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Home | Culinary | Culinary Arts | Chef Education Through Intuition

Chef Education Through Intuition

By Marianne Salina

Nigella Lawson is one of the UK's most prized chefs and influential food writers. She contributes a good dose of education to her audience through her television series Nigella Bites as well as through her cookbooks. Her career isn't founded on specific chef training guidelines or adherence to rigid structure, but rather, a call for cooks and chefs to follow their culinary instincts and trust their palates. With her most recent cookbook, Feast, she highlights holidays and cultural events and shows how warmth and passion should catalyze the creation of good food for these gatherings.

Chef Career

In her cookbook Feast, Nigella pays culinary homage to the holiday season and beyond, offering recipes for Halloween, Christmas, Hanukah, Easter, and Passover. She offers meal ideas that taste good and are enjoyable to make--a theme that runs throughout her chef career. For Halloween she has a recipe for Slime Soup, a pea soup with a twist, a Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame, and even a "Fast" section that offers quick and tasty possibilities. Through Nigella's recognition of life cycles, she encourages variety and an emotional attachment to meals as essential training towards any chef education.

Chef Jobs

Nigella's career is inspiration for anyone considering a culinary education or for those already in the midst of their training. Her success can be attributed to the basic desire to provide pleasure to people through food. Her career demonstrates the variety of jobs available with a culinary education, whether it is becoming a culinary writer or commercial chef, creating recipes, or offering training to others. Regardless of which job suits your palate, Nigella's approach to life, and the food that keeps it rich, is a valuable lesson for anyone contemplating a culinary career.

Sources
Coming Soon: Nigella Lawson's Feast: Food to Celebrate Life (http://seattlebonvivant.typepad.com/seattle_bon_vivant/2004/09/coming_soon_nig.html) September 14, 2005 Seattle Bon Vivant
Nigella Lawson's Life (http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/N/nigella/philosophy.shtml) www.channel4.com
The Orange and the Black (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973188) By Bonny Wolf, October 26, 2005, The Kitchen Window

About the Author
Marianne Salina is a freelance writer in Spokane, Washington. She writes about pursuits in education and degree opportunities.