Cookbooks for the Ignorant

One of the most important skills a recent grad needs upon entering the real world is cooking. But if you're anything like me, cooking is a mysterious art--mysterious and a bit intimidating, because sometimes it seems like the people who know how to do it have known since birth, and those of us who don't...sorry, we're just out of luck.

Well, I've decided to take my culinary destiny into my own hands. And the guru who will lead me there is Alton Brown.

You're probably asking yourself, Alton who? But if you flip on the Food Network, chances are you will eventually catch an episode of his award-winning program, Good Eats. So what sets this guy apart from the other celebrity chefs dotting the network? In short, he doesn't have a stick up his butt about teaching the basics. His shows are a well-balanced mix of the science behind cooking, a step-by-step approach to cooking techniques, and random but fascinating factoids from the long history of cooking. And while I grant that he doesn't brach out very much into non-American or non-Western-European dishes, I appreciate that his show is geared towards people who haven't been cooking all their lives. He makes even the most ignorant of aspiring cooks feel confident in their ability to conquer both kitchen and ingredient.

So seniors--if you are afraid of a) starving or b) spending a small fortune by eating out all the time next year, due to your inability to cook a decent meal, bite the bullet and buy these two books:

Gear for Your Kitchen
Trust me, you will make back the price of this book ($17 on Amazon.com) in the amount of kitchen things you will NOT buy as a result of this guy's sound advice. We live in an era where the kitchen is the new living room--but buying huge sets of pots, pans, knives and the like will cost you a bundle when you don't need the half of it. He also covers appliances both electric and manual, kitchen sanitation, and how to care for your new gear so that it will last you a lifetime instead of just a couple years.

I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
Alton refers to himself as a culinary mechanic as opposed to a chef, and this book is written from that same practical angle. It covers a ton of cooking techniques and how to do them safely and correctly, accompanied with simple recipes to try out and widen your
repertoire.

Call me a fool for buying into the Food Network's marketing and merchanding ploys--but these books are worth it. They arrived yesterday in the mail and I spent the entire evening reading and looking at the funky illustrations, and I have felt not one tiny shred of buyer's regret.

If you haven't got a clue about how to cook but want to learn, there's no better place to start.