I know basic things most people know @ 20 , but I want to learn a lot more and improve my skill to where I can actually make good tasting skillful dishes .

What's the best way to go about doing this? Skill is not an option.

Maybe some books? Websites, or youtube channels?

There's a ton of instructional videos on YouTube showing how to do basic things. I'd find some recipes on google to do, and if you don't know how to do a certain technique in the recipe check on YouTube. Honestly the best way to learn is through experimentation.

this. in particular, gordon ramsay has a new series (where hes not cursing continously, even!) aimed at teaching cooking. you can find it on youtube. ive only watched one episode, but it looked pretty good.

what do you want to learn?

if you are serious, get a good knife, go to the grocery store, and go to town. best way too cook is with improvisation and creativity! (at least, imo)

you can't just experiment, you have to learn. i want to learn basics as well, though more for baking than cooking. how do you determine the number of eggs? whether to use yolks, white, or both? how do you determine all the ratios? why do you have to add one egg at a time instead of all at once? how do you know when you can add greek yogurt instead of milk? stevia instead of sugar? why use brown sugar instead of just sugar? etc etc

with baking, you really just need to follow the recipe provided. once you've made said recipe(s) a few times...then you can start to think about tweaking them

watch cooking shows.

id highly reccomend good eats seasons 1-14.

you can and you cant experiment, like if your making cookies and you ahve a recipie, and your looking to make them chewier, you can mess around with the recipie for days on end and not get it right or end up adding alittle extra brown sugar and actually get it right, but for some oone in the know all you really had to do was add an extra egg yolk and pop the cookies in the freezer before baking them.

good eats teaches things like this, like lipoprotiens and fats in the egg yolk increase the moisture in the cookies, same with sugar, like youll learn that sugar is hygroscopic, and because of its water loving nature, it has a tendencay to make things more moist, especially brown sugar, with the extra molasses.

This post was edited by Ylem122 on Jun 20 2013 11:24pm

thats more for baking than for cooking. cooking is pretty forgiving for experimentation once you have a few basic concepts down, unless youre trying to make somethign specific.

This post was edited by ReturnFormer on Jun 21 2013 07:05am

one good advice i read or heard is to taste all your spices individually and independently. this way you know what each spice is adding in a dish.

most times i use websites + youtube to get a recipe and see the technique.