Sweet and Sour Sauce – A mainstay of Cantonese cooking. It can be used to cook with or for a dipping sauce. As with soy sauce, there are many different versions of this sauce but the basic sauce is made with vinegar and honey or sugar. This sauce can be bought ready made in most grocery stores, but it is quite easy to make at home.

Hoisin Sauce – This is a dipping sauce and is also used as Chinese barbecue sauce. It has a very salty and sweet flavor. It can be used in stir-fry recipes as a thickener as well as for its flavor.

Plum Sauce – A thick sauce similar to Hoisin and used in the same ways. It is tangy, sweet and spicy and is often made with vinegar, sugar, chili peppers and plums. Some Plum Sauces have a slightly smoky flavor to them.

Oyster Flavored Sauce – The original of this sauce was made by cooking down oysters and adding salt to the mixture. The modern version is made with oyster extract, caramel for color and thickened with corn starch. It is very thick, salty and savory, a perfect sauce for adding to beef or pork. If used with chicken it can overwhelm the chicken flavor. A dollop added to a stir-fry can really add a lot of flavor to the dish.

Duck Sauce – A type of sweet and sour sauce usually made from apples, but can also be made from plums, apricots, or peaches. Salt, vinegar, chili peppers and ginger are also added. It is usually very thick and translucent with an orange color. This is used primarily for a dipping sauce and is very sweet, tart and fruity.

Rice Wine Vinegar – This is a vinegar made from rice wine. It can be clear or various shades of red and brown. It is not as acidic as Western vinegar and it has a slightly sweet taste, so when a recipe calls for rice wine vinegar, do not substitute regular vinegar. It is used as an ingredient in many of the sauces previously mentioned, as well as for cooking and for dipping.

Sesame Oil – Sesame oil is extracted from sesame seeds, and is used in South India as a cooking oil. In Chinese and other cuisines it is used as a flavoring agent. Regular sesame seed oil is amber in color and has a nutty flavor. Dark sesame seed oil is made from tasted sesame seeds and is darker and has a stronger flavor. All sesame oils have a robust flavor, so only a few drops can flavor a pot of soup or stir -fry. Use too much, and it can easily overwhelm the dish. Always add sesame oil towards the end of the cooking process. If it gets too hot and burns the flavor is ruined.

Sriracha Sauce – A chili sauce made from jalapenos, salt, sugar, garlic and vinegar. The original Sriracha sauce of Thailand is different than the more common Sriracha found in most markets in the United States. Also known as rooster sauce because of the rooster on the bottle, this sauce is known around the world and is made in the United States by immigrants from Thailand. This is without a doubt my favorite chili sauce of all. It is a tad bit sweeter and not as acidic as Tabasco, and goes good with eggs, stir-fry, almost anything. When cooking with Sriracha, some of the heat is lost but the flavor remains. It is great stir-fried with shrimp or chicken.

In pairing food and wine, remember that as with any pairing, light food should be paired with a light wine, and heavier meals should be paired with heavier wines. However, at the same time, wines tend to take the center stage, so a pairing wherein the wine will not be overpowered by the food can also work. At times, you can make the food match with your wine, and not the other way around. Select your food choices around your favorite wine. Make your food adjust to the taste of the wine.

White wines tend to go with fish or mild cheese, while the reds can be paired with meat. Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon can work well with red meats, roast beef, chicken barbeque, steaks or smoked meats. Sauvignon Blanc can work with a light fish course, light cheeses, grilled salmon or shellfish. Lighter wines such as Pinot Noir, can work well with almost any dish because of its delicate texture, it does not require any stronger taste to complement it.The proper wine glass is crucial in making the pairing work. The taste of the wine will only be brought out by the right choice of wine glass.

A fun way to get the right pairing is by trying out dishes with two or three different wines and determining which ones will work best. You might be surprised at what food and wine pairings work out, so feel free to experiment.Alternatively, there are restaurants that offer their food choices already with the best wine accompaniment. For a full course meal, the meals are already paired with the wines and it is up to you whether you go for a meal because of the food choice or your favorite wine and the food choice has been made accordingly.

Wild Food Means Healthier Eating

With so many convenience foods and quick ready-meals on the market today, there are many areas where it’s simply unheard of to pick edible dandelions or nettle plants even though there’s no cost to doing this. One of the benefits of picking and eating your own types of wild food and edible plants is that they are much healthier in the way of nutrients than their shop bought counterparts. For example, one type of wild food that is certainly edible is called “Fat Hen” and this is a green plant that is comparable to spinach or cabbage. However, Fat Hen contains more protein, Vitamin B, iron, and calcium!

