Archive for September, 2009

One of the best ways to build knowledge is to either read, take a class, work in the industry, find a mentor, volunteer or all of the above. Let’s start with reading. I know many folks who have hundreds of cookbooks and love to look at the photographs or read through the recipes.

Many students ask how to increase their knowledge of their craft. Do you have cooking classes or baking classes? The answer is no, not at this time. There are few quality online cooking classes that I am familiar with and if someone knows of some please pass that information on, I would love to enroll and check them out for myself.

If you are willing to consider learning from a cookbook, there are some great books out there. Almost thirty years ago I was fortunate enough to live in Japan and had access to all sorts of exotic ingredients. I decided to cook like a professional and attempted to make everything that was in The Creative Cooking Course by Charlotte (edited by) Turgeon.

It was good old fashioned training that Julia Child would have been proud of and the sort of training every adult should experience. Building my knowledge of classic recipes and techniques, I covered recipes from every corner of the global, it was Food TV Network in book form and a journey that has taught me to experience food as it should be, one recipe at a time.

The next time you want to expand your horizons and learn more about your craft, a cuisine, the cultural background of food, find the best cookbook out there and go for it.

My favorite  savory recipe in the book is in the Pork Section/Number9, the Pork Casserole with Cider, the perfect fall day recipe.

My favorite dessert is the Baked Cheesecake in Pastry, one of the most luscious cheesecakes I have ever made. Dessert Section/ Number 92-93.

Everyone needs to know how to report foodborne illness and you can now do so withing 24 hours.

Notification must be made using the online Reportable Food Registry, mandated by Congress two years ago in an effort to speed up the process of alerting the FDA of contaminated foods and cutting down on the distribution of such food.

“The Reportable Food Registry will provide a reliable way for the FDA to receive reports from the food industry of food safety problems and to be able to track the patterns of defilement in human food and animal feed in order to support efforts by the FDA to protect the public health and prevent food-borne illness,

Starting today, food companies covered by the new law must file an electronic report to the FDA when there is a probability that a food will cause serious sickness or death; and companies must report problems within 24 hours after a problem has been found.

For more information check out the link below.

The Reportable Food Registry