I love your site and I am learning a great deal - we love burgers in my family - I want to make a juicy tender burger with great flavour and texture - I've tried mixing ground sirloin with ground back ribs and other mixes of high quality plus higher fat meats but I always get either something tough, something chewy or something with little flavour - I've done a search but found nothing on the site. Maybe you might consider doing a recipe for burgers? I hope so. Wendy

Down the road a bit we were planning on doing a lesson on "Making Hamburgers" as there are a few things to keep in mind besides just the type of meat. Stay tuned and we will get to it eventually.

In the meantime you may want to check out some of Steve Raichlen books or videos. Here is a link to one of his burger recipe on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvALKU-yCwI&feature=related - I think that in his books he goes into more detail about the actual making of the burger.

Hope this helps - Cheers!

Hello Rouxbe team.
Cynthia from Australia would love to know what type of bench top are you using in the videos. I will shortly be building my dream home and am designing my dream kitchen. What type of bench do your recommend. eg. stainless steel,granite, laminex etc. I want the best!!!.its going to be a gourmet dream. Can you advise Cheers Cynthia

Hi Cynthia, here is another thread that was started that should answer your question. Cheers!

I enjoy the site and have learned many valuable lessons. What I would like to see is lessons on how to use herbes and spices and which combinations go well together. Are there rules for seasoning? I cook for my family and in the National Guard I am looking for ways to make average food taste better. Thanks

I love love love this site. If you never change anything it would still be the best on the net!

1) More recipes for the technique lessons, I need lots of practice on all of them.
2) Menu suggestions along with the entrees
3) Plating, I'd like to make the presentation look pretty
4) Elements of taste or flavor combination, i.e., salt, bitter, sweet, sour, ratios along with practice recipes!!
5) Freezing food
6) canning food

I'll add more as I think of them and would really like to hear back from you if you are planning on adding any of these suggestions.

Cheers!

I find the setup for this site to be almost perfect. I use the site three times a week. I am like so many that wish the new lessons came a little more often but the best is worth the wait.

Thank you for all you do

Hi there,

In response to Jude's comment above:

1) The thing about Rouxbe is we're not a recipe site. We are focused on skill and technique and offer supporting recipes for cooking school lessons. Once you learn a particular technique, the rest really comes down to flavor combining. This is where recipes from other resources come into play. Once you understand that the recipe is for "making a stew" for example, you can scan the list of ingredients and pretty much throw the method away...because you now know the key steps for making a stew. There are thousands of recipes out there...the flavor combinations may be sensational but the method will lack in direction. So, here at Rouxbe, we are trying to empower you and provide delicious recipes for you to practice. We have to say, just because you make a recipe once, doesn't mean you've mastered it. It takes practice.

2) and 4) There are quite a few fantastic resources out there for flavor combining. This one is difficult to teach - it comes down to experience...and experience is obtained just by practicing over and over and over again (can't say that one enough) and having the courage to try different things. For assistance, you can check out The Flavor Bible and Culinary Artistry.

3) Plating is in the pipeline. Focus on the food first though. Sometimes too much focus is on the presentation and not the food itself.

5) and 6) these will be in the future. Basic skills are on the agenda first.

Cheers!

Sounds awesome Kimberley!

I have both books, just no time to read as I'm usually on this site. Ha!

I think "The Elements of Taste" is probably a really good book too because they have recipes to try and help you understand what they are talking about. Problem is it's about $50.00 on amazon and I have to return the library copy soon.

I've decided to worry about all this later and for now concentrate on Rouxbe's lessons and recipes.

You are right, I'm still rely heavily on Rouxbe and that's alright for now as I know once I get the practice in on your excellent recipes I'll be able to get inspirations from other recipes, but will be able to throw out the instructions.

That's the goal and I'm almost there.

Thanks for responding!

I had to jump in and share praise for the book, The Flavor Bible. It's the perfect complement to all the skills I learn on Rouxbe. Now that I cook so often from my skills rather than recipes, I use this book for ingredient and flavor combination inspiration. It lives on my kitchen counter, I've never bothered to find a home for it on the book shelves.

Thanks Carol P. I envy where you are at and can't wait until I can say the same thing!

