Gourmet Cooking Secrets!

Gourmet cooking is not really hard, you just need to know the basics.
Gourmet food is served in fine restaurants and is made with only the best ingredients. The recipes are often complex, or they give the illusion of being complex because of the flavors. Gourmet chefs often experiment with ingredients. They find new and innovative ways to serve old favorites. And more than anything, they create a pleasant dining experience for their guests.
But what a lot of people do not realize is that you can cook gourmet foods at home. The basic steps to cooking gourmet are no different than those to prepare home cooked meals. The only difference is that when cooking gourmet foods, you may need to go to specialty stores to find ingredients, but this is not always the case. Here are some things you can do to learn how to start out with gourmet cooking.
VISIT GOURMET RESTAURANTS
Visiting gourmet restaurants can go a long way to help you understand what gourmet food is all about. When you visit, bring a notebook so you can jot down your impressions. Or, you can just simply remember what you observe. Here are some things to look for:
· The Menu
The menu is a great place to go for inspiration. What kinds of foods are on the menu? How do they describe what they are serving? What ingredients are being used in the foods? How is that different from the things that you normally cook?
· The Ingredients
Take a closer look at the ingredients after your initial observations. Are there some things that appear in several of the dishes? What are they?
· Creativity and Personal Style
You may start to notice that the dishes all have commonalities. This is the chef's personal style and how he or she expresses creativity.
· How does your food look?
Once you place an order and get your food, make a note of the appearance. How are the colors? How is it arranged on the plate? With gourmet food, appearance is just as important as the recipes and the ingredients.
· How does your food taste?
How does the food taste? Did the chef do a good job making the food unique? Is it flavorful?
Using your observations you can slowly begin to apply these principals to your own cooking at home.
FIND THE BEST INGREDIENTS
Gourmet chefs spend a long time looking for only the best ingredients. They tend to feature seasonal foods on their menus and only purchase things that are fresh, beautiful, and flavorful. They build their dishes around the ingredients and not the other way around. Here are some tips for finding the best ingredients:
· Seasonal
Think about what is in season. If tomatoes are in season, for example, you may want to find a way to accentuate those flavors by creating a salad or a pasta dish.
· Farmer's markets
Farmer's markets are a great place to go for fresh ingredients. These go from the ground to the market with little transport time. This means that anything you find at these places is likely high in flavor.
· Gourmet food shops
There are a lot of gourmet food shops scattered around the world. Here, you can find those special ingredients and spices that will make your food unique.
· Regular markets
Don't ignore your local market for finding ingredients. More and more people are starting to cook gourmet foods in the home and the supermarkets are starting to understand that there is a demand for it.
Once you find the ingredients that you need, you can start creating your own gourmet foods.
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