I too saw the site on the Gadget Show in the Uk. Yay for it for fetching me here. I have always had a passion for food, just not very good at cooking it. I hava always been adventureous when eating to the stage i even tried snake once. But always wanted to be able to cook food that i wouldenjoy rather than the usual rubbish i have been buying in. It will help that i have started growing my own veg and keep half a dozen chickens, so i have a good supply of fresh eggs every day to use. As a lot of people now i am getting into a more health lifestyle, so cookingis going to be a big part of it. I have just gone through the training section for buying and sharpening knifes and realise how bad mine are and how much i have abused them so it looks like i am going shopping tomorow for a new chefs knife to get me started. I hope to get to know some people on here and make new friends as i go on this cooking adventure.
So hello all my new friends

Hi Wayne from the UK - Welcome to Rouxbe!

Hi-I'm another person who found Rouxbe via the Gadget Show. I'm a cooking enthusiast (more enthusiastic than skilled, but I'm trying!). I love the site, especially the explanations for why you should do things, not just the exhortation to do something a particular way.
One request/suggestion:
Please could you consider adding degrees Celsius and weights (grams or ounces) (cups are a mystery to me) to the recipes for those of us in Europe? I know it might not be possible, but it would be a nice idea...
Regards, Mike

Here in the US we have actually been using a double standard for a long time. Measuring devices have both metric and avoirdupois measuremenets. For fast conversion remember that a liter equals about a quart - 4 cups = a quart so a cup is about 250 ml., 2 cups (a pint) = about 500 ml. a fluid ounce = about 31 ml. A pound = 454 grams (a kilo = 2.2 pounds); there are 16 oz per pound so each ounce by weight = about 28 gm.

You should buy some measures that have both systems on them. Also an electronic kitchen scale that can switch between metric and avoirdupois.

Good luck
Paul

Thanks for the conversion rules of thumb. I'll try and memorise them! As for Fahrenheit to Celsius, I can do the rough conversions in my head, but I thought it might make it easier if they were already written into the recipes...
Excellent site. Regards,
Mike

I'ts taking me some getting used to but my local pound shop had a set of measurers that are cups and acurate also some propper measuring spoond that you level off. So they are out there and i find them a must in my kitchen. Pauls conversion will be a big help for me too though so thanks Paul i'm printing this out and putting it into my kitchen to keep checking.

Wayne

Hi everyone,
I actually found Rouxbe through someone's posting on Facebook! Ever since then, I've loved the site and have learned a lot through trying a bunch of recipes here, elevating myself from kitchen retard to "good cook," according to my husband and friends, for whom I really enjoy cooking.

I just recently got into food and wine, since getting married 2 years ago. I've been really inspired to cook after eating some magical concoctions from some of the top restaurants in the world as well as watching shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen! My goal is to one day be able to pull off a Thomas Keller recipe from the French Laundry cookbook! But until then I have years of practicing to do. Maybe one day I'll go to culinary school, but for now, I'm happily enrolled as a Rouxbe student. :)
Cheers,
Christie

I 'stumbled' on the site and got hooked on the lesson about frying - I had no idea about the importance of temperature and how to tell when a pan is hot or too hot. Great stuff. I love the fact that people are from all over who are involved in the 'class'. I love all things web 2.0 and teach online, so I am really fascinated with the teaching learning process here, as much as the cooking. I know I will learn a great deal and improve my basic cooking skills.

Hey everybody!!

Like Wendy, I stumbled onto this website and was hooked immediately. I love the clear directions and visuals provided for the recipes, and the free lessons are fun, too! I learned a lot about wheat, which was fun, and I loved the pan frying lesson. I just watched the pilaf one and realized I kind of made a pilaf last night! Fun stuff!
I've always loved cooking, and cooking is very important in my family - none of us are especially GREAT at it, but we can turn out a decent meal and we all love to eat. I love cooking for my husband (when we were dating my first act of love was to make him salmon and give him a foot rub for his birthday :P).
I look forward to learning a lot! I just made the garlic chipotle chicken last night and it was fantastic - I'm glad I finally learned how to make fried chicken!

I got my first cooking lessons when I was a little girl by watching the housekeeper cook for us. It paid off when we came to the United States when I was 13 years old. Suddenly there was no housekeeper to do the cooking, I simply started cooking and have not stopped. I love a dish that has an extra oomph to it. I found Rouxbe via Dean and Deluca website. Thank you to the Rouxbe staff for sharing your "trade secrets" and bringing the world of intercultural cooking to the internet.

I have loved cooking every since my Mom said to me when I was about 10 yrs old, "Pick out anything from the cookbook that you want to make for dinner tonight". I was overcome with a heady sense of power and fascination. I picked shepard's pie, which was probably too ambitious for me, but I think it came out okay. That's been the way I cooked through the years and through various stages - vegetarian, wholefoods,Indian, Mediterranian, even a bit of Medieval. I picked out recipies and tried to make them work. I watched cooking shows and fially realized that the best thing I was getting out of them was not the recipes or the entertainment value, but the little gems of techniques they let drop. So recently I have decided to get serious and actually learn to cook from the beginning. I actually came on this site around January, but I was preparing to move from the States to Canada, so I didn't feel like I could take the time to use this site extensively. Now, I have a bit more time and I find that I want to study cooking seriously and become more efficient, skilled and precise. Rouxbe seems like a big step on the way to that goal! I am impressed with it and now I am a lifetime member. Cheers to the founders and chefs who work on this site.

