In the coming weeks I will try to explain a few things about these issues. If YOU have any ideas or questions, just ask or send me a 'comment'.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Useful for the home-cook is the way of chopping vegetables.
Thinly sliced vegetables just cook quicker. Easy! Don't always use big chunky parts, it just takes longer to finish your dish. If something has to simmer for a long time, you can use bigger pieces of vegetables. When making a stock, you don't use the vegetables in the end; It's only for taste.
When you want to boil vegetables, like carrots, put them in cold or handwarm water, bring to the boil and ONLY THEN ADD SALT. When finished, the vegetables still have a little bit of a bite/crunchy, get rid of half of the boiling water and replace by cold water. This stops the cooking, but keeps them warm.
For green vegetables it is a bit different; If you want them to STAY green, boil water with salt first and then add the vegetable (courgette). When finished, rinse well with COLD water.
To warm everything up, put all the cooked vegetables in a (one) pan with water and reheat briefly. Drain and plate up. Easy.
We learn how to cut in different ways. Big, small, triangles, thin strips etc. See my blog-entry of 18th November for examples. This subject comes back EVERY lesson. The latest crap is about 'turning' vegetables. It's nice for presentation, but a lot of work. This way of cutting (carrots, potatoes, courgettes) gives a nice torpedo shaped result. Turning vegetables means to pare down vegetables into even, identical shapes, usually ovals with 7 sides. I make about 20 sides, but I do better every time. It just looks nice on a dish, but it's a stupid therapeutical job...
Get good equipment. When your knives are clean and sharp, the job is a lot easier and safer. (And when (not if) you cut yourself, it's at least a nice clean cut....) And take care of your equipment. Don't ever put it in the dishwasher! Keep knives always sharp. I know, that's difficult, but there are many ways to do that. Ask at a good cookery shop.
The use of different oils.
Well, sometimes it's a personal choice, but in general, baking in olive oil can be done, but it's often to strong. And when you need a high temerature you can't use it. Like in a mayonaise, the taste of olive oil is very strong. Instead, you can use a vegetable oil. If you need browning (of meat or fish) you can also add a knob of butter to the hot vegetable oil before putting in the meat/fish. I do cook at home with a lot of olive oil, but here they use that mainly in salads. There's a lot more to tell about this, but maybe some other time.Herbs; 
In short, always cut these the LAST SECOND. Right before you plate up. They go off real quickly. Sometimes its only there for decoration; Then they should look nice and fresh. When putting herbs in a salad, put them in at the last moment. See also : Fresh herbs for a bit of background on taste and how to store fresh herbs.
more to follow....Sj
