I'm guessing most people here are self taught cooks, so I'd be really interested in hearing what sources you guys use to learn about cooking.
I'll start with my suggestions:
Book: Harold McGee On Food and Cooking - This is like a encyclopaedia for science in cooking, which I find totally fascinating. McGee was one of the earliest pioneers of a scientific approach to cooking. If you're using a particular technique in the kitchen you can read for this book and understand what is happening. Good old Heston is often quoted as saying that McGee is one of his mentors and this book is one of his favourites.
Book: The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria - Adria is regarded by many as the best chef in the world. He ran El Bulli until it closed last year to become a cooking school. I'm not normally a fan of this style of cookbook, but rather than this being a normal recipe book with the ingredients and process written down and a photo of the finished dish, this has a photograph showing every step of the process along the way. The pictures are excellent and I think this is the best recipe-style book I've seen.
TV: Good Eats. I saw this recommended on another forum. It's an american show that ran for 14 series. It picks one food type per show and explains it in detail with a few recipes. The host is extremely charismatic and the show is very funny at times. Not sure you can buy it in the UK, but most of the episodes are available on places like YouTube.
I'll start with my suggestions:
Book: Harold McGee On Food and Cooking - This is like a encyclopaedia for science in cooking, which I find totally fascinating. McGee was one of the earliest pioneers of a scientific approach to cooking. If you're using a particular technique in the kitchen you can read for this book and understand what is happening. Good old Heston is often quoted as saying that McGee is one of his mentors and this book is one of his favourites.
Book: The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria - Adria is regarded by many as the best chef in the world. He ran El Bulli until it closed last year to become a cooking school. I'm not normally a fan of this style of cookbook, but rather than this being a normal recipe book with the ingredients and process written down and a photo of the finished dish, this has a photograph showing every step of the process along the way. The pictures are excellent and I think this is the best recipe-style book I've seen.
TV: Good Eats. I saw this recommended on another forum. It's an american show that ran for 14 series. It picks one food type per show and explains it in detail with a few recipes. The host is extremely charismatic and the show is very funny at times. Not sure you can buy it in the UK, but most of the episodes are available on places like YouTube.
He has a food blog too on the Guardian or one of the major newspapers anyway.