This type of cooking instruction usually is more interesting and informal. You are not following a curriculum, you are following the expertise and whims of the chef or the school. Some chefs will even provide private cooking lessons in your own home. Of course that is going to be more expensive, but it might be the perfect evening for a couple with some extra money to spend.

Some small cooking schools rent space from a restaurant or hotel so you will be learning in a professional kitchen, not in a school’s kitchen, which could make the experience more realistic.

If you want to learn to cook a certain style of food, these small schools are probably going to work best. You just need to find a school or chef that specializes in the style you want to learn.

Another cooking class experience that is very interesting, is to actually work side-by-side with a chef in the restaurant kitchen, working during a dinner service. This type of training is harder to find, but might be worth the effort it takes to find this type of setup.

Probably the best way to find the cooking class you want to take is by searching the internet. Even the smallest school will have a basic website with information to help you make your decision. If you can’t find any reviews about the classes you could call and ask to speak to past students to see what their experience was like.

Cooking boiled shrimp is pretty easy. You either use Rex or Zatarains crab boil. I always get the kind that comes in the mesh bag. It will season up to 3 pounds.

To boil shrimp you need a big pot and fill it with water, make sure you have enough to cover the shrimp when they are boiling and that you don’t put too much water in the pot because you do not want boiling water to overflow when adding the shrimp.

Once your water is boiling add the crab boil and let that boil for a couple of minutes, then add the shrimp. Let the water come back to a boil and boil for 3 minutes, then turn the heat off and let the shrimp soak in the water for 10 minutes. This helps soak up the spices from the crab boil.

Then drain the cooked shrimp and put it in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator, or if you are like us, in the freezer. Once that shrimp is cooked we can’t wait to eat it. It is best if it is cool.

The next step should be done while you are waiting for the water to boil. You need to make some cocktail sauce to dip your shrimp in. Use a half cup of Heinz Cocktail sauce (it’s near the ketchup at the grocery store) and about a tablespoon of horseradish. You might need to experiment depending on how spicy you want it. You can make cocktail sauce with ketchup or chili sauce, but I find this pretty easy and it tastes good. You can add some lemon to the sauce as well.

Now all you have to do is peel the shrimp and dig in. We always peel them one at a time and peel and eat. If you don’t know how to peel a shrimp, it is usually easiest to learn by watching. But what I do is break the tail off and peel away the legs which will peel some of the shell off and just get the remaining shell off. When eating boiled shrimp we never de-vein them.

Cooking shrimp this way is excellent for gumbo.

While there are many schools around the country and in your local area, it is probably good to go with a large school like this especially if you are looking to get a job after the training. A large training center has more connections in getting people jobs. Also companies come to them when they are looking for new bartenders because they know they are turning out quality bartenders.

The majority of the positive comments describe the quality instructors and the hands on classroom environment along with the excellent job placement.

The negative comments centered on bad communication with office staff, including miscommunications regarding tuition costs, timely receipt of their certificate and calls not returned.

If the overall training program is sound, it might just be that certain office staff members are not trained or supervised properly and are causing students problems. These issues could be related to certain offices only. I would feel comfortable with using ABC for your bartender training, especially with the job placement.

I would suggest searching on the internet for the training center in your area to read any reviews about it to see if that office is doing a good job or not.

Authentic is designed for beginners, so if you are starting out you shouldn’t have any problems. They also offer lifetime job placement assistance, which is an excellent benefit.

I found many testimonials from students who attended the school in Manhattan and Philadelphia. Almost all of the reviews gave the school high praise. Some of the standout items were excellent job placement, some students were working the week after graduating from the school. Another great part about this training program is that they take you to real bars to pour for real customers with an instructor by your side. Some students really liked this, saying that it really helped their self confidence.

Many people mentioned that Authentic’s prices were the lowest in town. As usual there were a few negative reviews about the bartending school. It is interesting how some of the negative reviews seem like they were done at a different facility, which is possible. Some of the low points were poor communication, poor job placement and unacceptable training facilities.

My suggestion is to find as many reviews as possible on the internet for the location you are interested in and see what you think. Another great thing to do is go see the school. Talk to the staff and see what the facilities are like. If everything seems to feel right it is probably a good place to get your bartender’s training.

On the shores of the Hudson River in beautiful Hyde Park, NY sits, the world’s premier culinary college, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). This wonderful setting is only 90 minutes from New York City, one of the culinary centers of the world. I really can’t imagine a nicer place to go to college. I’m very familiar with the area, I lived in Woodstock, NY, which is a bit farther north up the Hudson River. From Hyde Park, it’s an easy commuter train ride into the city.

If you graduate from the CIA you will be in nice company, some of the well known graduates include: Anthony Bourdain, Cat Cora, Todd English, Rocco DiSpirito, Duff Goldman, Hung Huynh, Sara Moulton, Michael Symon, and Heather West. Besides these well know names, there a numerous chef/owners, executive chefs and many other industry leaders that came from this school.

The Culinary Institute of America has a bachelor and associate degree program with provides cooking and baking and leadership skills and the understanding of the food business. If you plan to be a chef, restaurateur, foodservice manager, food writer and even do research and development, this is the place for you.

The on campus hands on training totals over 1,300 hours to develop your skills. Including working in the on campus cafe and restaurant–it can’t get more hands on than that.

Your training includes an 18 week externship at 1,100 approved restaurants, hotels or resorts around the country. This provides a real world look at what the food industry has in store.

If you can’t make it to New York there is a CIA in in Helena, California and in San Antonio, Texas (a great place by the way).

If you don’t want professional education, CIAProChef.com offers pro level training materials including: training on demand, pro-level textbooks and cookbooks, podcasts and DVDs. So some of us might not make it for the full training but we can kind of rub elbows with the elite, by accessing some of their great training materials.

