Urban Vancouver

Occasionally during a Rouxbe staff lunch, we talk about crazy personal eating-styles. I know… you’d think we’d have better things to talk about. One thing that came up was the following question:

When cutting with a knife and a fork, do you then switch hands with your fork before moving the food to your mouth. The internal poll was about 50:50. What do you do… do you switch?

The Rouxbe Cooking School offers ‘how-to’ and ‘why-to’ professional culinary instruction.

Rouxbe.com, the premium online instructional cooking site, has launched the Rouxbe Cooking School. The extensive online School delivers a professional cooking curriculum in high-quality, close-up video to home cooks around the world.

Unlike other online cooking sites that focus on recipes, celebrity chefs and short technique videos, the Rouxbe Cooking School is a fully integrated experience that mirrors an actual culinary academy, complete with close-up instructional video edible exercises”, progress reporting, evaluation quizzes, and chef and community support. The instruction is a fraction of the cost of a program at a traditional culinary institute and takes a quarter of the time to complete, allowing busy home cooks to have their cake and eat it too.

“I’ve been teaching people how to cook for 15 years and I can honestly say that the Rouxbe Cooking School can teach some concepts better than I can and in much less time,” said Tony Minichiello, Rouxbe culinary instructor, co-owner of NWCAV and avid blogger. “Video, if well scripted and performed, is the tool of the future for any culinary learner.”

The school uses a two-prong approach that is unparalleled in the online cooking world. It pairs excellent “how-to” content, which teaches skills and techniques necessary to drive cooking success, with unique “why-to” content, which helps students really understand cooking and frees them from following recipes.

You can sample a lesson on here: “Wheat and Gluten.”

Rouxbe’s ‘why-to’ teaching approach is also the reason students will seldom see the amounts of ingredients listed in the supporting School lessons. Instead, the School teaches students how a product should feel, look and taste through guided experiments. This frees them from having to rely on measuring every ingredient.

Initially, 20 lessons will be released, which is approximately 15 percent of the total curriculum. Additional lessons will be released starting in August continuing every couple of weeks. The instructional cooking lessons at launch range from how to properly use your knives and making foundational stocks to making fresh pasta and cooking the perfect premium steaks.

The complete curriculum includes approximately 130 courses, comprising of more than 700 instructional videos shot in high-definition format. The entire School will be released by the end of 2008.

Access to the Rouxbe Cooking School is included with every Premium Membership. An Annual Membership costs $99; a Premium Lifetime Membership costs $199. Rouxbe contributes 15 percent of all Membership fees to Rouxbe for Life, which donates to hunger relief agencies that focus on sustainability, in an effort to help solve and raise awareness for the chronic-hunger crisis in developing countries.

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.

Hard to say…easy to eat! This pasta dish is the reason why the Italians say, “keep it simple”.

Watch Full Recipe Here

I remember the first time someone served this dish to me, I thought, “oh come on, how good can this be…plain pasta with garlic and a few chili flakes”…but it turns out it is quite fantastic! I now make it quite often, either as a side with chicken or a nice steak…or as a main dish, when I just have a hankerin’ for some simple but delicious pasta.

We will go into more detail on how to buy and cook the perfect pasta, next week with the release of the Rouxbe Cooking School…for those of you who don’t know, that’s July 14th.

A very exciting day for all of us here at Rouxbe. Today, thanks to recent subscriptions from our members, Rouxbe for Life just surpassed the 50,000 kids fed mark.

The goal of Rouxbe for Life is simple - to help solve and raise awareness for the chronic-hunger crisis in developing countries. We make contributions to hunger relief agencies that focus on sustainability, such as school feeding programs around the world.

In order to help achieve our goal, Rouxbe contributes 15% of all Premium Membership fees to Rouxbe for Life. At Rouxbe, we believe that one person can make a difference. By simply purchasing an annual Premium Membership, you will help feed 60 children (120 kids with a Lifetime Membership).

Thanks for making a difference and for supporting Rouxbe and Rouxbe for Life.

The wait is almost over! On Monday, July 14th, the Rouxbe Cooking School adds the “why-to” piece to our recipe to better cooking. Understanding why things happen during cooking is the secret sauce that will set you free in the kitchen and drive success every time you cook.

* Taken from our Cooking School Course on Salads.

Rouxbe is currently in 164 countries around the world. Cooking school members come from 57 of these countries.

See you on the 14th where we will release the first sections of the cooking school, including edible exercises, practical quizzes and progress reporting.

P.S. Get a “Sneak Peak” of the Rouxbe Cooking School.
P.P.S. If you would like to sign up, it’s $99 for a year and for a limited time, $199 for life.

Welcome to week #4 for the “Name that Cooking Sound” competition.

Last week Tim guessed our cooking sound on the very first guess. Amazing we thought! Turns out that Tim had actually been doing his homework. In his own words:

“I had actually been studying all the sounds things make in my kitchen and from sound clips from google and rouxbe; so I guess I was just an obsessive student of cooking sounds ;-)”

And who says that hard work and dedication doesn’t pay off. So, this week, we thought we’d throw in a little twist just for fun. In fact, some here at Rouxbe Central (at least Dawn) think I’m a bit crazy with this one. But what the heck… here goes.. let’s see who’s up for the challenge.

