How to Become a Better Cook Without Culinary School

People often ask where I went to culinary school.  The answer always surprises them.I didn’t. I'm a self-taught cook. Every now and then, I find myself standing in a room with some of America's best chefs. And yes, the imposter syndrome is real. I remember one dinner in particular. As everyone reached for their plating tweezers, I instinctively reached for a pair of chopsticks.

It made me laugh.Then it made me realize something.I've probably picked up chopsticks tens of thousands of times in my life. Long before I ever thought about becoming a chef and long before I opened a restaurant. Long before I started Pink Salt Kitchens. That wasn't something I learned in school. It was something I earned through repetition. We spend so much time thinking about where we want to go that we forget to recognize the skills we've already built.

It comes from doing something over and over again until your hands know what to do before your brain catches up. Cooking works the same way. You don't need a culinary degree to cook something delicious. You need curiosity and consistency. You need the willingness to taste, adjust, make mistakes, and cook it again tomorrow. Intuition takes repetition. The motivation comes from the repetition. To do it again and repeating hoping to make it just a tiny bit better. 

xoxo, 

PS