Blog: recipes and food for thought

Occasionally and irregularly, I will post a blog on whatever subject related to cooking and learning to cook sparks my lust for writing.

As of now, there are 4 main categories:
* recipes and stories from my cooking classes
* really learn to cook – food for thought for beginning cooks
* thoughts on learning to cook and why I teach cooking the way I do
* cookbook reviews – can you learn to cook from cookbooks?

<Click on the link above to jump to a short description of each category, or scroll down to explore them all>

chef and cooking coach Edie Dourleijn in front of her cookbooks
Yes, these are all cookbooks behind me!

How can you learn to cook?

Hallo, I’m Edie and as a cooking coach and teacher I help curious home cooks to become more confident and creative in the kitchen. I started to cook when I left home for college, starting from scratch. Collected cookbooks like some collect shoes or bags, and always had a pile on my night stand.

After culinary school, I immediately started to teach home cooks all the fun stuff I had learned there. I focus on teaching real skills, not just a tip here and there, but diving deeper into a subject so you understand what’s going on in your pots and pans.

* Recipes and stories from my cooking classes

These are mostly the older posts, mostly written when I was teaching in-person cooking classes. Recently, I have started to add new ones too, often with tips to use ingredients you have on hand or simply like better (example). Check them all out.


* Tips to really learn to cook

In the series of blogs Really learn to cook, I will give you a more philosophical approach to learning how to cook – but with exercises and tips you can put into practice! This is what I wrote so far:

  1. You know more than you think – create a list
  2. Your new strategies in learning to cook 
  3. What is a recipe and why do we need them?
  4. What recipes do you need?
  5. . coming soon ..

* Thoughts on learning to cook

(and my way of teaching)

In this section you can read all my food for thought when it comes to learning how to cook. Like my philosophy on what is learning to cook all about (read here). How I want to help you understand what is going on in your pots and pans, and to see recipes merely as an inspiration.

That’s what I focus on in our Learn to cook (without recipes) series. In each class we will teach one single subject. That could be
~ a cooking technique,
~ an ingredient, or
~ the anatomy of a dish.
If you’re not sure what to expect at our virtual cooking class, read this. We have laid it all out for you. And here’s some background info on why we teach our classes in the style we are teaching them.

Or scroll down and see all articles that will help you become a more confident and creative cook.
* Learning to cook is all about learning how you like to eat
* culinary gifts – Edie’s essentials 
* How cooking like Picasso made me (chef Edie) a better cook
* Why is learning to cook sometimes so hard?
* Find (back) your fun in learning to cook


* Cookbook reviews

Occasionally I will read a cookbook from cover to cover. My special interest are books that aim to teach you to cook (can they?), don’t have that explicit aim but will teach you a lot, and books that interest me for any other reason (subjects like vegetables, vegetarian/vegan, no food waste, etc).

So far, I read and wrote about:
* The I hate to cook book – Peg Bracken
* .. more coming soon..


Join the conversation!