PrintQuestion of the Day: Has the internet made you a better cook?
I will answer yes to that question. I find blogs and food boards an invaluable resource. I love that you can post a specific question about a recipe or technique and get a wide variety of responses and suggestions. I never was confident in my ability to cook roasts or large pieces of meat. Recently, thanks to the internet I made the best pork roast I have ever had!
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13 Comments:
Yes, I learned to love food from my mother, but I really learned how to cook and try new things from the internet. I would have never figured out how to properly make super good cookies if it weren't for this internet. Thank you internet!
skigil at 9:42AM on 05/21/07
Oh yes. I learned to cook from the internet and Food Network. My mom was one of those whose specialty was reservations, and up until a few years ago I literally could not even boil water.
It all changed for me -- and now I've become a semi-obsessive cook/foodie (duh, I read this site every day!). In large part a lot of my success comes from the internet. If I wanted to know how to make the perfect cocktail shrimp, 10 minutes on Google and I had the answer. If I want a new recipe for pork tenderloin -- same.
The wealth of information both on basic and advanced cooking and recipes is really amazing to me. Sure, sometimes it can take a lot of sifting through a lot of junk, but in the end it's always been an amazingly useful and instructive tool for me.
FKC at 11:37AM on 05/21/07
By far, yes. Moreover, food blogs have widened my perspective enormously.
hereandthe at 11:42AM on 05/21/07
For me, the internet as a kitchen "research" resource alone has been invaluable. When you factor in new recipes & ideas as well as attaining the un-attainable ingredient here and there, I would say I'm a much more advanced cook than my pre-internet days. More access to more information is never a bad thing!
sheldel at 12:16PM on 05/21/07
Unquestionably.
jperlow at 12:36PM on 05/21/07
Yep . . . and that's a good trick for an old (and stubborn) guy like me!
DocChuck at 12:37PM on 05/21/07
No, I was a good cook before the internet was invented, but it has given me access to a lot more recipes!
Library Lady at 1:30PM on 05/21/07
Most definitely.
Prairie at 3:29PM on 05/21/07
Yes... And not only: it gave me a job, a cooking internet job... Not only I update my blog, but two others, and they pay me!!!!
:-))
2 years back I wouldn't even dare thinking about something like that!
Sara - Piperita at 4:22PM on 05/21/07
Yes, there's no doubt about it. I started cooking before the Internet, but from it I gained awareness of technique, tools, international and regional cooking styles (not to say, in some cases, obsessively and wonderfully localized styles), and I read endless user reviews of knives, saucepans, garlic, farmer's markets, restaurants, cookbooks and so on. It's a never-ending flow of information that today is better and more complete than yesterday, and yesterday is a million times better than 1985. If I could package all the useful information I've learned from the Internet and sell them as books, I'd not only be a millionaire, I'd be the leading publishing house for culinaria.
TikiPundit at 8:25PM on 05/21/07
Oh yes!! The internet has been an invaluable resource...from chef interviews to recipe sites like epicurious, I don't think I would be half the cook I am now without the internet. I love going to the butcher shop and getting an unfamiliar cut of meat like tri-tip or going to the farmers market and getting some fresh local produce and then goig to the internet to find out how to prepare it.
EatWisconsin at 12:09AM on 05/22/07
We just talked about this recently. We used to run to Fante's and the italian market in Philly before the internet. We would run to Wegman's before they had a website. We would take a hike up to amish country to buy 150 lbs of tomatoes. King Arthur's Bakers and Penzeys Catalogs before the internet. Since issue 1 I have been a devotee of Cook's Illustrated.
So no I was a good cook and food snob since way back. I think I may have actually recruited more foodies than most people. I used to go to U pick places and call people the night before and say Lets go lets go.
JerzeeTomato at 1:13AM on 05/22/07
I would have to say absolutly the internet has made me a better cook. I think it is so much easier for all of us, new and old cooks out there to learn better ways to improve on cooking b/c now we all have the ability to talk to others just like us and ask questions that we know will be answered!
Much better than watching the food network and trying to learn from them!
Sarah P. at 4:14PM on 05/22/07