Beginner Lessons:

Welcome to Smart Kitchen. We look forward to helping you cook and eat better food. Better in every sense of the word—tastier, more attractive, quicker, more nutritious & more economical. It won’t be complicated or expensive. We will work together and get it done.
 Our teaching tools, our knives & cookware if you will, are 30 Lessons of increasing complexity, that take you through the 250 core competencies upon which modern cooking is built. By following the Foundation and then the Intermediate & Advanced Lessons over the coming months, you will learn how to work safely in a kitchen environment, what different equipment is used for, and which equipment you can and cannot live without.  We will explore what classic and contemporary culinary terms mean and how they fit into your life. Most importantly, you will become adept at the primary methods of the culinary arts and learn when and how to use each one of them to cook stunning meals.
 

Knife skills are the foundation of cooking. No matter what you cook or how you cook it, the primary and essential skills needed to achieve success will always begin with your knife.

As your blade skills improve, your presentations become more appealing and your preparation time diminishes. In the 10 Basic Knife Skills Topics we will explore the knife--the chef’s paint brush.

 “Culinary Art” is enabled by Organization and basic Preparation and elevated by both the “Feel” and “Science” of cooking. One can better Organize their Preparation, Techniques & Processes when one understands how they all interplay with the ingredients and the forces used in cooking.

Lesson 3 Food Preparation Basics will focus on the preparation or “prep” of our ingredients. You will learn how a chef prepares & organizes and how a chef thinks—frequently like a scientist— to achieve timely consistency and exquisite flavors.  

The purpose of cooking is to make food more nutritious, tastier and safer to eat. In Introduction to Cooking Methods we study the bulk of the classic cooking techniques and learn about controlling temperature and how to introduce product to the heat.  

Breakfast is a distinctive meal, characterized by egg dishes, fruits, grains, dairy and some breakfast proteins. Breakfast is a great place to learn about all 5 and incorporate some new techniques to our repertoire. 

Garde Manger means the “cold kitchen,” where we concentrate on producing cold foods.

 Stocks, Sauces & Soups range from the simplest to the most sublime prepared foods in the kitchen.