Mr. Lee's Cooking

[brian]

I know Vincent Price was a great cook having made a cook book.How is Mr .Lees cooking. Is he a great chef. Would be interesting to see some of his recipes online so we can check the items out. just something cross my mined

[Grace]

That's a good question , to him if we get the chance to ask him , ofcourse another good question would be if Mr. Lee ever took cooking lessons from Mr. Price himself .

Best Regards

Amy Maloney

[Juan Aneiros]

Mr Lee cannot cook, on the other hand Mrs Lee's cooking will rival that of any Chef. For this reason, I don't think Mr Lee ever had to bother learning. I'm not talking your normal everyday housewife cooking here, some of her dishes are so perfect, I sometimes wonder if she took lessons from Escoffier, Subijana or Robuchon. Of course, she does not cook in that fashion every day, but when she does, all chefs please move aside.

Should Mr Lee ever wanted to take lessons, he wouldn't need to go further than his family because Christina's cooking is nearly as good as her mother and I have been a professional Chef for over 16 years.

[brian]

Has Christina ever thought of writing a cookbook for her masterful Cooking? Juan It must be heaven to eat great cooking everynight. Whats her specialty?

[Juan Aneiros]

She doesn't cook like that every night, once a month at the most. No specialities, she is totally unperdictable.

[Maria Silbermann]

Smart woman! Best to keep you guessing, and never a dull moment!
Must be a dangerous place to be for anyone on restricted calories! (and Gitte is so thin , too!)

[Old Soul]

With so many wonderful cooks in the family, It

[Juan Aneiros]

Old Soul,

LOL! I can assure you none of us need to go to Mac Donalds after having dinner. Not that there is anything wrong with Mac Donalds, every now and again a hamburger and chips is not bad. Eat what you enjoy not what people say you should be eating. Mrs Lee is thin by nature, she can eat anything and not put on weight. Mr Lee keeps is shape by playing golf and working very hard on his films.

Christina and I put on weight just by looking at food. With me, is not so much what I eat, but all the tasting I do during the day. I never cook anything without tasting things at every stage. Then, sitting in front of a computer is not exercising anything other than the fingers.

With food, it has a peak. You have to be able to know where that
peak is and you can only do that by tasting. One minute of simmering can make a whole difference when making a sauce or a soup and timings change. Books tell you, cook for 25 minutes. How the hell do they know? Ingredients are different every time. A carrot may be tougher that another carrot and meat could have been hanged for longer. It is also very fashionable now for celebrities to write their own cook book. You know of course that the book, perhaps not in every case, looks pretty but is totally useless.

For people that want to learn how to cook well, buy a frying pan instead of a book. Books can give you ideas but will never teach you how to cook.

Our Countries the US and the UK are loosing the very important tradition of sitting down at a table an enjoying a meal. Everything seems to be rush, convenience and fast foods these days. Food is one of the pleasures of life, there is nothing better that sitting down at a table with friends or family and having a conversation. I also don't believe on healthy foods, they have so much crap added to them that it is probably worse that eating what they call unhealthy stuff like butter, etc. Then of course , there is the stay thin rubbish and people who are overweight are treated like outcasts by society. Why? Bloody TV. There are people that spend all their lives dieting and don't realize that everyone has a different metabolism.

You must think now that we all eat a horse a day, no. We try an eat wholesome home cooked food and unless we have no time, the microwave is just for decoration. Every now and again a pizza is also something that can be enjoyed.

Good food is also not just expensive food. A nicely prepared stew has much more flavor that a fillet steak. A a vegetable soup tastes better that caviar, at least to me anyway. Have you ever tasted a hamburger made out of fillet steak? I have when I worked at the Savoy years ago. An American did not like anything that was on the menu and requested a hamburger, the Executive Chef ordered the Grill section to make it with fillet steak. Of course, it tasted nothing like it should and it was a total waste of meat. The customer sent it back.

Also, the myth that men are better chefs that women is totally false.

You've got me started now.

