How well can you cook? Which of these 4 catagories applies to you?

I'm fine with following a recipe and can get creative if need be. That being said, I've been living off of V8 juice and lean turkey tacos for a week.

I'm in the 4 category and maybe even the 5. I've made my living cooking for about 20 years now. Educated in "Culinary Arts", although mostly a waste of time, it taught me some things and my chef in school was awesome. He recognized the folks who were passionate and gave them extra opportunities through catering gigs and the like.

I really learned to cook from my great grandma. She had us peeling veg for her when we were like, 4 or 5. Moved on to other stuff as we got older. I never ate pre-made bread until she died when I was 12. She made everything from scratch. She gave both my brother and I an education in cooking and baking from an early age. I can bake and I can make breads and the like.

I can do all the things listed and can fabricate most animals from whole, improvise methods of cooking using unorthodox tools, recognize many wild, edible ingredients in my local area and so on. I've worked from high end fine dining to diners. I've started a restaurant with a cuisine I knew nothing about when I started and turned it into a very well respected, well known place that received rave reviews from several different cooking and food publications.

I've taught others how to cook, have given lectures on food safety, done caterings for 2000 and private multi-course dinners for 4.

And I have grown to despise the business. I love cooking, love food but have just lost the patience to deal with the BS that comes along with being a chef.

Someday, I'll own a small B&B or only open 4 days a week for dinner shop and do it the way I want but until then, I thought I would make a career change and try something easier, being a nurse.

ETA: Coincidentally, or not, my brother is a chef as well.

originally posted by: GAOTU789
And I have grown to despise the business. I love cooking, love food but have just lost the patience to deal with the BS that comes along with being a chef.
Someday, I'll own a small B&B or only open 4 days a week for dinner shop and do it the way I want but until then, I thought I would make a career change and try something easier, being a nurse.

There you go Douglas, that is my answer as well. Right down to the Bed & Breakfast part too...

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: GAOTU789
And I have grown to despise the business. I love cooking, love food but have just lost the patience to deal with the BS that comes along with being a chef.
Someday, I'll own a small B&B or only open 4 days a week for dinner shop and do it the way I want but until then, I thought I would make a career change and try something easier, being a nurse.

There you go Douglas, that is my answer as well. Right down to the Bed & Breakfast part too...

Being a cook is about making good food.

Being a chef is about making good profits.

Thats why I am no longer a chef.

a reply to: nonspecific

Thanks nonspecific, I will have to look around an see if it's available, I never knew there was such a product. I agree store bought yogurt is horribly sweet and that's why I always buy the plain and just add fresh fruit or my homemade granola.

originally posted by: nonspecific
Being a chef is about making good profits.

Agreed. That is why we sold both of the restaurants, we got tired of dealing with the all the non-food related bull.

a reply to: douglas5


Believe it or not I've had everybody and their uncle tell me I should run my own little diner, including my ex, but with all the permits, the fees, the small business loans you'd have to take out, chances are there'd be no way I'd survive the first few months. Shame because I get a LOT of compliments on my cooking. A lot of cooking is taking a recipe and twisting it to a way that I like it. Taking something out, putting something in. I've gotten more compliments on my Sweet Corn Chowder, my Authentic Hungarian Goulash (not that macaroni and hamburger crap Americans eat), and my Authentic Hungarian Lesco (sausage stew). I get nothing but pleasure when I cook for others. For me when I feed others, I'm feeding their soul, not their stomachs. Every dish I make is made with love. Maybe some day before I die I can still see this dream made reality.

originally posted by: AccessDenied
It's in my capacity to cook like a number 3. When I feel like it. But I prefer to cook like a 2. Just too lazy most of the time to cook a big meal from scratch for 7 people. Especially when the kids can be picky about certain foods.

I have a teen daughter who is autistic. Her favorite thing I make is homemade sweet corn chowder. There are two ways I make it. The long drawn out process with tons of ingredients, or the simplified 4 ingredient canned version that she can make with no assistance whatsoever. She prefers the simplified because she knows how to make it herself and no one can kick her out of the kitchen and it requires no knives or supervision. She feels very grown up making the simplified.

For example, in the drawn out, it requires dicing bacon and frying it up, taking it out of the pan using a slotted spoon and using the grease to brown onions until they are translucent. In the simplified version, it requires using pre-cooked bacon and tearing it into small chunks with your fingers and putting it into the crock pot. Simple and something she knows how to do alone. She knows how to fill a large Dixie cup with milk into the crock pot. And empty one small frozen bag of sweet corn into the crock pot, as well as open one can of cream of potato soup into the crock pot. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder and an Autistic teen has just made dinner all by herself with no help at all. I even bought her a crock pot for her to do this alone at the group home she lives in so she can make this there without staff assistance. They just supervise and make sure she isn't using any knives, except butter knives if needed. She's so proud of herself every time she does this by herself. I even bought her an apple slicer/corer so she can do that alone as well.