What Do They Teach You in Cooking School? Unveiling Culinary Secrets

While I'm very knowledgeable about food, I never went to culinary school.  While I believe it's not entirely necessary to go if you want to work with food or even be a chef, it forms a good foundation for technique, food safety, and builds skills and confidence. So what exactly do they teach you in culinary school? Well, I've talked with many chefs.. including one of my best friends, Gisselle (you may remember her from a guest cooking class and recipe), and I"m sharing the knowledge I've gathered with you.

Cooking school is a place where aspiring chefs learn the art and science of culinary excellence. From essential techniques to advanced cooking methods, culinary education equips students with the skills to create extraordinary dishes. In this blog post, we'll provide a glimpse into what cooking schools teach and how you can apply these learnings in your own kitchen. Plus, we'll show you how Mama Milly's Mojo Garlic Sauce and Spice blends can elevate your culinary creations. Let's uncover the secrets of cooking school!

1. Knife Skills:

• Cooking school emphasizes the importance of proper knife skills, including cutting, slicing, dicing, and chopping with precision.
• Apply your knife skills while using Mama Milly's Spice blends to season meats, vegetables, and other ingredients, enhancing both flavor and presentation.

2. Flavor Pairing and Seasoning:

• Culinary education teaches students how to combine flavors harmoniously and season dishes to perfection. There's a science to creating balanced flavors... a baseline is: Salt, Acid, Sugar (and sometimes Fat).
• Experiment with Mama Milly's Mojo Garlic Sauce and Spice blends to discover exciting flavor combinations that elevate your dishes to new heights.
• Cooking with Alcohol: Since alcohol can form molecular bonds, it mixes and mingles with those molecules that aren’t totally fat or water soluble to carry flavors from sauce or marinade into the food. As an added bonus, ethanol also denatures some proteins, which acts to tenderize meat.

3. Sauce Making:

• Cooking schools emphasize the art of sauce making, from classic mother sauces to contemporary variations. (We'll be bringing you about Mother Sauces in our blog later this month!)
• Use Mama Milly's Mojo Garlic Sauce as a versatile base for creating flavorful sauces or as a finishing touch to add a burst of flavor to your dishes.

4. Culinary Techniques:

• Cooking schools teach various culinary techniques, such as braising, roasting, sautéing, and grilling. We've got recipes and guides in our blog for all of these cooking methods.. and don't forget the air fryer!
• Incorporate Mama Milly's Spice blends into your cooking techniques to infuse your dishes with unique and delectable flavors.
• Food safety: how to properly cook, cool, store, and serve food.  We've also got some guides to food safety within our blog so peruse at your leisure!