Kitchen Garden Forum

As a totally novice cook, I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the direction of an excellent book on basic concepts, terms, skills, techniques. My ignorance of the subject is so profound that I don't even know what questions I should be asking, but you guys have awakened an interest...and then there's all that food I'm about to grow.
Iain.

You cannot go far wrong with the Delia Smith Complete Cookery Course (updated from the original issue). The later "How to cook" series are also reasonable.

My personal favourite cook/chef is Robert Carrier.

valmarg

Thanks, Valmarg, I'm onto it.
Iain.

Agreed. Delia may not be flashy but she's good. I've been cooking since I was kneehigh to a grasshopper(a lot older now but not a lot taller it has to be said) but I'd not be without my Delia.

I am a big fan of Jamie Oliver his recipes are fun and down to earth even my husband can follow them and he has absolutely no cooking skills LOL Gill

Yes - Dismal (as she's known in our house) isn't a bundle of laughs but her recipes work and she's good on common sense too.

Now if you want style - the list is endless and the beloved James Martin sits at the top!

Hello Iain
Its got to be Delia I think. She tells you what to do and if it all goes into a sticky mess, she tells you why. All her recipes are simple and easy to follow. She is a bit too heavy on the sugar and cream sometimes for people like me with an ever expanding waistline but its easy to adapt her recipes.
Its the complete cookery course you need as all her other books are simply based on sections of this one with added extras. Her website is very good -

http://www.deliaonline.com/

- full of recipes from her books that you can print out.

John

I agree with Delia.

Another cook that is overlooked is Tamasin Day-Lewis. She's not a professional chef, just an enthusiastic home cook and her receipes are very easy to follow, the ingrediants are easy to fin and she's a champion of season, local produced food be it cheese, veg, meat etc. And everything is organic. Her food is family orientated and, importantly, she has proper sized portions.

One piece of advice though. Get the best cookware that you can afford. A le Creuset pan may cost nearly £90 but you'll only ever buy one in your lifetime. All your cookware should be able to go onto direct heat and be able to go from the hob straight to the oven.

You could also check out www.uktvfood.co.uk and they have links there to cookware suppliers.

Good luck and enjoy

looks like its deila ,my husband regually dissapears with her into our kitchen for ages,and then comes out with some great scran.

Bring on Nigella,

looks divine and cooks comfort food to boot.

My husband would be with you there. His Domestic Goddess is definitely Nigella, but he would have to concede Dismal/Delia as the Queen of basics. No votes from here for Tamsin Day-Lewis. Sorry.

No probs Tiggar. Mind you I like Nigella too. How can she eat such fab rich food and stay so thin? Bitch. I only look at something and I gain weight.

I also have to reluctantly register my support for Nigella, I really wanted to dislike her on principle (for the reasons Lizzie's outlined above!), but when I actually read one of her cookbooks, I was impressed despite myself! She has a very chummy way of writing though that you either love or hate, but I would really recommend 'How to Eat' and 'Feast'. Both are broken up into really sensible chapters, depending on how much time you have spare to cook, and all of her recipes that I've attempted have turned out well.

I've been away so I am late adding my penniesworth, but for basics I would endorse Delia.

If you like Chinese try Ken Hom. If you like Indian try Madhur Jaffery.

But my most important tip would be READ the recipe before you start, then FOLLOW what it says, go on doing this with each recipe until you are really sure you want to change it and confident you know what effect the change will have. My OH bless him can cook when he does this, but has a disasterous tendency to think he remembers what to do, or to change something, occasionally the results have been inedible, ussually they're just not as good as they could be.

I can honestly say that I have spent years being lauded as a brilliant cook, told I should do it professionally even And the basic difference between me and my friends for most of those years was that I followed the recipes! I have also been mystified as to why everyone else didn't just do what I did, and still I can't understand why most of them don't. Maybe they started off with more confidence than I did. I follwed the recipes because I was scared that any change I made would result in disaster

Such modesty. Of course no one else using this site knows how to be a superb cook!!