By Jones Drury
Lane Kenny casually cooking for guests at his home kitchen
“I once was cooking and it didn’t turn out well, so I learned from my mistakes and tried again.” says Lane Kenny, 18, of Ames High School who has made cooking a part of his weekly routine. Lane’s culinary journey began out of hunger and the desire to experiment in the kitchen. Through many attempts, mistakes, and successes, he fine tuned his skills in the culinary art of cooking. Learning from experiences both good and bad, Lane found his joy in cooking from doing it for others and the satisfaction that the activity brings.
“Know your tools and how to use them” Lane’s response when asked for any tips or tricks in the kitchen may seem like a simple one, but he assures that this is one mistake many amateur cooks make. Not knowing what tools a recipe calls for or not knowing how to use the tools you have will make preparing a dish much harder than it needs to be and will likely result in something that your company will not enjoy. While it is such a key component to learn, the task itself is not very difficult to accomplish. Kenny suggests a Google search, asking a parent, or just simple trial and error.
While on the topic of simple mistakes, Kenny states that “knowing your audience and their palette” is vital when preparing a dish for people or a group of people. “You really want to know who you are preparing the meal for. You want to know their likes and dislikes and then play to that. That really elevates your cooking as other people can enjoy what you make so much more.”
The biggest thing when cooking though is to never give up. It may be disheartening when something doesn’t turn out how you wanted it to. Maybe you overcooked something or messed up the amount of ingredients you needed. With cooking, you can always fix your mistakes and you can almost always try again. “Cooking is a great and useful learning experience and there is nothing more rewarding than enjoying something you spent hours cooking and have tried it over and over again to get it right. You feel accomplished and ready to take on anything. ”