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The joys of cooking.

June 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The art of cooking is a joy for many people, while some seem to dread it like the plague! Many factors contribute to this love or hate relationship that so many have with cooking; personality traits, prior cooking experiences, knowledge passed down from one generation to the next. Some non-cookers have simply never been taught properly in the ways to prepare food. Others simply were not interested in learning because their mother, father or other guardian always did the work. Yet, cooking can be made into an enjoyable experience with a bit of creativity and some knowledge
on the process. Those who cannot even boil water can learn, and with time, even become experts in the art of cooking!

Cooking With A Purpose And A Plan

Often, we stumble into the kitchen and open the refrigerator only to stare into it blankly with no idea of where to begin. We just want something, and we want it now! Yet, cooking with joy is obtained when there is a purpose for your cooking and a plan to help you. The purpose for cooking could be that you want to provide healthy, whole and nutritious food for your growing children and your husband or wife. You want them to have the healthiest bodies that they can, and you have a desire to see them thrive. This motivation can serve to give you joy in your cooking experience, knowing that you are giving them the best that their bodies deserve.

Another great way to begin to enjoy cooking is to have a plan. Having a meal planned out in advance takes the stress and struggle of deciding away from last-minute preparations. Planning helps to ensure that you will have the right ingredients on hand in order to make your dish, and you will not be frustrated with coming up with a meal and then give up. With a plan, you can calmly prepare the meal even while listening to music or talking to a friend on the phone. This will help you be more relaxed at dinnertime as well.

Having the right attitude toward cooking goes a long way in making it an enjoyable experience. It is true that some tend to be more natural when it comes to food preparation, but that is no excuse for not attempting to cook a healthy meal. Anyone can learn to cook simple and tasty meals for themselves and their loved ones each day. Do not let a long-standing distaste for cooking sway you into sticking with your TV dinner rut. This is not only bad for your health but it is an expensive way to eat. Letting your children help you in the kitchen can also create fun as well as become a great learning experience for them.

With all the easy and exciting ways to simplify your life, cooking should definitely be a part!

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‘Top Chef’ Tom Colicchio to CNN’s Campbell Brown: ‘Fish That’s Coming Out of the Gulf Is Safe’

April 9, 2011 By 5 Comments

Article by Kari Larson

July 3, 2010 — Last evening, “Top Chef” star/producer and restaurateur Tom Colicchio [pictured] told CNN’s Campbell Brown that, after having spent time in Grand Isle, La., with several other prominent chefs, he thinks seafood from the Gulf Coast is safe to eat.

“We spent a lot of time with fishermen, fishing families, and talking to them — just to try to get a better idea of what was going on there,” the award-winning Colicchio recalled. “And there’s sort of two stories right now that I think you need to tell about the Gulf.

“One is that this is devastating. It’s horrible what’s going on down there. They need to stop this oil somehow, some way. Hopefully, it will happen with this new well that they’re drilling.

“But, on the other hand, there’s a lot of hope. There are fishermen that are still fishing… The fishermen that aren’t cleaning up the oil, they are actually fishing. And the fish that’s coming out of the Gulf is safe.”

Colicchio went on to note that the multi-government agency response to the BP oil-spill disaster is well-coordinated, ambitious and ongoing.

“There’s five different agencies testing the waters,” he noted. “There’s tissue samples being taken every day. I think there were over 300 done so far since May.”

“And just to be clear,” said Brown, “they’re not fishing in the oil spill area.”

“No, no, no, no,” Colicchio replied.

To read the entire transcript of Brown’s interview with Colicchio, go to: http://bit.ly/ColicchioCNN.

For the latest information about food-safety issues related to the Gulf Coast oil spill, please visit: http://bit.ly/OilSpillUpdateFDA.

If you have questions or concerns about seafood, or wish to report any seafood you have purchased that you suspect of being contaminated with oil, call 1-888-INFO-FDA.

SOURCES: CNN, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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TAGS: BP oil spill, Bravo TV, Campbell Brown, CNN, cooking, culinary, EPA, FDA, fish, fishing industry, food safety, Gulf Coast, NOAA, seafood industry, Think Like a Chef, Tom Colicchio, Top Chef, TV, cable television, cable TV, economic development, economy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Environmental Protection Agency, federal agencies, federal government agencies, Gulf of Mexico, James Beard Foundation, Louisiana, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reality television, reality TV, restaurant owner, restaurant owners, seafood safety, small business, small-business owners, small businesses, tourism, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

About the Author

Kari Larson, editor and publisher of GoodBiz113 [http://goodbiz113.blogspot.com], is committed to showcasing socially responsible small-business policies, partnerships and practices that serve the greatest possible win-win-win good.

