Welcome! Introduce yourself.

[Food Network Fan]

Great to have you! We have a nice friendly group getting started here. This is a young website but it has grown much quicker than any I have ever had before. I guess this is just a great topic.

[Clove]

...called Italian Regional Cooking.
I am a private chef and lover of all things Italian.
I travel there every year and have been doing so since the late 1970's.
My paths have crossed with several of the TV chefs and when the Food Network started on TV, I was very interested.
Now that they have changed their approach from cooking and teaching cooking skills to entertaining, contests and reality shows, I find that I am only interested in their re-runs.
All my attempts to deal with the Scripps people have not enabled me to change their approach. So I'll have to live with their re-runs and PBS and other cable shows.

[Chap]

Well, I'll be looking for some of your recipes!

[BerryBaby]

Clove...here's a question that was floating around for a while that I'm sure you will have an answer to.

Being Sicilian I'm very much into cooking. The question that came up a while back was, "Are you suppose to put oil in your pasta water?"

I don't it, but some others do. Some were very adamant not to put oil in it. On FN a few of them add oil and some don't.

What is your professional opinion?

[BerryBaby]

...called Italian Regional Cooking.
I am a private chef and lover of all things Italian.
I travel there every year and have been doing so since the late 1970's.
My paths have crossed with several of the TV chefs and when the Food Network started on TV, I was very interested.
Now that they have changed their approach from cooking and teaching cooking skills to entertaining, contests and reality shows, I find that I am only interested in their re-runs.
All my attempts to deal with the Scripps people have not enabled me to change their approach. So I'll have to live with their re-runs and PBS and other cable shows.

I agree with you. I can do without all the chatter and mixing a ton of ingredients together and saying they are cooking.

What really annoys me is when the 'so-called' cooks eyeball all the ingredients. That teaches us nothing. What is an eyeball's worth?

I still enjoy Michael, Ina, Emeril and Tyler but that's about it. They at least talk about what they are doing and how to do it.

[Clove]

"Are you suppose to put oil in your pasta water?"

BB,

My opinion and that of a number of teachers and chefs;
Never put oil in your pasta water!
If you do put oil in and then observe it, you will see that (because of specific gravity) the oil will float on the top of the pot, like an oil slick. What good does it do there?
If you use a Pentola, then you end up with oily pasta and the sauce won't adhere properly.
If you dump the water out as you empty the pasta into a colander, you throw the oil down the drain.
Always salt the boiling water to a "seawater" level.
Never rinse pasta as a matter of general practice (there are a few reasons to rinse it but those are for very specific applications).
Hope that helps

[Clove]

I still enjoy Michael, Ina, Emeril and Tyler but that's about it. They at least talk about what they are doing and how to do it.

BB,

One of the many things that Mario, Lidia and I agree on is that all great cooking gets its' roots from peasant cooking.
What I liked about Michael and Mario's (and some of Tyler's) shows were that the dishes were based on the ingredients a poor or frugal family would have and the inventive ways they would put them together, over many years.
As your background is Sicilian (and I got back from there a few months ago), you can personally see that it your family's cooking.
I hope you are carrying it on.

[Porkaydiem]

Hi, Food Network Fans! A friend referred me to this site after he saw a mention of my calendar. I'm a big BBQ fan and just love food in general. Looking forward to getting to know you guys! Pork-ay Diem!

[BerryBaby]

Thanks for the response, Clove!

I have passed on my cooking knowledge to our daughter, who is 27. She has always been right next to me in the kitchen.

I have a photo of her at age two with pasta sauce all over her face. I had stepped out of the kitchen for a minute and she climbed up on the table and was sitting there eating the sauce.

Probably wasn't the safest thing, but I couldn't resist taking her photo. Ever since she has been interested in cooking.

She was one of the only college students she knew that could cook and would have friends over often. One Thanksgiving she made the full turkey dinner for those who couldn't get home. They said it was better than they ever had.

I'm quite proud of her culinary skills!

[Food Network Fan]

Hi, Food Network Fans! A friend referred me to this site after he saw a mention of my calendar. I'm a big BBQ fan and just love food in general. Looking forward to getting to know you guys! Pork-ay Diem!

Sounds like you will fit right in. Great to have you join us!