If you are a beginner and have read my previous post, you got your essential knowledge about cooking. I can’t wait until I share with you my first recipes, but I won’t have peace of mind if I won’t add some more guidance to your starter pack. I know that theory may be boring sometimes, but it enables you to do exciting and creative things in effect.

So give me a chance 😉 and read my tips which you hopefully will make your own cooking experience smoother.

TIP #1

Decoration matters more than you may think

First of all, let me stress to you how important are the details, whether you are preparing very simple or complicated dish. What I will say now may sound unfair, but unfortunately this is how it works.

It doesn’t matter how great your meal tastes or smells, if it looks awful or not interesting.

If people will not like the way you present the food, they won't want to try it.

Your food’s taste and smell will make people want to come back to your meal again and again, but it will be food decoration which will attract people and make them want to try your meal, or instead - put them off.

That’s why it is very important to pay attention to food presenting, especially if you are presenting your food on social media. Your family may give you a chance and they will have this opportunity to smell and taste your food before making any judgment, but on the social media people will make the first and even the final judgment based on how your meal looks.

Regardless of what are you cooking / baking these rules remain the same:

• Go by similarities or contrasts – you will never go wrong with either designing your food in similar or contrast colour palette or toppings – it always looks great.

• Don’t put too much in – it is better to play around 2 or 3 different colours/toppings than putting too much on as in effect it will turn your art into a chaos. Unless you use rainbow theme 🌈😜

• Size does also impacts the taste – beware of size of your ingredients/toppings. If you make them too small, they may be not as visible or as easy to eat, if you make them too big, they may look not as appetizing and be more difficult to consume which will also effect in lower pleasure from eating.

• Decoration is a matter of a taste – no matter how hard you will try, your creations will never please to EVERYONE. Simple because everyone is different and there will be always somebody who will have a different opinion on what is the best. So decide how you want to do it, make your best and take it easy. People with similar taste will love it.

TIP #2

Taste it

Taste and smell is also a matter of a taste, but this is nothing to be worried about. Just trust yourself and taste your meal to make sure it tastes as it should be or as you would like it to taste. Add more ingredients you previously used or some ingredients which you think will go well along with it.

Tips for effective tasting:

• never add a few spices at the same time (unless you know exactly that all you are going to add will satisfy you). Add one spice, taste. Add the next one and taste again. Thanks to this method you will be able to establish whether you need more or less of any spice, or even some other ingredient.

• after you have tried your meal a few times, drink some water to ‘reset’ your taste. Your taste buds could got used to the taste and be not as sensitive as before, and water will neutralize your taste.

TIP #3

Mind the Measurements

First of all, whether you realized or not, cup is not always just a cup. Cups may differ from country to country. For example check cup in UK and cup in USA.

Second, cup of sugar may have 200g and 250 ml of oil. Simply as every ingredient has different capacity and 100g is not equal to 100 ml. It only refers to water and if ingredient is heavier than water it will weigh more and vice versa.

My tip for you is to find out whether the author of recipe set a cup as 200 or 250 ml/g (they do it sometimes to make it easier for you) or use measuring cups. Alternatively you can just weight all ingredients.

The other tip which I found useful is using measurement converter. There is many of them available on internet, I will show you one as example :

http://www.cuisinivity.com/guide/measurement.php

TIP 4

Do the Research

Whether you are a beginner or an advanced cook, you will never know everything. That’s why if you are unsure of anything, ask your family/friends for advice, search for answers in cooking books and blogs and also read comments – they contain valuable points as people who shared them already tried different methods and by reading their reviews you may avoid the same mistakes.

Find proven cooks / cooking websites. Having a few proven options will give you more piece of mind as you will know that you can trust the recipe and don’t have to double check every single paragraph. I have two proven websites of great ladies for cooking and one for baking. They are so good that if I want to prepare a nice meal using a new recipe, I can trust them in 100% and I always know that the result will be satisfying if not bewildering.

But if you are doing some type of meal or even trying this one recipe for the very first time, read it for at least 2 times before you do it. It will help you to ensure that you have all ingredients , tools, required skills and time you need. You don’t want to start it and realize in the middle that you can’t cope with something or you are missing an ingredient when all shops are already closed. Especially not a night before you have guests coming round next day.

Ask people for opinions. Your family and friends are the ones who spend with you the most amount of time, so they will be able to not only give you good advice on how to prepare a meal, but also to let you know their opinions about the end product. Asking them on regular basis will also help you to see your progress. Another good idea is asking people on social media on opinions on your creations or ways of food preparation. They also started somewhere and may have faced the same difficulties as you already, and may know what are the best solutions to resolve these issues.

Cut your coat according to your cloth – if you are not a master yet, don’t start with the most difficult recipes, as they are more likely to not work out. Start with the simple ones first, and step by step go for the more difficult ones as you become better and more confident in what you already can do.

TIP 5

Experiment - Follow, bend and break the rules

Finally – my favourite one 😀
You don’t necessarily need a recipe to create something cool, but whatever you do, there are some rules you need to adhere to. For example, you will never be able to make an oatmeal without oats, because simply it will no longer be an oatmeal. 😚

As you go you will learn that basic rules you need to follow, but there are a lot of rules you can amend to get your planned result. That can include mixing different spices, adding more or less sweetness, changing ingredients to get more savoury taste, more healthy result or less caloric meal. It is only up to you which rules you bend or break, and possibilities are endless.

LET'S SUM IT ALL UP 👩‍🍳

Cooking and Baking is great for a lot of reasons.

By doing it on your own you can do it as healthy and as tasty as you want. You are the one who controls everything and this is one of things I like the most in my kitchen. There is always a risk that something will not work out as I wish, but mostly I am surprised to explore different taste and get more satisfying result than what I have aimed for.

Cooking is also fun – you can either just take it as a challenge, relax or a way of spending time with your family/friends. By trying different recipes you also learn more about other cultures and expand your horizons.

The other benefit is that by doing it you can look after other people – people like when you do something for them, especially if it is their favourite meal and they know you had to spend your time to do it. People generally like food and if it tastes great, there is no better reward to see their smiles and delight 💝

Now – let’s make it in points for a clearer picture 👩‍🏫

1. Believe in yourself – you can do it !
2. Decide what do you want to cook/bake.
3. Find your source of inspiration.
4. Get your starter kit (tools such as kitchenware, cutlery etc).
5. Start it ! don’t wait for perfect moment, it does not exist 🤓
6. Follow my 10 Golden Rules and 5 Tips for smoother and faster progress.
7. Remember – Food Decoration attracts people, smell and taste makes them to follow you. Give your best in all these areas.
8. Practice, practice and practice, never give up.
9. Have fun and get better.
10. To share is to care – share your tips/recipes with other people and support them on their own journey.

Please let me know if you found my article helpful and if you need me to expand on any related content and I will be happy to share with you what I know 😊

Wishing you a sunny and productive week!

With love,
MуƘιтcнєηLαв