Today I was working at a restaurant and guess what was the first thing that I've noticed hanging on the wall? An autographed picture of Edward Woodward and a few phrases, apparently it was one of his favorite London restaurants. Didn't want to drive the owner crazy, so I didn't say a thing. A year ago, I would have
said Edward What?

[Jill]

I'm in such agreement with you Juan, on the subject of cooking. I'm by no means either a chef or a gourmet chef, but I took an early interest in cooking (unlike sewing), and I've learned some lessons that apply to life as much as they do on how to prepare a good meal. You need to have the desire to be a good host or hostess. A cook who cares nothing about the tastes of his or her guests is no chef, no matter how well they can follow a recipe. I know somebody like this who is always trying to impress people, rather than trying to please them--there is a big difference, and I think you could probably apply it as a principle to any art. The chef should also fix food that he or she would eat, because as you noted, constant tasting is a must in order to find the optimal combination between taste and smell, which work together. Ever tried to cook for somebody who has no sense of smell (as in physical damage)? I have, and their sense of taste is completely deranged--it's so sad to see that. The chef as a taster must learn timing, essential to good chemistry in achieving that bon mot. I subscribe to Gourmet magazine not to copy the recipes but to see what I might try to apply to my own cooking, which is not quite so fancy (I couldn't even begin to afford the ingredients, for one thing), but I do like to try different types of foods, especially Indian cuisine, which is really difficult to prepare!:1devil:

[John Farrell]

Juan, I didn't know you were a chef! Fascinating. My only culinary claim to experience is that I worked at one of Boston's best seaside restaurants--Anthony's Pier 4 (the inspiration for one of the stories I posted for the contest). I worked there for 5 years--summers and weekends during the school year. The only thing I didn't do was wait tables. Otherise I was a host, storage manager/receiver, some minor food prep--but my favorite job though was running the fish market. I still like to buy fish whole, bring them home, scale and clean them myself before cooking.

Also not bad at Chicken Cordon Bleu, but that's about the height of my cooking talent.

Best,

John

[Greg Harris]

What an interesting topic! :)

I agree with you Juan. and ask any old person how they live for so long, and no one will say 'because i dieted and lived of letuce all my life'

they would say 'because i ate traditional food and English breakfasts!'

The only thing i can make is toad in the hole.

I agree with the cookbook thing juan, it is much more fun to experiment without them. i use to make deserts, they use to go wrong everytime, the cakes were allways flat, but they were nice and unusual.

Maybe we should have a cooking competition one day :) *or maybe not*

[Maria Silbermann]

My husband and I were thin when we met (we both have struggled a lifetime with food and weight issues). Despite our love, I have to say that marrying someone with my problems makes it harder, not easier to be moderate. Two nine 1/2 lb babies later, well -- we still love each other, and it's a good thing, too! Perhaps we're too wrapped up in each other. It's good to have some separation in your lives. [My husband] Dave's brother is a chef and trained at the old Culinary Institute of America in New Haven, Connecticut. He's a big guy, too. Dave, on the other hand, cooks everything on "high", setting off the smoke detector everytime. Juan, you and Christina look healthy and happy. Just don't forget the veggies!

[Old Soul]

I do understand what you mean Juan about tasting the food as you cook it. I have done that ever since I started cooking, to make sure that there are enough herbs, and to make sure that the food is cooked. Cooking is an art, and it takes time to perfect the craft.

It

[Maria Silbermann]

Sounds like an Emeril Lagasse special recipe! Did he crush the garlic, or put it in whole? That would make a big difference. I really like garlic, though! The first time I tried kim chee, I thought, "Hey, this would be really good on Italian bread!" My family leaves the room, if not the house when I eat kim chee!

(kim chee, Korean = pickled and fermented cabbage and vegetables, heavily seasoned with garlic).:cheeburga

[Gena]

My dear Juan, I really enjoyed your post. It was fun, really informative and a pleasure to find someone that thinks like myself when it comes to food. You must post more often on such items.

Have a great evening.
Gena