Posts in cooking lessons
Hiring a Chef in Austin? Read this before you do!

Hiring a chef in Austin, Texas is about to be a whole lot easier and we want to thank each and every single one of you for choosing Gather and Forge for your chef needs. Without all of you, we would still be stuck in restaurants getting underpaid and overworked. If you are thinking about hiring a private chef in Austin, read this blog to see how far we have come!

Read More
What I Wish I Had Read Before Becoming a Chef

This read is for the person who's never been in a professional kitchen before but is considering entering the profession or beginning (as well as finishing) culinary school. This is a reality check as well as a source of knowledge from experience that I would have appreciated reading before beginning down this path myself.

Read More
Tenets of Line Cooking

I write this because when I started cooking, I often wondered if anybody out there had taken the time to share what they had learned to make this game easier, or more efficient, or less painful. I write this to share what I have learned and what I've passed onto my co-workers either passively or intentionally. The same tenets here apply to the barista, as well as to any skilled chef.

Read More
Jessica Prentice's Niter Qibbeh, an Ethiopian Spiced Ghee

This classic cooking oil of Ethiopia is a great thing to use whenever you want to give something a more complex North African or Middle Eastern Flavor. It is also a primary ingredient (along with the spice mixture berebere) of Ethiopian cooking.

Read More
The Best Knife Sharpener for the Chef's Kitchen

The chef's knife is the most important tool in the kitchen. The home cook, line cook, or executive chef should take pride in having their tools perform at peak performance.  Not only is it disrespectful to the ingredients to use a knife as dull as a baseball bat, but there is nothing more dangerous than a dull knife. I've seen a coworker stab straight through the fleshy part of his hand from a miscalculation with a knife dulled by animal fat and sinew. This knowledge matters.

Read More
How to Become a Private Chef

When In started my business almost 4 years ago here in Austin, Texas I never knew what it would eventually become. Although Austin is in the midst of a boom, I never in a million years thought that I would become so busy that I would have more clients than I know what to do with.

Read More
5 Solid Cooking Techniques for Your Valentine

How are you supposed to sear fish? If we can do it, we know that you can too! Read along and we will give you our best bets!

Read More