What I have learned from a chef

My mom was the person who me taught the basics of nutrition and cooking. She was co-oping before it was cool, who knows maybe she set the trend! I was lucky to grow up in household where my mom cooked everything from scratch. She made all of our bread, even hamburger buns (she bought flour in 100 pound sacks). Our house always smelled great, with aromas of whatever was on menu! Like most things as a kid, I didn't appreciate it at that time, but it was shaping my future. I will always remember trying to "trade" my homemade bread and natural peanut butter sandwich for Wonder bread with Skippy! You guessed it, I didn't have any takers!

So here I am today, running a culinary and nutrition education company! My mom built the foundation of my culinary skills, but Jeremy Reinicke has refined them. I hired chef Jeremy when I worked in healthcare delivery, and now he runs our culinary education at Launch My Health . I have learned something new every time he teaches a class or does a demo, but most importantly he has given me inspiration. My skills are getting close to a professional chef at this point. One of my favorite perks of working with chef Jeremy is having him available to Facetime at a moments notice. I have called him with a Thanksgiving emergency (a stoneware pan exploding) and many other culinary debacles. The other bonus about Jeremy is his sense of humor. His teaching style is exactly how he is in person too, funny, engaging, and a lot of witty commentary!

Here are my top tips I learned from chef Jeremy:

1. How to hold a knife- This is life changing, it makes cutting everything more fun, and safe. I love my 8" chef knife (so much so I have 3 of them now, and I know how to sharpen them)!
2. You own your kitchen-There is no such thing as following a recipe to a T (unless you're baking), make it your own and experiment.
3. There is nothing like cooking from scratch- so my mom got me thinking this, but Jeremy made me a believer. Wow does homemade ranch dressing taste delicious. The things I thought were hard are NOT.
4. Enjoy, have fun, and share the joy with others. Cooking is a "community" event so spread the fun.

You may have noticed these are not recipes, they are to me the essence of eating the best we can for our bodies, mind, spirit, and sharing all of that goodness with others (plus the most essential skill).

Food is more than calories, it is nourishment, it is healing, and it has a special way of bringing people together, especially when cooked with joy.

#culinaryskills #foodismedicine #employeewellness #startup #scratchcooking #chef #healthcare #teamwork #nourishment