I am sitting on my couch this morning watching my girl, Ina Garten, on the Food Network Channel, and I’m watching one of her holiday entertaining episodes.  She invited a beginner cook to her home to cook a seemingly fancy holiday-ish meal and I became inspired to share my opinion on the topic of beginning cooking and entertaining.   If you want to learn how to cook, chances are you want to because you love the idea of having the ones you love over to party down and look like a total effortless bad-ass.  Ina gets this, you guys.  And so do I.

I immediately understood Ina’s angle when watching that episode.  She wanted to show you how you can incorporate quality ingredients without being afraid to use them because you’re using very basic techniques to transform them.  If you really understand this concept, you’ll be a total effortless bad-ass in no time.   

I once read the book The 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferris and learned that you need to get out of your own ass when you think about cooking.  Keep it simple is his basic premise and I highly recommend you read his book to really gain an understanding of what keeping it simple really means.  It’s a pretty quick and fun read because, as I mentioned, he’s not into drawing things out; it’s succinct.  Being succinct when you’re absorbing information is one of his most important and valuable tools in the kitchen.  You write recipes down in as little as a few sentences with his technique, and you cook accordingly. His premise is along the same lines as Ina’s, which is basically this: Once you get the basic techniques down you can then get all fancy because your arsenal (basic techniques) is locked down.    

Here’s an example to get you on board:  Pasta.  Basic techniques of cooking pasta:  Boil water with fat in it (oil) to help coat pasta and prevent sticking and a pinch of salt (always do this for flavor).  Boil pasta.  Coat pasta in sauce.  About as basic as it gets.  Once you have this technique down, you can start getting all fancy:  Fresh herbs, fresh tomatoes or chunks of cheese on top; canned sauce – or any sauce, for that matter – spruced-up with a healthy pour of heavy cream while you’re heating it up; taking that same sauce and putting a fancy ingredient in it like truffle oil or butter, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, maybe saute some onion and garlic and then pour in some white wine and then adding that to your pasta sauce.  These things will take your basic pasta and turn it in to something really fancy.  Always serve your pasta with some bread and a bowl of olive oil with salt and pepper in it.  See how I ran with that? Dude.  Fancy.

Take that basic principle and try to apply it across the culinary spectrum.  Meat:  What are the basic techniques?  My recommendation when you’re beginning to cook is not have too many cooking preparations but to stick with one or two for each type of things you’re cooking.  For example:  If you’re cooking with fish, make it a baked or pan-fried variation so you’re not doing anything out of your comfort zone.  It leaves very little room for error and stress when your entertaining.  You’ll figure out the basic techniques for your dish (season liberally, add fat component, acid, cooking temp, etc.) and then you can start getting all fancy.  See how that works?

When it comes to setting up your night, tablescape and all, my advice would also be to not sweat it.  Keep it simple:  Clean house, set the table, have something to drink and snack on, have a place for guests to hang out (a group of chairs, the patio, the living room) and have music in the background.  That’s it.  Once you have that blueprint, you can start getting all fancy.  Board games, cozy blankets, fresh flowers, centerpieces, whatever speaks to you.

Once you get the basic concept down of getting out of your own ass and keeping it simple, you’ll be able to refine your cooking and entertaining skills as time passes.  I’m by no means a pro but I do recognize that I’m becoming better and more easy-going at both cooking and entertaining for large crowds.  It just takes a few parties under your belt to figure out what blueprint works for you. 

What Ina-esque nuggets of wisdom do you have to share with all of us? Comment below! I would also love to see pictures.

Stay fancy, my friends!