Cooking can be more than just making food for day-to-day meals. It can transform routine to a passion. If you have the likes for cooking up a dish then you can take up cooking as a career.

Cooking is one of the most important chores undertaken by women India. It is known as a woman’s prerogative to cook and take care of her children. But now the house chore has build-up into a profession. Not only women, but even men have taken up the tasks in numbers.

Most of the restaurants and hotels have men chefs bringing them name and fame like never before. Women are not too far in acclaiming this designation. But before you rise to the top, there are a few tips and lessons that will help you get started.

The passion for cooking should come from within. Introduction to cooking courses or at institutions begin with lessons on ingredients. One must know what is the meaning and the source of the ingredients. Once you understand the flavour, smell and taste of an ingredient, you will understand the reason that a particular ingredient is required in a particular recipe.

Also on tasting a recipe you will know what are the ingredients that have gone in making that particular recipe.

Basic recipes with a minimum of one or two recipes are what you should begin with. For instance tea, rice, dal etc. You can then graduate to bigger recipes and ultimately the complicated ones that require a lot of time, patience and a whole lot of ingredients.

Patience is what you need in abundance whatever the number of ingredients. Haste will either bring in a pre-cooked dish or an over cooked dish. Next you need to understand for whom you are cooking.

If you serve a south Indian dish to a north Indian, the odds are against you. Where as if you serve a south Indian dish to a south Indian person, chances are it will be appreciated.

So before you add a single ingredient in that pan, understand the palate you have to satiate. Citizens of Australia and China like bland food, spice is minimal, on the other hand, Indian food is full of spices and masala. No doubt it will never come to terms with people outside India. So even though you may be a great cook, learn to understand the taste buds you are out to feed.

Next pointer is practice. You may not be able to cook the most desired dish, your professor or mom cooks, even though all the ingredients are the same. The proportion and style of cooking is then the missing link.

Practice, practice and keep at it and soon you will master any recipe. Once your heart is in what you make, the outcome is sure to be as desired. Also the cardinal rule of cooking is to make it with love. If you are in a haste or in a bad mood, it is likely that you dish will turn out in the same taste.

So put all your worries behind and all your love in front when you are out to cook.