Extreme bragging rights in Rouxbe’s Community and a brand spankin’ new Wusthof Classic Ikon Pairing Knife are up for grabs to the first person that correctly guesses, not one, but ALL four unique cooking sounds in this cooking clip. Good luck. No hate mail please :)

Oh… and for those of you that might not know, you need to click through on the title of the post from your email to respond to this blog.

* Previous games #1 (here), #2 (here) and #3 (here) if curious for those new to the competition.

** Nice work on the clip Mr. Tunes… Hey… and for those interested, our Audio Director plays some pretty great tracks on his personal blog here.

Hint #1: 2:45PM PST - Two of the four sounds are mentioned below… Two more to go. Must have all four:) Go John… dance! Next HINT later tonight if required….

Hint #2: 8:15AM PST, June 20 - Akhter (comment #8) has three of the right sounds.

Hint #3: 6:48 PM, June 21 - Nutmeg Grater is not one of the sounds.

WINNER: Congratulations Derek! We have our winner! It was whisking, egg cracking, chopping, and a creme brulee torch. Have a listen now.

Okay so it’s 6:15 p.m. on a Saturday evening. It’s currently 31°F outside and beautiful. I think it might even be a long weekend. Honestly, I am not entirely sure. We have all been working like bandits on the cooking school (not sure what “working like bandits” actually means, but that’s what popped into my head). Anyhoo, (you can call me “side track Sally”)…so here I am, working away on the computer….all good, totally excited to be working, yes really!!

But just a little bit ago, I thought I needed a break…it was too early for a drink (what! she says….never…ooops sorry was that my inside voice). Right sorry…here I go, I needed a break….so I thought, oh why don’t I do a blog post on my NEW timer, how exciting right!

Well then, that got me to thinking about all of my other timers….and the other collections or “fetishes” I have in the kitchen.

Measuring spoons is another big one for me. This is a very practical one though. There are somedays when I use at least 4 or 5 sets. You know once, the Tbps. is full of oil it is useless for anything else, until it is cleaned.

What about you? Do you have any “kitchen fetishes”? Come on, don’t be shy, I won’t judge you.

For those of you that might have missed our Cooking School Sneak Peak post earlier this week, tomorrow is the final day to save $100 on a Lifetime Membership to Rouxbe (Midnight Pacific Standard Time).

And if you did see it right away after the post, you might want to check out the slide show again… My Mom, said that I had to make the screen shots bigger LOL…. Mom’s are always right, aren’t they.

* Shot of slightly underdone pasta noodle showing a white ring in the center. For perfectly cooked pasta, you are looking for a white dot in the very center. This is part of the Rouxbe Cooking School Pasta Course soon to release. Try getting this close in a cooking school or classroom.

When Divina P first submitted her recipe for Lemon-Coriander Prawns in our Test Kitchen, we just had to try them…and we’re so glad we did! On our first test, we found…

…this recipe to be simple, tasty…and, most importantly, it worked. The marinade is so refreshingly delicious that it makes the grilled prawns come alive. The marinade also goes incredibly well with other things like, chicken, grilled meats and other seafood. It even doubles as an yummy dressing.

Divina’s recipe was so popular, that we chose it to become a Rouxbe Video Recipe…our first user-submitted recipe, I might add. Congratulations Divina! We’re looking forward to testing many more of your recipes. Who’s going to be the next to have their recipe come to life in our step-by-step video player?

Make sure to put these Lemon-Coriander Prawns on your grilling list this summer!

Watch the full Lemon-Coriander Prawns Rouxbe Video Recipe.

Happy Grilling!

It’s almost here - the world’s first online cooking school, complete with practical exercises, evaluation quizzes and online progress tracking.

The Rouxbe Cooking School will launch the first part of its content at the end of June / first week of July. Additional courses will be released regularly over the next several months.

SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for an Annual Membership ($99 USD) and you will automatically be upgraded to Lifetime Membership ($199 USD) status on June 28th. This includes access to our new Cooking School. Offer is only good until this Friday, June 27th at Midnight PST.

(Click here to view a slideshow of preview images from the Rouxbe Cooking School.)

Front Row Seats.
Closer than you could ever get in a cooking classroom. At Rouxbe, it’s all about the food and learning how to prepare it. That’s it.

Step-by-Step Convenience That Drives Success in the Kitchen.
Each instructional lesson takes you step-by-step through the learning essentials, without the added time that students have to endure in classroom settings. You can even learn in your pajamas.

How Are You Doing? Optional Quizzes That Work.
At the end of each lesson, Rouxbe will help you evaluate your progress and report back to you. This is our way of helping to ensure that you walk away with the key learnings from each lesson.

Cooking School Community. Support when You Need It.
Each lesson has forum support from Rouxbe staff, chefs and fellow students committed to your success in the kitchen.

Applying What You’ve Learned.
The key to cooking is through practice. Rouxbe presents various exercises and recipes for you to execute, to help reinforce what you’ve learned from each lesson. And the best part is, you get to eat your homework!

Track Your Progress.
Cooking is not rocket science. Rouxbe breaks it all down into bite-sized, understandable lessons that provide context to the world of cooking. And best of all, Rouxbe provides tools to evaluate your progress, provide feedback and measure your overall success. Sign up for an Annual Membership ($99 USD) now.