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Pros and Cons of Becoming a Personal Chef

April 9, 2011 By 1 Comment

Article by Trevor Stephens

There are many reason in favor of and against starting a personal chef career. It is an exciting time to get started with your own business and control your destiny.

There are many positives arguments in support of starting a personal chef business. One such argument is it allows you to be actively involved in the culinary industry. An industry that is rapidly growing and involves creating good meals.

The personal chef field is growing quickly. More and more people don’t have the time or the ability to cook meals for their family. Imagine a family of six with both parents working full time. They want healthy food but they don’t want to cook. Insert your business providing healthy food and great cooking.

Another reason is starting your won personal chef business allows you to become your own boss. One other good reason for starting your own personal chef business is starting your personal chef business allows you to become your own boss. This provides the further advantage of Creating your own hours as well as controlling your pay rate, that could protect against making the mistake of getting paid too little for too much work.

A third reason if you love cooking you get to do it every day. And then there’s try cooking meals you might not have ever done before. That’s critical because it can increase your skills, as well as get you more clients if you have a wider area of expertise. Whenever you take that into mind, then it’s wise to start your own personal chef business.

The points above show the positive aspects of a personal chef career. There’s a bad side too. Here’s a discussion of some of the drawbacks.

The first negative reason is you have to train in order to be a personal chef. If you ever start a personal chef career, that might produce the effect of you having to train in order to become a good chef. There is no way that that could be a good thing. It could be enough reason for avoiding doing it at all.

Secondly, you need to learn a lot about food safety. Food safety is very important whenever you are a working in the culinary industry. If you don’t pay attention to it then you can have bad experience as a chef. Imagine that same family of six again getting very sick. Bad news!

Another negative is it can be very tiring work. A final reason to avoid a culinary career is it can be very tiring work. Everyone ought to consider this point very carefully, mainly because it may lead right to Tired feet from standing all day and lack of desire to cook at home if you want to start your own business in the culinary industry anyway.

So there you have it. We have looked at and examined the pluses and minuses of starting a personal chef career. May possibly not be what’s right for everybody, but it is unquestionably acceptable for lots of people. You’ll want to think about the info presented and make your own personal selection, for or against. Hopefully your final decision process is going to be helped greatly because of the pro and con info provided here. Your own business can be very rewarding especially when you get to cook for lots of people.

About the Author

For more personal chef training tips please visit us at Personal Chef Academy. Visit us for more personal chef training.

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5 Reasons Your Personal Chef Training Should Include Meal Plans

April 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ever say to yourself that perhaps you should be a personal chef ? That exact same idea has occurred to a lot of people. Some went ahead and did it. Some never did their homework to get more info and so couldn’t know enough to generate a serious start.

Let’s see now, are those reasons really valid? Did they really consider the positive side? Did we look at the “pro” side or simply the “con” side? Maybe we should have a look at that. Let’s examine 5 positive reasons in favor of attempting thinking about meal plans when training to be a personal chef and see which ones ring true.

First, personal chef training has to include meal plans. I understand fully your hesitancy when considering getting started creating meal plans. Yes, this is a valid observation, but look at it this way, you are just mapping out what you do every day if you love cooking. And moreover, one should consider how easy it makes your personal chef training if you already have your meal plans created.

Second, you can easily figure out what each meal will cost so you can let your clients know. The leading benefit to doing this would be giving your clients more control over the cost of their meals.. And in addition you have a better understanding of how long each meal will take you to cook.

Third, having standard meal plans also allow you to easily advertise your costs. Plus it gives you the ability to add customizations to the standard plans for more money!

Fourth, this frees up your time on the cook date

And Fifth, this free time allows you to focus on cooking the meal. Not how much you will charge your client or how long will cooking this meal take you.

As you go through the reasons and evaluate them, I expect that you will have to admit that a persuasive case can be made for thinking of how you can create your meal plans while you are going through your personal chef training.

O.K. After looking at all that info, what do you think now? Isn’t that a strong case in favor? Maybe you really should get started creating your meal plans!

If you happen to examine the different reasons and evaluate them, you’ll have to admit that a very compelling case can be made for beginning  your planning right away!

For more personal chef training tips please visit us at Personal Chef Academy. Visit us for more personal chef training.


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