I love to cook.
It is both my job and my passion.
I think it's unfortunate so many people find cooking to be a chore rather than an experience that brings them joy.
I want to show you that with the right approach you can go from dreading having to fix dinner for you and your family every night, to looking forward to it.
The first step: go out and get yourself a high quality chef knife.
You don't need to go and replace all your old knives.
Simply start by getting one good 8" chef knife, with a handle that feels comfortable.
You don't need to have the latest piece of gear, endorsed by a celebrity chef, to be able to make delicious food for yourself.
But if you often find yourself struggling to cut onions with a dull knife then I'm not surprised if you find cooking to be a chore.
Here are the 2 main reasons why buying a good quality chef knife will make you a better cook: 1.
Knives are cool! 2.
Simple jobs will be quicker and easier.
Let's start with the first reason.
It may seem like an immature and irrelevant reason to invest in a high quality chef knife, but let's face it: knives are cool.
That's why you see all sorts of fancy graphics of knives being tossed around in cut scenes on shows like Hell's Kitchen, and why the catch phrase from Top Chef is "Please pack your knives and go.
" So what does the awesome coolness of knives have to do with making you a better cook? It all has to do with perception.
As I said before, you should view cooking as a pleasure rather than a chore.
I guarantee you that if you go the store and plunk down $50 to a $150 on a knife, you will be racing home to play with your new toy.
And that's a good thing.
Already you will be starting to view cooking as fun.
You will probably then want to start looking up recipes online or digging up old cookbooks to find ways to take advantage of your new investment.
Once you make that first slice with your shiny new Wusthof or Japanese blade, you will wonder how you ever got by with your old knife.
Which brings me to my second point: simple jobs will be quicker and easier.
Cooking is the art of transforming raw ingredients into finished meals.
Naturally this always involves a lot of slicing and dicing.
Many people try to save time in the kitchen by buying pre-cut, pre-portioned ingredients, but this isn't a good idea because the product is bound to be less fresh and therefore less delicious and less healthy.
If you get a good knife and develop your knife skills you will be less tempted to take those kinds of shortcuts.
With a good sharp knife in your hand you will be able to quickly chop up some onions, garlic and fresh tomatoes to make a tomato sauce that is a million times tastier than anything you will get out of a can or jar.
You will be able to take pride in having made something completely from scratch and will be well on your way to feeling more comfortable and adventurous in the kitchen.
In cooking, as in all things in life, practice makes perfect.
The more often you cook from scratch, the better you will become at it.
The rewards are well worth the effort: delicious food that just happens to be good for you.
Pre-package meals and sauces are loaded with fat, sugar & salt.
Even without making any conscious effort to avoid these things, you are bound to consume less if you cook your meals from scratch using fresh ingredients.
So treat yourself to a fancy new chef knife and have fun in the kitchen!