Wild Food – Beyond Organic

Yet another benefit to choosing the wild food route and staying away from shop bought produce for the most part is that the wild plants, natural fruits, and vegetables that can be grown from your own back yard or that can be picked in fields don’t contain chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides. Anything that is added to plants or food in a farmers’ field in order to make it grow larger or quicker or added so that the crops will stay fresh longer is usually unnatural and has very little nutritional value, if any.

Responsibility and Respect

When it comes to choosing the food that we eat, many times, the supermarket is our first stop. However, eating wild food and picking it naturally from the earth gives us intangible benefits: responsibility and respect. After you have experienced going out to find wild food plants for your meals or tending to the fresh fruits and vegetables in your own backyard then you’ll naturally develop a newfound sense of responsibility for yourself as well as for your body to keep it healthy. In addition, many people say that they also gain more respect for the earth and plants that have been here for thousands of years when they begin to take on a new lifestyle of choosing wild food and plants over chemical treated, shop bought foodstuffs.

Take the Chef works CoolVent chef jacket which has revolutionised kitchen wear. The CoolVent fabric draws heat and moisture away from the body while tiny vents allow cool air to circulate keeping the chef cool and dry in the heat of the kitchen. With kitchen clothing like this on offer all chefs can stand the heat of the kitchen. They also provide chef jackets in Egyptian cotton and polycotton to suit all styles. Although a chef’s jacket is a practical garment they are also stylish and thoughtfully designed to keep the chef comfortable at all times. Knowing that some chefs are on show due to modern restaurant design the chef jackets can be bought which are durable and smart.

In addition to the chef jacket and apron a chef needs practical and versatile chef’s trousers Chef works chef trousers offer comfort and protection for the modern chef. A chef can choose from traditional chef’s trousers, cargo trousers or even Better Built Baggies. All their trousers are smart, comfortable and practical built to survive even the demands of the toughest kitchen environment. So for the restaurant clothing that will make a chef look, feel and perform to their best then the place to visit is Nextday Catering Equipment.

Step #1: Enroll in Culinary School
It takes a lot to be a chef. Chefs have to know how to sear a piece of tuna, sauté fresh asparagus, and reduce a sauce down to perfection-sometimes all at once. In addition, they must know how to oversee an entire kitchen staff, handle knives without losing any fingers, and keep the refrigerator at the right temperature so the meat doesn’t spoil and the desserts don’t freeze.

To learn all of this (and a few other tricks that come in handy), most chefs start their career by going to culinary school. There, you’ll get the hands-on experience you need to make your way around the kitchen.

Step #2: Get Some Experience Under Your Belt
Despite what the reality shows say, no one graduates from culinary school and becomes the next Gordon Ramsay. First, you have to prove that you can hold your own in front of a char grill on a busy Friday night.

When you graduate culinary school, use the connections you made their to find a position as a chef de partie, also known as a station chef or line cook. Yes, it will be grueling and consist of long hours, but it’s a great way to get the experience you need. Many restaurants rotate their line employees through different stations, which allow you to perfect your skills and handle any complicated order that comes your way.

Step #3: Work Your Way Up
Once you feel confident in your culinary skills, what’s next? There’s a variety of positions underneath the executive chef that will allow you to climb the culinary ladder.

Expediters work to coordinate all the different entrees and ensure that they come out on time. (They’re sort of like an orchestra conductor, but of the kitchen.) Head cooks oversee and supervise the other workers on the line. And Sous chefs are second-in-command to the executive chef, ordering inventory, helping with menu creation, and running the kitchen in the chef’s absence.

Any of these positions will give you the leadership and management experience you need to eventually become an executive chef yourself.

Ready to get started?
Find out more about culinary schools and programs on this culinary degree programs page.

If you are capable of following a recipe, you are capable of creating your own. The best way to start off is by tinkering with an easy recipe that you know you like.

You might have a favorite meat or fish dish. How would that dish taste if you added some Thai spices or served it with pasta and sauce instead of with the baked potatoes or rice you normally use?

You can combine your favorite parts of different recipes to make one new one. For example, if you have a favorite recipe for grilled chicken and a winning white wine sauce recipe, you can use a recipe search to find the perfect vegetable side dish to complete this meal. Of course, a recipe search engine is not capable of creating brand new recipes itself but you can adapt recipes you find and make them your own.

Tips for Creating Recipes

Do not expect every creation to be amazing. It can happen that you use a flavor in a recipe and find that it just does not work out. If that should happen, just chalk it up to experience and try a new approach the next time.

Rather than create a new spice blend and rub it over a whole chicken, why not make a new spicy sauce and cook the chicken separately. That way, if the spice blend comes out wrong, you have not ruined an entire chicken.

The only things required for inventing recipes yourself is a creative streak and a bit of bravery. You do not need to be a gourmet chef or have extensive food knowledge.

