By: Phil D. May
Audible Publishing Services has recently collaborated with the author, Phil D May, to release a new book, The Forgotten Chef: Winning the Culinary Battle: Finding Yourself, Igniting Your Passions, and Building Confidence in the Food Journey One Skill at a Time!
Cooking food is an essential skill to have. The human body needs to be fed the right amounts of macro and micronutrients as it runs on what you give it. Food is fuel for the body, and for the body to perform optimally, it needs to be optimal as well. The book’s name comes from the fact that many people have forgotten how to cook and be good at cooking, mainly due to a lack of desire or will to learn and master it as an art.
The Forgotten Chef: Winning the Culinary Battle: Finding Yourself, Igniting Your Passions, and Building Confidence in the Food Journey One Skill at a Time that teaches people how to cook, from the basics to the more advanced techniques. It seeks to build the right mindset for young people interested in cooking to prosper and learn to cook to a high standard. The book is written engagingly, teaching people how to cook better and become outstanding chefs. The pacing is fast, and the reader never feels too bogged down by the pace or information of the book. It also explains the problems of the modern cooking industry and why people become discouraged when they try to make it big as chefs.
The book explains the problems with food in the modern world, such as the fact that some people aren’t educated about the costs of grocery and cooking their food like they once were, as home economics is no longer a course that is mandatory or taught in schools anymore, which is why many people lack the education necessary to become good cooks to make nutritious and filling food for themselves. It also explains other factors, such as rampant technology and causing people to lose interest in cooking food. The advent of services such as Uber makes it too convenient for people to order food from the comfort of their homes.
The book divides cooks into different categories or quadrants: the high-skill and high-passion cooks, who are most commonly celebrity chefs; the low-skill and low-passion cooks are on the opposite end, who only eat to survive and could not care less about cooking food; and the high-passion and low-skill cooks, who lack the skill to cook but are passionate about learning more.
The book also discusses essential matters such as food preservation and safety, as contaminated food can cause many ailments and be potentially fatal. It also stresses the fact that if, for example, you are sick, you cannot cook for anyone, as that’s a great way of passing on any illnesses you have to others. The book also addresses food preservation techniques such as the ideal temperatures to store cooked or raw food in to prevent it from spoiling and smoking, salting and brining meats. The entire idea behind the book is to give a better understanding to people new to cooking and skilled cooks and improve their experience and passion for cooking.
Cooking consists of recipes, after which the primary ingredients, temperature control, and micro bacteria will be utilized. Many elements go into making food taste good, but the key components are the chef’s desire and determination. Whatever a person’s goals in any endeavor, their desire to succeed and be great at it helps the most in the long run. After that comes discipline and consistency, two things necessary for success. The more you can consistently do in a given hobby or skill, the more you grow in that skill.
The book teaches that you must never give up on the journey to becoming a better cook, and it’s a noble message. Many casual readers who have a passing interest in learning more about becoming better at cooking will enjoy reading this book, and it might even inspire a few to get deeper into the culinary world.
About the author
Phil D. May grew up in a small Central California agricultural town called Turlock. Upon graduating from Oregon State University in 1988 with a B.S. in Political Science, the author served in the U.S. Navy. When he settled in Norfolk, Virginia, he began his culinary journey, sparked by his family recipes. About thirty years into his food journey, the author feels compelled to share and encourage others to become better chefs in his new book, The Forgotten Chef.
Published By: Aize Perez
