well, i would like to know more about your experiance in the fod indrastry. are a culinary student? are you working at a restaraunt or hotel? are you thinking of going to school?
if you have ever cooked, you know that cooking is all about the basic techniques. if you know how to grill, saute, broil, paoch, ect then you have a good foundation to cook anything. as i like to tell people... a saute is a saute a world around. doesnt change... its always the basics.
for baking, it is the same thing. i classifie baking in two parts... baking and pastry. both of them have there own basic techniques.... foundations basically. for pastry, if you learn the mixing methods like creaking, foaming, ect then you can make tons of stuff. for baking, there are mixing methods too, both for lean and enriched doughs. when you learn all this, then, like i said, you will have a great foundation for whatever you want to make.
without knowing what your situation is, i would suggest that you go to the library or book store and buy a baking book... a professional one. like the professional pastry chef by bo friberg or professional baking by wyne gillsin. both are great books. i would, at this point.... STAY AWAY FROM RECIPE BOOKS. i would get a book that teaches you technique. that is the most important thing.
i would also strongly suggest taking a continuing education course at a culinary school near you. i recently bought a book that lists all the culinary school in the world. feel free to email me and i will help you locate one of these schools.
depending on how old you are and how much time you have on your hands, you might condider calling a bake shop and see if you can trail over there. you will learn a ton of things.
if you are going to learn about breads, you should learn about pastry and if u are going to learn about pastrym you should learn about breads. both will be advantagous later on in life.
you can learn things the hard way by trial and error but it willl only get you so far. read books and take some classes offered at the local culinary school. somethings are hard to teach by video, books, and people try to intruct you by the computer.
this web site is a great way to learn but i strongly suggest that you take a class. it will really help you a lot. then you will have tons of questions and we can help you right here with them.
best of luck to you and keep us posted.
p.s. i love breads a lot so i am partial... I speak for kyle too..... START WITH BREADS
but like i said, learn pastry too
