My guest Monica Sarkar (@tmsarkar on Instagram) talks about how she learned to cook. She shares how she became the designated chef for her father and brother at the age of 10. She started out using cookbooks her dad gave her (we discovered that we both used Loony Spoons as our very first cookbook!).
Monica talks about her current go-to meal, Shepherd’s Pie, and how she improved it recently with some secret ingredients. She talks about how watching cooking shows for the first time at age 21 opened her up to new possibilities, in particular the ability to cook without a recipe. Her biggest influences were Chef John of Food Wishes and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
Monica teaches us how to improve our cooking skills by focusing on one dish in particular, in this case she uses pasta as an example. She talks about how she watched videos from pasta-making experts, such as Famiglia Baldassarre, used trial and error to develop the best recipes, and studied how the dish was put together in restaurants. She talks about how cross-referencing recipes and using descriptive words (such as “fluffy” for meatball) can help us find the best ingredients for the meals we want to get better at.
In order to overcome intimidation, Monica advises us to read the recipe carefully and ensure that we understand every step before starting to cook. She also tells us that having a bunch of small bowls handy will encourage us to get all our ingredients ready and measured before we start to cook.
Monica talks about how having the right tools, such as a sharp chef’s knife, will help us improve our technical skills, such as chopping. We can also watch videos of experts and Youtube channels such as Sorted Food. Monica shares a couple neat techniques to help us taste our food so that we can improve the flavours as we cook. She also discusses how she learned what ingredients go well together.
Finally, Monica tells us how we can make our food look presentable, either so that we can take Instagram-worthy photos, or just impress our family and friends before they take their first bite!