Almost there!

is there a way of forcing the buffering process to complete BEFORE starting to watch the video, so that when i watch the video is does not keep stopping and starting. The only way I've got around it so far, is to start the video, then pause it until the little gray bar to the right of the current position gets to the end, then i un-pause it and it plays perfectly. Or is this a setting in my browser? thanks rouxbe team

i was looking and watching the video of chocolate chip cookies and you mentioned there that u used "fleur de sel" instead of table salt.. i was wondering if it is available in groceries like walmart or what... im wondering if i can find it in Louisiana, and also im wondering too how much it cost. i really wanna try the cookies im reading the comments and it really makes me eager to bake and make this cookies.. pls hope u can help me and oh do u have any website where i can purchase and order fleur de sel? if in case i cant find it in groceries here in louisiana. thanks a lot i hope u can help me.. im dieing to make this cookies.. i would really appreciate it!

will contact you offline Andrew..:-)

I believe this was answered in the chocolate chip recipe itself but I did want to add that you might want to try calling around to your local specialty kitchen or gourmet food stores as they will likely carry fleur de sel. You might also want to even check your local grocery store as it seems that fleur de sel is now becoming more popular and many more mainstream stores seem to be carry it. Hope this helps. Cheers!

thanks a lot.. yeah someone gave an idea in chocolate chip recipe. though what uv added wud i guess really would help. thanks a lot. god speed.

I want to say thank you for the time and care that has gone into this site. I am really having a ball.
Because I am pretty busy I would never have the opportunity to attend anything beyond a cooking lecture for an evening or possibly a Saturday. This site allows me to learn when I am able and the details, like the water test, you share are invaluable.

Any question I have had has been answered professionally and promptly.

I am not sure about adding a chat though, I could probably spend more time than I should in one.

Please continue the good work. Thanks again and many years to you all.

Hi All,

I saw a earlier comment about puff pastry and just wanted to share that there's an excellent video on how to make your own puff pastry here by Master Patissier, Michel Roux if any of you are interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAtA6Rwhf10

or

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2009/10/29/330604/video-michel-roux-pastry-masterclass.htm

I just wanted to say also that I loved the Rouxbe video on Polenta. I never really tried to cook Polenta so watching the video has been an inspiration. I'm going to give it a try.

Also the Pad Thai recipe is genius. I cook it nearly once a week now and it's a great one for after work when I'm really tired but want a nice home cooked meal. I've even served it to friends who were practially licking the plates clean. Thanks Rouxbe!

Hey, I think rouxbe is very educational and has taught me more than what a short term attachment to any restaurant kitchen can teach. I'm very satisfied with my subscription.

There are many people interested in pastries and cake making too, such as meragues and bavarian creams and danish crossaints among others and it would be great if rouxbe ventured into these areas too.

I think a Japanese version of this site would be a huge success because french cooking classes for housewives are a hit a japan but they cost a bomb.

-Roy
Chemist and hobbyist chef.

I just started using Rouxbe and have finished a few lessons. They were great and very thorough, and I hope the remaining lessons prove to be the same quality. One thing I would like to see (or maybe it is there already and I don't know how to get to it) is a list of the completed lessons with grades so I know if I should review the lesson once more. Looking forward to a long and enjoyable relationship.
Thank You

Very glad to hear that you are liking the school so far. As for a list of your completed lessons, you can find this on your profile page. Click on the link at the top of any page called "your profile" and then click on the "school" tab and there you should see the list of all of your completed lessons with scores. You can even jump to any of those lessons from that same page.

Also, remember that the homework is not just about the quizzes and watching the lessons it's also about putting some of those newly learned skills to the test in the kitchen. Cooking and practicing is where the real learning takes place. Best of luck with all the upcoming lessons, we are hear if you need anything or have any questions. Cheers!

To add to Anthony's question concerning completed lessions...
The lessons taken used to be highlighted (green box) in Cooking School Curriculum list.
All you had to do was browse the lessons to see what you had completed.
Any chance of that feature being restored?

If you go to the Cooking School tab, the box beside the "Preview the Video Lesson" will turn green as soon as youo complete the quiz. Cheers!

One suggestion would be to make the forums available on the home page without having to use a drop down menu to get here. It took me awhile before I even knew they were here.
Others may be having the same problems and I believe usage may increase if it is more visible.

Love Rouxbe and have found it to be so helpful to me especially using my iPad. When I tried to view the preview videos for Thanksgiving the video wanted me to upgrade my flash player.......my IPAD does not support flash video. I have never had this problem as Rouxbe has always been iPad friendly. Please tell me this is a legacy video and not a trend moving forward. I use my iPad as my cooking resource bible.