How to Cook: Cooking Lessons from the Ground Up

Last spring I was talking with a very nice mom I met in the park. We were discussing ways to get our families to eat healthier. I mentioned I was excited because I found a local farm that was selling whole free range grass fed chickens. At this point she gave me a very perplexed look and said, “Whole chicken? What do you do with a whole chicken?” It wasn’t just that she didn’t know how to cook it. She was amazed any normal person would know how to cook it. Like a whole chicken was something that should be reserved for gourmet chefs or an episode of “The Next Food Network Star”.

Now a days cooking basics are not basic. It’s common for children to turn 18 and head off into the real word knowing only how to turn on the microwave. If they are lucky they have learned how to read and follow a simple recipe but there’s no underlying knowledge. A lot of people if presented with a chicken and a bag of carrots but no cookbooks would still have to reach for the take out menu.

Is it any wonder obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are sky rocketing? It’s not just a matter of wanting to eat healthier. It’s a matter of learning how to eat healthier. Instead we are sitting targets for the latest nutrition marketing fads. “Buy our product! It’s low fat.” “No wait, Buy ours. It’s low carb.”, “Contains only 100 calories (but you’ll have to eat 10 packs to feel full.)”, “Eat super vitamin X and all your trouble will go away.” etc. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve hear people say, “I give up. According to research everything is bad for me!” Until we learn to truly take back our kitchen we will not be able to truly take back our health.

This article is kicking off a weekly serious to help people take back their kitchen one step at a time. I will step back to the very basics. What you would instinctually learn if you had started cooking at your parents side from the moment you could stand on a stool. The kind of skills you need to run in the door at 5:30, look in the fridge and have a healthy meal on the table for your family by 6:00. You do not need to be a world class chef to put a healthy meal on the table for you and your family. However you do need some basic knowledge that can be easily built in small simple steps.

Each article will introduce a new concept, provide some examples of executing the concept and give a weekly homework assignment for practice. The nice thing about the homework is you get to eat it when you are done. (Or in some cases feed it too the dog but that’s ok too. If you never mess up you aren’t pushing yourself enough.) I’ll post links to all the articles in the series at the bottom of this post so you have one point to go back and reference everything. Next week will kick off the serious with “How to Cook: The Bare Minimum in Equipment.” So if you are totally new in the kitchen or just want to feel more comfortable please join us.

For your first homework assignment, start cleaning your kitchen. It’s very hard to cook when your counter is covered with dirty dishes or old take out boxes. Create a daily routine that empties the dishwasher in the morning, fills it as you use things and runs it before bed. Wash any hand washables as you use them. Depending on your family size and frequency of cooking you may need to do this more then once a day or only every two days but get a repeatable routine of some type. If your kitchen currently sparkles congratulations but make sure you have a routine that will work if you start using it more. Nothing grinds good intentions to a halt like going to start dinner and being faced with a pile of dishes. Post a comment here letting everyone know how you are doing.