By Tiffany Youngren

Oh, how I love cooking. Cooking videos, shows, books, lessons, conversations – I get excited about it all. Below is one of my favorite demos, a link to our Cooking Demos Playlist on YouTube, and some information about my very own cooking “mentors”.

Many are well done – all are helpful.

Transfer of Health’s “Cooking Demos Videos” Playlist.

Please note that most are videos produced by other organizations, professionals, and people, and Transfer of Health does not endorse them. This is for information purposes only, to help bring you the best of what we find.

Some of My Cooking “Mentors”:

“When it comes to food, if they say so – they’re probably right.” – Tiffany

Chef Anne Burrell

Book: “Cook Like a Rock Star: 125 Recipes, Lessons, and Culinary Secrets
” (I really love this book!)

TV Shows: “Worst Cooks in America”, and one show that has influenced me most: “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef”

Chef Gordon Ramsay

Not to be cliché, but I do like Chef Ramsay. If he chose his words in front of the camera as he did when his mom is in the room, watching his programs would be a little less edited, but he truly knows food.

Recent Books:

• Gordon Ramsay’s Healthy Appetite (coming in 2012!)
• Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape: 100 Recipes Inspired by Asia. by Gordon Ramsay
• Ramsay’s Best Menus
• Modern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm by Chef Ramsay and Whitney (the winner of MasterChef).
• Cooking for Friends

TV Shows: MasterChef (my favorite), Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, The “F” Word (for Food, believe it or not).

Rick Bayless

Recent Books:

• Fiesta at Rick’s: Fabulous Food for Great Times with Friends
• Authentic Mexican
•  Mexican Kitchen

Web Site: Chef Rick Bayless

Cooking Programs I Love

Top Chef

A combination of cooking, competition and soap opera, I just can’t lay off it. Since we canceled any kind of paid cable and dish service, we splurge on this one and by it through Top Chef.

Chopped

Four chefs. A secret basket of ingredients. Three courses. One winner. Oooo… the suspense! The ingredients are often interesting and unusual – they make cooking gluten free seem like a walk in the park. I was first introduced to a durian fruit, black garlic, and learned what “offal” was on Chopped (which once diverted a near disaster when a friend ordered sweetbreads at a restaurant, thinking he would get some sort of sweet roll).

We are so influenced and inspired by this fun cooking competition television show that when our cupboards and fridge seems bare, I announce, “I’ll just play ‘Chopped’.” This just means I’ve got limited ingredients, yet still expect to make something delicious.