I too am new to this site. I am a Canadian living in Minnesota, but am visiting inlaws for Chritmas in Calgary. I love to cook, started when I was a kid, I have my BSc in Foods and Nutriton, my diploma from Culinary School and my chef's trades papers. I worked in the food industry as Food Specialist.

My inlaws buy everything from the store premade, and they won't let me cook a thing, I am so bored I could just about die! I miss my foodie friends from when I lived in London, Ontario. I was born and raised near Toronto, so I was exposed to all differnt types of cuisine and unique ingredients. My Mom is a home eonomist who is an awe. some cook who is not afraid to try new things.

I was eating my breakfeast this morning, and happened to read the milk container advertising this site, I thought oh my gosh this site might actually get me through the next few days of dry turkey at the inlaws! Until I get back to my own kitchen I will live vicariously through you. So great to see people from all over the world.

Thanks Saputo for saving my sanity!

Thanks for taking the time to respond and share your thoughts. So glad we found each other. Hope Rouxbe can help you out.

While teaching culinary arts I often used a site called allrecipes.com as they have automatic conversions for yield and metric ( i could have the students practice with a yield of 4 per group, but a yield of 80 for a catering job) also the comments for each recipes are helpful in determining if it was a good choice for the lesson. The only problem I had was that the kids nearly never remembered that though the quantities in the ingredient list were changed they were NOT changed in the body of directions.

Remembering the information in the directions does not change when automatically scaling a recipe is something that must be remembered. It can change everything - cooking time; pan sizes; and, in some cases, results.

Just wanted to take the time to introduce myself quickly. I am a Marine wife and a stay-at-home mom living in California. I discovered this site while I was searching for recipes one afternoon. I am so excited about this website and the opportunity to learn new things and hone my cooking skills with my family as the prime beneficiaries of any and all newly learned skills. I am very excited to be able to do the lessons and learn so much!! I love the feedback that the quizzes give and have successfully completed my first recipe from this site....Creme Brulee....and I must say it turned out pretty nicely!! Thanks for making this site!!!

Hi Guys, thanks for this great resource! I love being able to brush up my skills as an amateur cook whenever I feel like it! This website has learned me more about cooking technique than anything, and I truly make better food now. This site also became my primary resource for recipes, since they are always a success!
Keep up the good work!

My name is Jacob, I'm a teen from Oregon. I want to be a lawyer, but I am grappling between that, History, and being a Chef. I've completed a bunch of lessons already, and am craving more. My love for cooking started recently, my parents work an hour away and don't want to cook dinner when they get home. Started with frozen, move to some fresh, and next thing I knew, I had my own recipes and was doing the shopping! It makes me happy to know that I have a skill other than being a history buff that I can please other people with. Not to mention myself.

Oh, I too 'stumbled' upon this site. And I'm sooooo glad that I did.

Hi all!

It's nice to be a part of this online school! I am learning and having fun here! I am from Tijuana Mexico, food in Mexico is very spicy and very delicious! I like Indian, Japanese and Korean food quite a bit! Also like Vegetarian food although I eat meat too. I wish for this culinary journey to be one of the best experiences of life for each and everyone of us!

As we say in my country: "Provecho" we use this word before eating our food and it means something like Enjoy!

^-^

Hi there - I'm Carla, and I'm in Somerset KY. I have always loved cooking and even had my own cake business a few years ago making custom wedding, birthday and other occasion cakes. I loved it and think I was pretty darn good at it, but it just took too much time away from my husband and 2 young kids. One of these days, I'll get back to it, when the kiddos are bigger.

Anyway, I have always wanted to attend culinary school, but there really isn't one that close to me, and with a family I can't just up and move to attend school. So, I was thrilled to discover Rouxbe.

I am a total novice, learning whatever I can from Rouxbe, testing what I learn against other recipes, books on techniques. I think this online class is the best we can do short of going to a cooking school. But I'm wondering whether there is a middle ground: a hands-on technical school that doesn't require its students to enroll for a degree. Maybe casual weekend classes or even a club. Does anyone know anything like tis?

There are many places that offer weekend or day classes. I suggest phoning around. Try you local kitchen store or culinary school. You could also try doing an online search for cooking classes in your area. Cheers!

Hi Everyone,
Just joined last night and checking out the lessons. They look fantastic, the pan frying tutorial sold me as well on becoming a member. I do cook a fair bit, but I am in bit of a rut cooking the same things over and over again and sometimes recipes don't always turn out great...

I like how the videos show you why you do the things you do for cooking and covers what to watch out for as well. This is a very innovative cooking school and I like that I can watch from home at my convenience....

That's about it for now, see you around on the forum. :)

Neerav

Hello Everyone,

I love cooking but have no formal training other than the building block of my family's recipes. I just converted from an electric cook-top to induction and had the pleasure of purchasing new compatible pots and pans. The designer of the cookware doesn't believe in cooking with non-stick pans so I'm making it a personal challenge to learn how to cook eggs in a stainless steel pan. Wish me luck!

Hello Everyone,

My name is Joseph Soza. I am 16 years old and am a new member on Rouxbe. I am not yet a premium member and have only been able to enjoy the free tips, lessons, and recipes on this site. However, I am very much so enjoying it. I have learned so much so far and I can't wait to continue with my culinary studies. Cooking is my number one hobby and I love a new experience. I live in a small town in Ohio, so I have limited resources, however I make the best out of what I can find. Thank you Rouxbe for the great education and opportunity!