Improve Cookery/Amateur Home 'Chef' Skills?

Adamc

Hi all 

I enjoy cooking and would like to learn a few skills to improve. Ideally I'd like to replicate some simple fine dining meals at home with nice presentation etc. 

Can anyone recommend any resources? 

goldfinches

This page has a lot of good links to useful skills https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook
There are videos and study notes for well thought out graduated free courses here https://www.deliaonline.com/learn-to-cook
Series of videos and written guides to huge variety of topics here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/cookery

If you want to buy a book I would recommend any Dorling Kindersley publications, these are always full of lots of colour photographs and the accompanying text never assumes you have any knowledge of the subject at all. 

I'm giving you the links above because I've found all three to be helpful but other places I've also found good are , Ottolenghi, Guardian food pages, Nigella, the happy foodie blog, jamie, good housekeeping, sainsbury's magazine and tesco recipe pages. 

Adamc

goldfinches said:

This page has a lot of good links to useful skills https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/how-to-cook
There are videos and study notes for well thought out graduated free courses here https://www.deliaonline.com/learn-to-cook
Series of videos and written guides to huge variety of topics here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/cookery

If you want to buy a book I would recommend any Dorling Kindersley publications, these are always full of lots of colour photographs and the accompanying text never assumes you have any knowledge of the subject at all. 

I'm giving you the links above because I've found all three to be helpful but other places I've also found good are , Ottolenghi, Guardian food pages, Nigella, the happy foodie blog, jamie, good housekeeping, sainsbury's magazine and tesco recipe pages. 

Thanks - I'll start out with the web resources and go from there. 

I have been using Tom Kerridge's Lockdown Dinners which is good. 

Also came across Ottolenghi's 'Simple' book but haven't really looked into it. 

I have something to go at now. 

Mutton_Geoff

Cooking is a practical skill, lot's of presentation, flavours nutritional value to consider. Knife skills are useful for preparation. Like other practical skills, driving, flying, skiing, sailing etc, it is near on impossible to learn from a book alone. The only way to get to the next level will be via a practical course. Many schools run them from a single day to a term (for a Cordon Bleu certificate).

There was a school in Woking called Tante Marie but as the world moves towards celebrity adulation, it's been taken over by some bloke called Gordon

kdotdotdotdot

When it comes to cooking, practice really does make perfect.  The more you cook, the more you get a feel for how ingredients will behave in a recipe.  

For presentation ideas, go to Pinterest.  Lots and lots of pretty stuff on there which will help you make even a simple tomato salad look incredible (but DON'T trust the recipes unless it's from a recognised chef).