Skills of a Chef: How I Learned to be a Control Freak

by Kitchen Shaman | Jul 13, 2015 | Cooking Skills

There is a control freak in every chef. I don’t care how humble, how calm they may appear, chefs like order. Floors must be clean, stainless steel tables should sparkle, not a speck of dust or dirt anywhere. Food belongs in containers lined up on shelves that get wiped down every day. Walk-ins to be filled with trimmed and unblemished produce, meats, and dairy. This is the best kind of kitchen. The kind you see on television. Gordon Ramsey is a control freak. So am I.

I Want a Pot Rack

by Kitchen Shaman | Mar 18, 2011 | Equipment

If I was a really good food blogger, I would have had multiple posts ready to go on a second's notice, that would have covered this long absence. I am not that adept yet. Sometimes it' s a challenge just to get a good photo of the food I make or getting a recipe put together and uploaded. And during the last month or so, just getting to work on time was a challenge. And now, I come back to the blog, to you my faithful readers, with this story.

Basic Cooking Skills: Organization

by Kitchen Shaman | Dec 31, 2010 | Cooking Skills

Today, people want recipes that help them cook fast and get it out of the way. Editors are looking for cookbooks that make the consumer's cooking life easier. Go to a book store and look at the titles of some of the cookbooks, "fast," "easy," "simple," are words that are in the title. Gone is the art of the long, slow cooking process, learning how to do it right. People just don't have the time.

I contend that we do.