Most dishes will require three stages of cooking, each with their own unique sets of actions.
- Preparing the Ingredients
- Cooking the Ingredients
- Post-cooking actions
BE STRUCTURED! Do all of your preparation before you start cooking, and do all of your cooking before post-cooking! At least until you’re able to do more complex feats of timing.
All the cutting, washing, marinating and bashing usually happens in the preparation stage. Combining, heating and blending can be considered the cooking stage, and post-cooking actions are more about adjustments to be made to flavour, texture or appearance.
Some “dishes” consist of several components that are actually prepared and cooked separately and only come together in the post-cooking stage or on the final plate. Dishes that have similar characteristics in texture and appearance are often cooked the same way.
There is a basic structure or sequence of actions for each of these types of dishes.
