On 5/11/2010 7:11 AM, azngi16 wrote:
> I'm learning how to cook. How should I start cooking? I want to get to
> amateur chef level.

The best thing to do is cook and pay attention to what you're doing. Be
fearless--if it looks interesting try it--if it turns out horrible try
to figure out why.

Recognize that there are a few basic recipes and techniques that once
learned allow vast amounts of variation. Always be looking for the
basic formula or technique in any recipe.

If you're totally lost in the kitchen "Martha Stewart's Cooking School"
covers a lot of very basic stuff in ad nauseum detail with lots of very
high quality illustrations and some somewhat exotic dishes to
demonstrate the techniques she shows. Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here For
the Food" would be a good next step. Martha herself says she learned by
working her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French
Cooking". "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee will tell you an awful
lot about what's really going on in the food. When you understand that
then recipes make a lot more sense. Note that McGee is not a
cookbook--you can start reading it right off and learn useful things. If
you work diligently through all of those you should be at a very decent
"amateur chef" level.