How can you tell if someone is a good cook?

Of course, this won't work if you have no taste.

See if she can make radish rosettes. Although, is this a sign of being a good cook (i.e. do these taste good?).

(this thread is classic)

More seriously, lots of ingredients and utensils generally indicate interest in cooking. Specific items of either are evidence of particular styles of cooking - so at my girlfriend's place I find several sorts of pasta, loads of olive oil, lots of herbs, etc. She is Italian, and is not at all equipped for making a curry, for instance. This is helpful if it's your kind of food (as Italian is mine), but nothing is proof of the quality of the cooking except actually tasting a few samples, and bearing in mind that one meal is not proof of anything much, whether positive or negative.

The fridge should be full of lovely things, like unsalted butter, creme fraiche, limes and strawberries.

Oh hang on - that's MY kitchen!!

A blender (bought to make White Russian Milkshakes for the masses)
More than one kind of olive oil
More than one kind of balsamic vinegar
Illy coffee
A set of VERY SHARP Global knives in a really poncey knife holder from Skandium
A Chinatown wok
A mortar and pestle
A cupboard full of spices/ingredients for Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai/Vietnamese and a lot of condiments
Huge bag of Chinatown rice
Cookbooks with bits of dinner sticking the pages together

Things you will not find:

Be Good To Yourself/Lean Cuisine/'diet' products
Margarine (unless it's a Kosher household)
A microwave

Things still needed:

Fresh herbs in window boxes

if anyone can help me grow mint in my window box i will blow hug them: it ALWAYS goes scraggy and leafless

my rosemary will soon be big and threatening enough to take n.korea's place in the axis of evil

i wd also like some tips on KEEPING expensive knives sharp

I think this is the best suggestion yet, plus you can see what recipes she tends to cook.

You'd better love all kinds of food if you're making an issue of it--I'm a pretty good cook but the b/f is v. picky and cannot enjoy my vast knowlege of (for example) soup, which he categorically dislikes. Hmph. He's lucky he's good in bed.

The quality of the steel used in making the knife affects the quality and longevity of the sharpened edge. Also too much bad sharpening in the past can destroy your knives' ability to hold and edge.

As for knowing wether someone is a good cook or not; its got nothing to do with the cookbooks or the equipment its just the results that matter. Most of the recipes I use are improvised or handed down and I cooked just as well with crap knives and a dysfunctional 30 year old gas cooker in student land or indeed on an open wood fire when camping.

"... THAT'S NOT DINNER. Something tells me the boy loves his food."

At least one very good knife (but not too many--that's the sign of a dilettante who buys lots of gear & doesn't use it). I love my Global chef's knife and use virtually no other (aside from one little ceramic knife for detail work).

The presence of shallots. Nobody who doesn't have at least some idea of what they're doing uses shallots.

The presence of stock, especially if there are a couple of kinds of homemade stock in the freezer. (This is less true of vegetarians.)

More than one kind of olive oil
More than one kind of balsamic vinegar
Illy coffee
A set of VERY SHARP Global knives in a really poncey knife holder from Skandium
A Chinatown wok

Also, use of microwave and margarine are not to be scoffed at! A person who can make a glorious meal using the simplest of ingredients and tools is surely the most talented cook? Not that I am one of these people.

I think any partner who saw me in the kitchen would probably leave me on the spot, unless they had a thing for senseless swearing/ knife clattering/ big clouds of steam followed by shrieks.

I am a selfish cook. I do not want to think about what this says about me. Let's go to a restaurant.

A kitchen full of brand new stuff is not necessarily good either - the best knives I've ever used are ones my fifty-something friends in France were given as wedding presents. Very well looked after blades, very worn wooden handles, lovely.

That's a bit of a generalisation. We live next to Italian shops which are usually cheaper than supermarkets for this stuff and any fule kno you need a nicer olive oil for salads and a basic one for cooking everything else (it's also for economy and saving good stuff for special occasions). When I moved to London it was nowhere near as gastronomically advanced as today, so these small shops with their spices and stuff made it possible for me not to go bonkers due to bad bad food. And having good ingredients is half the battle, so why not make things that little bit easier?

However I am in agreement with Douglas about the one good knife thing; the only reason there are so many Global knives in our kitchen is that the knives were a birthday present to my boyfriend, who is able to cater meals to a campsite of 80 and thus has a (semi) professional interest. I also agree that the true test of good cooking is being able to use the last couple of things in the cupboard to do a loaves-and-fishes style feast at 3am on a Saturday night for your hungry friends (I pass this test anyway through a) being a really good cook and b) the magic of also having a great big chunk of parmagiano reggiano always available).

Margarine and microwaves have no place in any kitchen I use because they are SHIT bad for you, it's not snobbism. If I was cooking for someone who kept Kosher I would use olive oil instead of margarine.

(suzy do you have any info/sites about why microwaves are bad for you - i am paranoid about them but have no proof about why!! also ahem point taken about marge but if you're a keen vegan baker WHAT'S TO DO EH!? oh go on just ONE cookie it's only got a BIT of marge in it! ect. and what's all this against garlic crushers? sorry to be picking out your points suzy but they are the ones that interested me most. anthony bourdain is v snobby about garlic crushers = i will FITE for my one to the DEATH)

*runs away*

Garlic crushers are bad because they make the garlic taste too metallic. You should instead flatten the clove using your knife blade, then chop finely with knife or use a mortar and pestle. If you want proof of what crushers do to the garlic, just crush a clove partially and leave it in the crusher for a few hours. then go back, look at it, and EWWWWW. If possible, you should chop, slice and dice the stuff you need BEFORE COOKING so as to avoid the 3-pan chaos you describe. Also it saves time.

