Did you Know?

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping in my local wholefoods store when a lady stopped me and asked  if I could tell her what lemon zest was?  Obviously I explained that it's the grated skin of a lemon, but it got me thinking; my culinary knowledge is reasonably good because I read so many books, and watch all the good cooking shows.  I'm not talking about the shows where they show you how to open a tin, make a sandwich, or buy olives at the market.  I'm talking about shows where you actually learn something.  I pay attention to these chefs, and take on board as much information as I can retain, you should see my collection of note books!  The average person probably wouldn't have a clue about some of the more technical cooking terms and as I learn something new every day about cooking I wanted to share, just to those of you that are interested.

Now I'm not a professional chef or a culinary instructor, and don't pretend to be, (I just dream about being one, hence the photo of me in my chef's jacket) 

 but I do have access to hundreds of fabulous cook books, professional books, by some of the worlds best chef's, such as Michael Roux, Gordon Ramsey (like him or not he is one of the best in the world) and of course Julia Child, to name just a few, and I'm passionate about every aspect of food, from basic preparation, organic growing, quality,  seasonal food, plating, baking,  the list is endless, but if food is involved then I'm interested.

Some of the books I've collected over the years were really quite expensive, a lot more than most people would probably want to spend on a "cook book." So I decided it would be fun to add cooking tips, useful culinary information, and interesting facts about food to this blog, taking what I have learnt from my books, and the fabulous chefs that wrote them.
 
I figured a good place to start would be with the letter 'A', and work my way through the alphabet.  Choosing either a food type or culinary term, or individual dish and write about it.

So tomorrow watch for the days   Did you Know? "A"