A beginner's guide to gourmet cooking

Gourmet cooking is when you turn basic food cooking into an art form. It is more than just putting meals together. It is about appreciating the textures and colours as well as the flavours of foods and using them in creative ways to make delicious and attractive meals. This article will show you how to start in gourmet cooking.

Learn at home

If you enjoy cooking at home, then a good place to start to learn about gourmet cooking would be in your own kitchen. Take down your cookbooks and instead of doing the same old meals, try something new. Often a food shop or supermarket may produce recipe booklets or magazines which contain recipes you can use to start to become a gourmet. Look out for combination of ingredients you've never tried before such as a leek and pea mash and use such recipes as a starting point on your journey to become a gourmet.

Go online

After checking out the recipes in your food stores, you should also check out the recipes online. There are many food sites on the internet and quite a few have a cooking blog. Visit these sites and see what people are putting together and why. Find out what ingredients are in season and how other cooks are using them and experimenting with them.

Go to school

There are a surprising number of cooking courses available to the aspiring gourmet. These range from one-day courses, evening courses over several weeks, weekend courses and even week-long residential courses. These courses are not cheap, so to get the most from them, make sure that you've spent at least some time doing the above two steps and that you are fairly adapt at fine cooking. You want to get the most out of a cookery course, so be as ready as you can for it.

Go on holiday

If you really want to take your cooking skills to the next level, you might want to consider cooking vacations. These are often held in France or Italy; places where food is held in high esteem. There are cooking holidays for people of all abilities, so ensure that you know what you are signing up for before you go.

Keep practising

Gourmet cooking is like any art form. It cannot ever be truly mastered. All you can do is to strive to improve your ability and the more you do it, the easier it will become.