Can you not use a particular oil instead of marg? Although am sure vegan marg is the least evil of all marg options. Marg also puts my back up due to sandwich bar workers asking 'butter?' and then going to a big pail of economy marg with a knife while I sit there going NO NO NO to myself (local sandwich bar workers have now been trained not to do this but STILL).

hm. i do actually have quite a lot of cake recipes that call for oil, but the marg ones usually involve creaming (DAN!!) the marg and sugar together and i can't see that working with oil. still i might try because even though vegan marg is not *as* bad (organic, non GM, no dairy obv) it still has all the hydrogenated malarkeys etc in it.

Oh well, if we are going to go all 'crazy' about what poses a minor health risk in your life - be it microwave radiation (cell phones), the possibility that microwaves are destroying the vitamin content, the possibility that plastics in the microwaves release carcinogens into your curry, that margarine's (and red meat) 'trans-fatty' acids are going to kill you, you might as well go crazy about genetically modified food crops, and how MILK is actually the secret enemy! Thus taking away from the whole point that FOOD is good and eating good-tasting food better. Don't even get me started on how bad all those exotic spices are for you...

Suzy, did yr friend H use to live in Philly?

Margarine definitely has a place in non-vegan baking as well since the fats andighter than the butter fats and can help making a lighter dough/batter/mixture. I fear margarines though ever since I went to a lecture at the science museum given by Tim Hunkin on the science of food where he made margarine from used motor oil.

My main issue with microwaves is they cause me to cook too much and freeze left-overs which leads to a freezer full of UFOs (Unidentified Frozen Objects) which hardly ever get eaten and end up going to waste. As far as I'm concerned the radiation stays in the box (inside the Faraday Cage). I just wouldn't get any use out of one except for reheating things.

I have nothing to say about the science of the pro- or anti- microwave stance. But I can tell you that I did do some work on cancer-causing compounds in char-grilled / burnt stuff. I still like barbeques tho!

Tim Hunkin on the science of food where he made margarine from used motor oil.

Did you taste test it? Could you not believe it wasn't butter?

As to carcinogens generally, I spent age 5-25 being in remission (after that, it's a cure OFFICIAL) from a very nasty cancer which required radiation, chemotherapy and surgery to make it go away. I don't get the heebies from possible food carcinogens (basically Marianna is right; if you start getting obsessed about it where do you stop but MADNESS) and eat what I like. Generally, though, I don't like 'convenience' foods or 'diet' foods as both are false-economy solutions to the problems they claim to alleviate.

Generally, though, I don't like 'convenience' foods or 'diet' foods as both are false-economy solutions to the problems they claim to alleviate.

Well said.

I've got a sister in law who is learning how to cook now, and I wouldn't want her to be discouraged by someone saying that she needed to get a load of expensive ingredients and tools to make something tasty! (And that the test of a good cook is much more tricky than just listing what they've got in their kitchen).

Not dissing anyone's cooking skills or ingredients or tools of choice! Now I must go and find a good egg nog recipe...

2 eggs
½ cup castor sugar
2 tsp grated orange rind
Juice of one orange
1/3 cup milk
½ cup sunflower oil
1¾ cups self-raising flour

Stick it all in an electric blender and mix well whizz whizz whizz, pour into a greased 14cmx21cm loaf pan, sprinkle with sunflower seed kernels (optional) and bake in a moderate oven for 45 minutes. Go mad with frustration waiting for it to cool before you can scoff the lot.

Small belfast sink: chosen because it can sit on top of the counter, thus making more space underneath.

Two woden chopping boards: one for meat one for veg.

Global knives and whetstone: these are the best knives, what can I say, they hold an amazing edge, (I never though stainless stell could hold that kind of an edge), they are light and balence so amzingly well. My only criticism is the handles are a little too short (from being japanes I would guess).

Open shelves instead of cabinets: I like to be able to grab at bottles, pots and pans. I also always end up banging my head on open cupbiard doors and that hurts like hell.

Pots of utensils: see above.

Lofra cooker: far from the most expensive cooker money can buy but a couple of months of research led me to this. Its very nergy efficient because of triple glazed door and high quality insulation. It also has the best feature; he shelves slide out on filing cabinet style runners meaning that when you pull somethin out to dosomething on it you don't have to keep supporting he shelf with one hand. this is good effective design. It has too big rings at the back and two small rings at the front, i'd like a wok ring but you can't have everything.

Three storage cabinets with lift up doors: these again stop me from banging my head on the doors. The top one is very practical for keeping booze in because suzy can't reach that high even standing on a chair.

The truh be told about the Illy coffee, it is segafredo coffee in an Illy pot. Illy coffee is very nice but it is no worth the price premium you pay for it. However its worth buying one tin simply for the nice tin to put your coffee in.

suzy can't reach that high even standing on a chair

I bet she can CLIMB though.

I also appreciate little touches, like a chiffonade of basil on my pasta. Coring and peeling tomatoes for pasta sauce = classic.

as for cleanliness, well, I always keep work surfaces clean, but I don't see anything wornd in allowing the storage areas to become a little disorganized, as long as I know where everything is!

If I had to walk into an empty kitchen and decide on the quality of the cook, I would look at the material of the pots and pans. also, good cooks probably pay more attention to the design of their kitchens. I had a lot of friends in Worcester with apartments. I don;t think it is a coincidence that the only friend of mine who likeed to cook (he made an amazing fondue for his birthday, and bought too may bottles of wine and we all got very drunk!) had the best kitchen, which must have taken some time to find, as most kitchens in cheap worcester aparments near my old college had kitchens designed by morons. the stoves were all sitting by themselves, 10 feet from any surfaces!

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