If you missed the live cooking webcast last night, you missed a tremendous evening of fun, food, entertainment and education in basic cooking methods…a virtual cooking guide. In fact, I showed everyone watching how basic cooking methods can help you make dinner quick every night and still have endless dinner ideas.

Here’s a bit of what went on last night:

As always, knife skills were an important part of the evening and the chef’s knife made an appearance. Being able to cut items consistently assures that they cook consistently. In addition, they have similar texture and appearance in the final dish.

Proper knife skills also assures your safety and boosts your confidence in the kitchen. Why? Because with the correct knife skills, you know you won’t cut yourself and you will be more aware of a wide variety of ways to cut everyday items for attractive plate appeal.

How you use heat is the essence of cooking. And if you want dinner quick, then the basic sauté method is the best way to go. The basic sauté method can also help to increase the number of dinner ideas that you have, as well as create a great meal in your kitchen faster than take-out food. When you’re able to control the direct, intense heat of a stove-top sauté method, you can create moist, flavorful items that have wonderful color and are appetizing to the eye as well as the palate.

I’ve pulled out one of my 5 chef secrets during the live webcast and made a quick pan sauce. Because I understand the basic principles of thickening agents, I can make any liquid into a thickened gravy or pan sauce. Talk about a great addition to your dinner idea! This is a great skill in the kitchen that adds flavor, texture, and color to your plated meals so that your dinners is not only quick, but tasty as well.

Cooking is a wonderful lifelong journey that is very easy to explore and enjoy. Searching for recipes is an annoyance that never has you progress. You always have to search for a new recipe and relearn a new meal every evening.

I want to be your cooking guide and eventually help you to have enough confidence and knowledge that you can become your own cooking guide. You can be full of great dinner ideas and make dinner quick. Last night, I proved to the world that you can cook healthier and better tasting meals faster than take out and I’ll prove it to you as well.