Rouxbe’s Community Blog

I started in the restaurant business when I was thirteen. I advanced to short order cook when I was 16 working a bank of deep fryers in a fish ‘n’ chip restaurant cooking about 150lbs of fish and chips a day (200 to 500 orders). When I was 18, I knew I had to be a chef.

It was 1985 when I went to see the General Manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (the top hotel in Canada at the time) to tell him that I had to work there. I had to work under the best chefs in the world. I landed the job despite the fact that the Chef had no interest in hiring me. I couldn’t blame him, as I had no real cooking experience other than working the deep fryer station. The chefs working at the Mandarin had been trained in some of the finest hotels in the world, had 5 to 10 years experience (minimum) and could cook with their eyes closed. I was way out of my league.

I remember my very first day on the job like it was yesterday. I started at 6:30 am. I was assigned to work under a chef who was truly too busy to provide any real instruction. He himself was swimming with orders. I remember just standing there watching him do a million things at once and not knowing a single thing I could do to help. I was wearing my very first tall Chef’s hat, had my brand new knife case tucked under my arm (and I really didn’t even know how to use the knives)… and felt stunned. Fortunately, or actually unfortunately, between plating orders, he was able to scribble out a to-do list for me, to keep me busy while he was finishing up his orders over the next hour or so. He pointed to the food stores and told me where to set up my work station (whatever that meant). The list went something like this:

* julienne four large carrots
* half a 1/8th SS insert of red pepper brunoise
* concassé five tomatoes
* start a chicken stock (grab mirepoix from walk-in)
* cut a whole case of zucchini baton
* make two liters of Chicken Velouté Sauce

Now I was really terrified. I had no idea what a julienne was, what an SS was and which container a 1/8th of an SS was. Never in my life had I ever seen or even heard anyone use the word brunoise, concassé, or baton. My only experience with chicken stock was from a powder or can and was “mirepoix” booze? Chicken Velouté? What was that?

So why I am telling you all this? I’m telling you this because over the course of the next two months - yes just two months - I found answers to these questions. I was a truly fortunate young cook because I had a culinary savior by the name of Guy Monjou. He took me aside for two months, every day after my shift, and taught me cooking skills and techniques. We started with knife cuts, stocks, sauces and then moved on to cooking techniques. I learned very quickly that while cooking was challenging, that it’s not rocket science. Did you know that out of the 1,000’s of sauces around the world, that most come from just a few “mother” sauces and a few key techniques? That’s it.

For many, cooking is a daunting and often miserable task that we have to do in order to get through our day. I’m living proof that learning how to cook does not have to be challenging. Most simply get overwhelmed with the millions of recipes out there and think that cooking like a pro is complex when it’s not. You just need a resource that will help you cut through all the noise out there and provide a simple structured approach to learning - just like Guy did for me. The Rouxbe Cooking School will do this for you.

Here’s my challenge to you. If you truly want to learn how to cook… join Rouxbe’s Cooking School as a compliment to your regular recipe resource. Each and every day I promise that you will have a small awakening that will change the way you cook forever. I’m not asking for you to devote a lot of time. Remember, you cook every day. Just make it your goal to learn a bit more each and every time you cook. Soon you won’t be needing recipes for anything other than inspiration.