Good Afternoon
I thought I would join up and introduce myself after listening through the very detailed podcasts (I'm currently up to SCS 14 - Salad Greens). I'm a married 34 year old male from the United Kingdom although my parents are from the West Indies (Trinidad and Jamaica) so flavoursome and spicy food have always been in my life. I decided to look through Itunes to find culinary podcasts after going through a Masterchef Oz marathon and got inspired. To the point where I did my first roast dinner on Sunday just gone (Complete roast chicken that had been marinated from the day before, parnsips and carrots with mash. Even made my own stuffing (Chirazo and onions). Then I made my own vanilla custard from scratch (it went slightly over but I learnt from it).
Now this isn't to say that I cannot cook in that I burn toast, it was always a case of where I never really had to cook for myself although I can. Now, it's more of why I'm cooking and I'm very interested in the flavours.
It's like when the judges on Masterchef say that the flavours are not balanced (what did that mean? - Now I know). Then they mention that the flavours are layered and that they hit the palate at different times (again, does that mean that flavours have different lifetimes. A sweet taste will fade before a bitter taste but fades before a hot chilli taste so that the last thing you taste is the chilli flavour????).
My relationship with food has been one where I like what I eat and to be fair, never really thought much about it in terms of the science or theory behind it. Will I ever be in a professional kitchen - No. Am I passionate about food - Maybe (It might come with time as I discover things). Do I want to create kickass food - Yes.
I'm always one to always look out for the West Indian food when I travel to different cities just so that I can see if they cook it just like Mama used to make. Now I'm at the stage that I want my son to taste that sort of food so if I can recreate it then I will be a happy daddy (we're actually getting him a play kitchen for christmas. I'll make sure he seasons his pan according to the instructions on here :)).
Tried out the knife skill this morning when I was doing my salad. I have to say that holding the knife different made all the difference, the cutting was faster although the slices were not even and I can't get to grips with the guide hand, but between your videos and the Jamie oliver ones, I'll get there :).
I've rambled on enough so I look forward to more discussing/insights and podcasts. Maybe I'll post some West Indian dishes :).