Building Confidence In the Kitchen

Have you ever wanted to be able to cook without thinking about it? Do you have trouble piecing together a meal from the contents of your refrigerator? Do you feel that you don’t understand the basics of cooking or even some rudimentary skills like chopping, dicing or julienning? Well, that’s how I always felt about cooking – I was great at following a recipe (to the letter), but could not improvise anything. I also did not know much about basic kitchen skills.

Then I read “Kitchen Counter Cooking School” by Kathleen Flinn. This book is not a how-to book but rather a chronicle of how a professionally trained chef (Flinn is a graduate of Paris’ Le Cordon Bleu) took nine culinary novices and transformed them into perfectly serviceable cooks. Flinn’s journey is prompted by a random encounter with a woman loading processed food into her supermarket cart. After talking to the woman, Flinn finds out that the woman buys the processed food because they are “easy” and “always come out right.” It was this lack of knowledge and confidence that sparked Flinn to create a series of classes which would take ordinary folks and teach them to become more than proficient in the kitchen.

Flinn begins her series of classes explaining the basics of knife skills – starting with the very primitive notion of how to hold a knife and what different knives are used for – and builds from there.  Students learned how to butcher a whole chicken, bake bread, create variations of different dressings and other assorted common kitchen tasks.  More advanced subjects such as flavor profiles and ‘seasoning to taste’ were covered as well.  Through the entire course, Flinn explains where her students started from and how they are progressing.  She even provides follow-ups with them after the classes are over to see how their culinary habits have changed.

The book is a mix of stories from the classes, antedotes from the author and how-to tips and recipes. There’s an explanation of basic knife skills and recipes for many different foods. My biggest take away from this book, however, was instilling a sense of confidence in my cooking. Much like the students in her class, I feared deviating from the plan when I cooked. After devouring this easy-reading book, I now possess some basic knowledge and skills that make me feel much more comfortable in the kitchen. I am still not, by any means, a master or experienced chef, but I feel that I have the biggest ingredient available to get there – confidence.

If this book sounds like something you would like to read, please considering helping this site by clicking on the following link to purchase your copy of “Kitchen Counter Cooking School” by Kathleen Flinn.