Take a Culinary Leap

While attempting to execute any recipe you are unfamiliar with is a challenge, cooking dishes with ingredients and techniques that are entirely foreign can be mortifying. Don’t worry, you can do it.

Start With What You Know
When beginning the journey into ethnic cuisine it is best to start with selections you are already familiar with through eating. If you already enjoy eating Indian vindaloo you have a reference point by which to gauge your culinary progress. Most styles of cooking have similarities or common themes that run throughout, and as you work your way into the less familiar you will begin to associate these frequent threads. Attempting to create a meal that you have never sampled, while a noble prospect indeed, may not generate the satisfaction desired. By recreating dishes you already enjoy you will show yourself, and any naysayer in the room, that you can do this. From here you will begin the build the confidence to explore the culinary world further.

Use What Others Know
While many of the larger chain supermarkets now have an extensive international selection of groceries, seeking out smaller specialty stores can be to your advantage. These smaller stores offer the opportunity to meet the people who consume these styles of cooking on a regular basis. Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, African and European markets offer a greater variety of the specific ingredients you will need to recreate dishes, employ people familiar with the recipes you seek to create and are generally much more fun to explore. A universal maxim is that, next to the weather, people love to talk about food. Engage people to learn about their culture and cuisine, they will probably teach you more then you can learn from a cooking show on television and with much more passion.

Read, Read, Read
While the Internet is a wonderful tool for quickly finding recipes, the quality of recipes is often questionable. The best use of the Net is to find authors who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of defining and redefining the cuisine of various cultures. Be it Patricia Wells creating the classic cassoulet or Diana Kennedy illuminating the various nuances of the tamale, these historians of food have laboriously researched their particular interests allowing you, the reader, to immerse yourself in places you have yet to see.

Throw Caution to the Wind
All this being said, be brave and try. It takes years to become a consummate cook and along the way you will experience pitfalls. Do not be discouraged in the face of adversity as these small trials are part of the learning experience. Keep eating new things and cooking new things and eventually you will become the cook you want to be.