Jeff's Cooking Tip #1 - Buy Food and Cook It

In Hollywood, it is the height of Uncool to make your own food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, late dinner, snacks are purchased and consumed at some kind of restaurant, diner, cafe or catering truck. So the fact that I actually cook a meal or two for the family is an outrageous Hollywood sin. And those many thousands of hours of Food Network have honed my skills to the point where I feel I can offer at least some advice on how to make food cooked in my kitchen tastes restaurant-like in some ways.

I'm often pulled to the side by the secret Uncool who are seeking cooking advice and one of the first questions they ask is, "Will I need any special equipment?" Here is my list:

1. Stove. This is a device that produces heat on a flat surface (either by fire or electric coils). Most stoves have knobs or buttons by which you can adjust the heat and "cook" things either fast or slow.

2. Frying pans and pots. These are metal containers of various shapes and sizes within which you "cook" the food. Flatter and wider and shallower versions of these containers are called "pans". Taller and thinner versions are called "pots".

3. Oven. This is a device that looks like a kitchen cabinet but actually produces heat inside of an insulated box. There is a door with a magic window that allows you to watch as food "cooks". The temperature is controlled by a knob and you can actually do what is called "baking" inside of an oven (cakes, pies, turkeys).

4. Refrigerator. Believe it or not, you can use this device for things beyond chilling beer, wine and soda. One tip is to go to that part of the grocery store where you buy the limes and purchase some other items like onions, tomatos, celery, apples, oranges and other various "fruits" and "vegetables". You keep these items in the refrigerator and they will remain edible much longer than when you leave them out on the coffee table. That other door on the refrigerator goes to the "freezer" (it's not just the place where the ice is made). You can keep some foods for a very long in this freezer and buy more food in bulk (which is a cheaper thing to do).

Don't be afraid to prepare your own meals, it will free you!