a cool temperature but not cold. Try not to use frozen fish at all if you can help it as fish loose its subtle texture and taste when frozen. These qualities also deteriorate rapidly if fish are kept in room temperature for an extended period presenting health risk.

Flipping your fish is like cooking a good piece of steak, you flip it only once. The tendency is not only to flip it more than once but trying to lift it up to see whether it is cook or not; these actions are sure recipe for disaster. The best way from avoiding this rather uncontrollable tendency is to use a timer. Invest in one, put the fish on, set it to the right duration, go away, come back and flip it when the alarms go off. The other trick is to always place the skin side face down first (if the skin is retained and this the recommended way of cooking fish in a barbecue as it helps to hold the flesh together). Furthermore, it adds the crispy texture to the whole dish.

So far, cooking time has been mentioned a number of times but how long is that, unfortunately this one of those ‘how long is a piece of string’ question - it all depends on the thickness, temperature of your stove and your cooking technique. However, fish in general take much shorter time to cook than meat, a lot shorter. If it is a whole fish you are cooking, slice diagonally across the middle section of the fish (the thickness part of the fish), make a few slices of about 2cm apart. This will allow the heat to get through evenly.

Another way to prevent sticking is to wrap the fish in foil. This way, you can also add flavorings, such as lemon juice and butter. Often you will find that this is the easiest way to keep your fish moist. It is much more difficult to prevent drying out when the fish is placed directly on the grill. However, keep in mind that this will prevent some of the taste of the barbecue from penetrating the fish.

A good invention has been that of the fish basket. You can place your whole fish inside one of these and place them on the barbecue grill. The advantages of these are that you can flip the entire basket, instead of attempting to flip the fish without it breaking. It will also prevent pieces of fish from falling through the bars of the grill.

Recipe of the Day - Barbecue Snapper with Chutney and Parsley

Serve
1. 2 People

Ingredients
1. 1 x 3/4 kg of Snapper whole
2. 1 Cup of freshly chopped Parsley
3. 2 Tspn Apricot & Date Chutney
4. Juice from half a lemon
5. 4 Tspn of Macadamia Oil
6. Salt & Pepper to taste
7. Aluminum foil for wrapping

Method
1. Ask the fishmonger to scale and clean the fish for you but keep it whole instead of fillet it. Make sure it is wiped dry using paper towels.

2. Make diagonal slice cut across the mid-section of the fish but do not cut through the bones and seasoned the whole fish with salt and pepper.

3. In another bowl, mix the chopped parsley, macadamia oil, apricot & date chutney and lemon juice together, add a bit more salt and pepper.

4. Spoon some of this mixture into the stomach of the fish and rub the rest throughout the fish. Wrap the fish using the foil and let it stand in a cool place for 30 minutes.

5. When your barbecue stove is ready, place the wrapped fish on the center of the stove. Let it cooked on one side for 5 minutes and turn it over (once only) for another 5 minutes. Note that depending on the thickness, you might need to vary this cooking time a bit.

6. Once it is cooked, unwrapped the foil but be careful of the steam in the wrapping, transfer it to the serving dish and serve hot. Make sure you transfer all the juice in the wrapping to the serving dish as well.

Patrick Tang is the author of this article. His passion for good quality gourmet food and gifts has driven him to setup Fabulously Gourmet (http://www.fabulouslygourmet.com.au) for the Australian Community.

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