Start simply, rather than attempting to create an elaborate meal from scratch. This might mean you change the kind of cheese in a recipe and a few of the vegetables. It might mean you use Chinese spices in a fish dish instead of the Italian spices in the recipe.

Perhaps you have tried this already. Perhaps you have been partway through a recipe before and suddenly realized you do not have one of the ingredients. Maybe you substituted the ingredient with something you did have. This is a kind of recipe creation because your meal was original and different from the recipe.

Using a recipe search engine is the best way to get started because you can explore different kinds of recipes and do a recipe search by ingredient if you have an idea of what you want to use.

With so many convenience foods and quick ready-meals on the market today, there are many areas where it’s simply unheard of to pick edible dandelions or nettle plants even though there’s no cost to doing this. One of the benefits of picking and eating your own types of wild food and edible plants is that they are much healthier in the way of nutrients than their shop bought counterparts. For example, one type of wild food that is certainly edible is called “Fat Hen” and this is a green plant that is comparable to spinach or cabbage. However, Fat Hen contains more protein, Vitamin B, iron, and calcium! Another example is wild garlic that is healthier than cultivated garlic because of the chlorophyll that it contains, not to mention that it makes a great addition to salads and other flavouring!

Yet another benefit to choosing the wild food route and staying away from shop bought produce for the most part is that the wild plants, natural fruits, and vegetables that can be grown from your own back yard or that can be picked in fields don’t contain chemicals, pesticides, or herbicides. Anything that is added to plants or food in a farmers’ field in order to make it grow larger or quicker or added so that the crops will stay fresh longer is usually unnatural and has very little nutritional value, if any.

When it comes to choosing the food that we eat, many times, the supermarket is our first stop. However, eating wild food and picking it naturally from the earth gives us intangible benefits: responsibility and respect. After you have experienced going out to find wild food plants for your meals or tending to the fresh fruits and vegetables in your own backyard then you’ll naturally develop a newfound sense of responsibility for yourself as well as for your body to keep it healthy. In addition, many people say that they also gain more respect for the earth and plants that have been here for thousands of years when they begin to take on a new lifestyle of choosing wild food and plants over chemical treated, shop bought foodstuffs.

So what are the food items that we use from peanuts? There are so many this can not be an exhaustive list but will cover many of the main categories. We all know about peanut butter, and what a great choice to mix with jelly on a sandwich. It is also used in many Asian dishes as a thickener in soups and stews. Many times Chinese, dishes have peanuts sprinkled on top to give the dish some crunch. Of course you can eat them raw, or roasted with salt or honey glazed on the nuts. Here in the south, we have a couple of unusual traditions with peanuts. The first is boiled peanuts. You can be driving down the road and many road side produce stands will have signs advertising boiled peanuts. Some of you may ask, what is a boiled peanut? Raw peanuts with the shell are dumped into a pot of boiling water which can have different flavors like salted, garlic, or Cajun. Then the peanuts are removed. The shell is cracked and the juice is sucked out and the peanuts eaten. The most unusual is deep fried peanuts. In the south, you have to deep fry everything. So with the shells on, you drop the peanuts into hot grease and fry. Then as they come out of the oil sprinkle your favorite flavors on the shell. Then eat the peanuts shell and all. Good stuff.

What else can we use the peanut for besides eating? One application is the making of peanut oil. Everyone who loves deep frying knows that the longest lasting and safest oil to fry in is peanut oil. Most restaurants use peanut oil because it lasts so much longer than vegetable oil in their deep fryers. The second reason is peanut oil has a lot higher ignition temperature than other oils. So when making funnel cakes or deep fried turkeys, your risk of fire is reduced greatly. Peanuts can also be used to make cosmetics, fuel for biomass stoves, dyes, paints, stains, paper glue, gas and hundreds of other things according to the Tuskegee University web site. The last group and probably the most used but least thought about are medicines. Peanuts and peanut products can be used for rubbing oils, castor oil substitutes, laxatives, and even for venereal disease. That George Washington Carver was an amazing inventor. He came up with all of these uses and did and only sold three of them, the rest he gave to mankind.

The last reason deep fried peanuts can be a gourmet food snack is a former president grew up on a peanut farm. Every body knew the peanut farmer from Georgia in 1976. The campaign was as much about rural people and peanuts as it was about the candidates. Now, Plains Georgia has an annual celebration of the peanut and the former president. There are images of the peanut all over the town, a 5K race, beauty queens, and several other competitions during the festival. There are also several museums commemorating Mr. Carter and the influence the peanut and farming had on his life. If a president had a significant experience with a peanut, then I think you should also. Go find some deep fried peanuts, boiled peanuts, or some honey roasted. I am sure you will be glad you did