Everything I Learned, I Learned From Watching Iron Chef.

I've been on a cooking trip lately. I really enjoy cooking, and lately, I've been trying to make things I've never made before. Last week I had a bit of success making my first stew. I'm sure most people would think stew is actually easy to make, but hadn't tried before so this was a first. Guinness Irish Stew. I ran with the Guinness idea and also made a Guinness chili which also wasn't bad.

Tonight, I made a second attempt at baked pork chops with apples. Again, probably an easy dish to make, but I hadn't tried before, so a couple of weeks ago I made an attempt that was good. But tonight I went a step further (no, I didn't add Guinness), and created what I call "Dan's apple pie pork chops". Probably not a very appetizing name, but it did turn out quite nice, and the only critic I try to please, my wife, seem to really like the blend of flavors.

After the meal she asked me, "Where did you learn to cook?" and I told her the truth.

Everything I learned, I learned from watching Iron Chef.
Ok, maybe not everything. I did get the basic from the best cook I knew, my mother (God rest her soul). She gave me some recipes of stuff I really like that she made, along with the basics of how to make mashed potatoes and what not.

When I first moved to L.A., I was in school and didn't have much call to learn how to cook. I had a cafeteria pass and if I was hungry late at night, I knew where the closest Taco Bell was. If I did cook, it wasn't beyond ramen noodles or popcorn. When I graduated and moved into the house in Granada Hills with 3 roommates, I really started my hand at trying to cook.

Every recipe my mom gave me was a success. Every recipe I attempted out of a book or tried to get creative on, was a complete disaster.

I bounced around between different living arrangements, and I was trying recipes and most of the time failing. My first tip came from a French Canadian roommate I had while I was living in Santa Monica, "Coat the chicken in honey mustard," he said, "And then bake it. It will be fine." My date didn't die that night, so I guess it was a success.

It wasn't until I settled in Hollywood on Primrose Avenue and got satellite TV, that the cooking really started to take off. Sitting on my futon one day I was introduced to the original Japanese Iron Chef program on the Food Network. To this day, it's still one of my favorite shows to watch, even though I've seen every episode, sort of like the original Star Trek, (William Shatner cracks me up) I can still put in on in the background or watch it intently.

The Iron Chef was different from any other cooking show that I had seen in that, it wasn't a recipe based show where the host would pop on and say, "Today we'll learn how to make Chicken a la King." Iron Chef was a one hour look at how master chefs come up with creative dishes using the basic knowledge that I hadn't learned, what pairs with what, sweet vs. savory, and then combines it all to make something spectacular (most of the time).

From the Iron Chef, I learned basic stuff I hadn't known before, like knife skills, how to bone a fish (which I'll never do, fish=blecch), different spices, basic stuff. I stopped looking at recipes as instructions, but rather as guides. You don't need to measure out a tablespoon of cinnamon, add until it tastes right to you. Iron Chef taught me to learn what flavors I like and from there, I can transition the blends into something delicious. Well, usually delicious.

I'm not creating fancy dishes. I didn't serve tonight's pork chops with a gravy foam, or form the mashed potatoes into nice scoops. It was just a pork chop on a plate with mashed potatoes and baked apples.

Basic.

As a matter of fact, at some point this week, I'm going to make my first attempt at macaroni and cheese from scratch. I've never made it from scratch, and doing it that way will allow me to add flavors I like, and make it all my own, "Dan's macaroni and cheese with cubed ham and onions", or something. It could be a miss, but those have become fewer and far between.

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