By Baker/Chef Adam “The Bearded Baker” Majewski.

MasterClass One: The importance of cooking!

As a Baker/Chef who spent most of his childhood either cooking in the kitchen alone or watching the adults, mostly my mother and godmother, cooking away, making the best of what we had. From this, the greatest lesson I learned, though I did choose to make food my career, the importance of knowing how to cook. Not only as a life skill to enjoy, but as well a necessity that is no longer taught at school or even at home in many cases. Though there are many reasons why cooking is no longer taught in the home, or in schools as part of a home economics course, this however, needs to change.

The reason for this first Bearded Baker Masterclass is to spark the interest of all those who read it.

To start, what first got myself interested in cooking was generally first eating, second control of what I got to eat, though limited as a nine-year-old to what was in the refrigerator, and being nine and not having a job to buy my own food. But by cooking my own meals and some of the family meals, I had a lot more control as a child of what I ate on a day to day bases. Over time, as my skills developed and I was able to start purchasing most of my own ingredients to try new foods and cooking techniques, what kept me interested was the ability to always have something to learn and always having knowledge out there to expand my skills and test my own personal ability.

What also helps me continue cooking as a career choice, no matter how boring it can get, is the knowledge that I will in some form or another, always have a job, so job security is a bit of a bonus as a chef.

Though I have made a career of cooking, it is not the intended goal of most in their adventures in learning to cook. What I would also like to say is that no matter what you choose to do in your life as a career, I fiercely erge you to learn about food and how it relates to your career choice. Why do I erge, well, because knowing how a topic relates to an individuals choices in life, makes them more susceptible to becoming interested in a topic on a personal level and want to learn more. It also keeps people interest going, when access to needed education on such a subject matter is continually open to all, and visible to them whether at home or in public settings.

The most important point I am trying to bring forward in this first entry into the Bearded Baker MasterClass is that, food is a necessity and though it is a necessity, you will need to find a spark or an interest, or some way to keep it interesting. No matter what, whether it is to survive, or to enjoy, food will always be part of persons life no matter who you are and there will not always be restaurants or others to make your food for you, and at some point You Will need to cook for yourself. So no matter what you will need to learn how to take care of yourself, because your parents wont always be around to take care of you and no one will do it for you.

With that said, on more good piece of advise I can give for those first starting out in any form of cooking is what you use to keep you motivated, is to try and make find some part of cooking you love and never forget it, the best way to do so is to relate cooking to something important in your life that you enjoy with all your heart and relate its positivity to food in any way you can. My reason for this is that it will help you not get discouraged from parts of cooking that will frustrate you. And I know you will become frustrated because all the greatest Chefs become frustrated at some point and they get though it, it’s part of life no matter who you are and all anyone can do is get up dust ourselves off and say this frustration is only temporary and things will always get better if we learn healthy ways to coup with our frustrations and continue on.