If you want to go to probably the most beautiful campus to be trained as a chef go to the CIA. Also you are only an hour or so from New York City, one of the great food towns in the world.

Maybe the best way to find a quality cooking school is to start with the internet, this will help you get an idea what your area schools have to offer. If a school looks good, give them a call and tell them what you want to do. One of the best ways to learn about a school is to talk to former students, just ask for some references.

While culinary arts classes will provide you with the best growth, you might just want to take some cooking classes. I live in Austin, Texas and there are a couple of great schools that have famous chefs teach classes periodically. Whole Foods’ headquarters is in town and they have an excellent cooking school. Central Market, another excellent grocery store in town has cooking courses also. Central Market was the store that pushed Whole Foods to get away from its co-op roots and become a foodie mecca.

If you don’t have cooking classes like these in your town, you might try talking to a restaurant you like and see if you could work in the kitchen and learn. I’ve read about people on culinary vacations doing that in Europe, it might be worth a try. Of course it will cost you but what a great way to sharpen your skills.

Courses teach you all the necessary skills to do the job properly. Some of the things that are taught include: money handling, mixology, customer service, profit pouring and up-selling, speed techniques, garnish cutting, beers, liquors, wines and alcohol awareness.

While the schools help with job placement, it can be hard to get a job. Starting as a bar back and working your way up at an establishment you’d like to work is one of the traditional ways of getting in where you want. The internet is an excellent tool for finding a bartending job in your location.

Your training program should be certified and approved by your state. Get references from the school so you can talk to former students to learn about the program. Also, checking out the classrooms and meeting the teacher could be helpful in deciding if you like the school.

By doing some research you should find the school that is right for you. The top national schools are American Bartending, ABC Bartending, BartendingSchool.net and National Bartenders.

Bartending is a job that can be fun and doesn’t have traditional office hours, so it’s great for people who don’t like to get up early. Find a good school and you should have a new bartending job before you know it, making some nice money.

I know for myself I would really like to improve my baking skills. For some reason I think baking is just too difficult. I have no problem tackling very involved dishes, but when it comes to baking something involved I shy away from it.

I know one of the food trends that is happening here in Austin, Texas is specialized food establishments that are run by people skilled in baking. You can’t call them bakeries because they are too specialized. There are a couple of cupcake businesses and another baking business that sells cake lollipops as it’s signature product.

I have read about new baking centered businesses in New York City as well. Many times these new “bakeries” are run out of food trailers.

I’m not sure if these type of businesses will survive because they are so specialized, but it shows that in some cities it is a possibility for starting your own business.

Many schools around the country provide fundamental baking courses to get you started. It might be good to start at a school that has intermediate and advanced baking skills if a school like that is available in your area. Learning advanced skills and the latest trends in baking and pastry is what will help you if you want to start your own business or work as a baker at one of these new, hip places.

These new bakeries remind me of what coffee shops or cafes became in the wake of Starbucks and the many independent cafes. They have a certain feel, usually fairly hip or interesting at least, serving specialized, usually high quality products. While I like a fresh cinnamon roll from a traditional bakery, some of the new concoctions these places come up with are sure fun to try.

To give you an idea what excellent training at a good school can do, two friends started a bakery in Fargo. The one who was the baker took artisan break making courses at an excellent school in San Francisco. With his new skills, their bakery became so busy that sometimes by early afternoon they are sold out.

But you might not want to start your own business or work as a baker, you might just want to bake amazing food for a hobby. By all means take some of these courses and start baking amazing pastries and breads. I think I might join you.

As an avid cook I have a big collection of cookbooks and lots of excellent recipes I’ve found on the internet. The problem with the recipes on the internet is sometimes they aren’t very good. But then again, sometimes they are. I especially like the ones with ratings and comments. The comments are cool because people who have tried the recipe multiple times write about what they’ve done to make it better.

For example, here’s a recipe of mine that I’ve made a ton of times and I personally think it is some of the best gumbo I’ve eaten. Over time I’ve improved it and now it works. Check out a copy of my crawfish and sausage gumbo recipe here.

The funny thing about the title of this post is that it was originally setup to promote this ebook, Secret Restaurant Recipes and all of a sudden the author publishes the ebook as a regular book and now it’s on Amazon for ten bucks. I’m trying to promote it as an affiliate for $39, which by the way never sold. The dude’s sales page did not convert. Anyway, I’m done with that.

It might not be the secret KFC fried chicken recipe, but it’s darn good! I’ve made this a couple of times and the chicken turns out real tasty!

Ingredients:

* 1.5 Tablespoons Salt
* 2 tablespoons Louisiana Hot Sauce
* 1 chicken cut in pieces (they have this at the grocery store)
* 3 cups nonfat buttermilk
* 1.5 cups flour
* 2 pounds vegetable shortening (you can use canola or vegetable oil)
* 1 tablespoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons pepper
* 1 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Directions:

Mix together the salt, Louisiana hot sauce and buttermilk, add the chicken and make sure the chicken is coated with the buttermilk mixture. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Put the rest of the dry ingredients, including 3 teaspoons of salt, into a paper sack and mix up the ingredients in the bag by shaking the bag.

In a heavy skillet–cast iron is best, heat the oil or shortening to 375 degrees. Make sure you are using enough oil to cover each piece of chicken. Also, make sure the sides of the skillet are high enough so the oil doesn’t overflow when the chicken pieces are in the oil cooking.

Take each piece of chicken out of the buttermilk mixture and one at a time drop in the paper bag and shack to thoroughly coat the chicken, do this with half the pieces and put in hot oil. Cook each piece for 10 minutes on each side. When done drain on rack or paper towels and coat and cook the remaining pieces in the same manner.

If you want to cook more chicken just double or triple the recipe.