How do you teach an adult to cook?

Jody made us a grade prime Prime Rib for Thanksgiving this year and that is exactly the method she used.

Prime Rib on Thanksgiving? You crazy unconventionals!

You don't know the half of how weird we are. We once had breakfast food for dinner!

[Jenise]

This is what I would tell Gary. It's the same advice I've given to young people who are just starting out and "don't know how to cook."
Pick your own three favorite meals (dinner, that is). Then perfect them...I would tell Gary to NEVER make homemade pasta while guests are standing around. What was he thinking? Oh yes, the WineSpectator photo shoot.

Probably, but I actually thought the interactivity was a fun idea. One of the more fun dinner parties I've ever been to was one where the host designed the entire Italian meal to be interactive: four couples and a number of tasks, including making a veal lasagna out of dried pasta sheets he'd made the day before. For anyone without anything immediate to do there was an olive oil tasting bar with slices of bread he'd baked that morning and plenty of wine. It was great fun, and the food was totally delicious. I dream about that lasagna....

But I like your idea, and I'm going to suggest it to him.

[Jenise]

Today I talked to her and she was in despair over the roast, and thought the meat market was to blame. I didn't have the heart to tell her my real opinion. What would you have done?

Ouch ouch ouch. I'd have probably ruined our friendship and told her what I really thought. Seriously, it would have been hard to let her blame the meat market. I might have said something like, "Well it was more done than I know you wanted it. Why don't we go over all the steps you took--tell me everything you did--and let me see if I can't help you figure out what went wrong?" At least this way, you'd give her another chance to come clean about nuking it which, if she never did, then it would be obvious that your only choice was to assist her in the deception and you could still walk away without ever having to say, "That was the worst prime rib I've ever eaten."

[Jenise]

A great comedy scene. How DID you manage to rescue the wet dough ??

There was really no rescuing the two balls they ruined with the water, we just had overly wet, ugly pasta that was impossible to handle. But once they'd been wrestled with those and hadn't learned anything from two bad results, it was much easier to say "try it once more without the water. That's what's causing this, I'm sure" and "let me roll out that end for you so you have a good tapered edge to feed into the machine".

[Jenise]

Jacques Pepin's "Complete techniques" has a copyright date of 2001, so should be available used. A search on abesbooks.com should find copies.
This is a paperback reprint of the complete "La Technique" and "La Methode", which, I think, came out in the 1970's.
Madeleine Kamman's best instructional book "The new making of a cook" came out in 1997. This is a little more advanced than either Child or Pepin's books, but is an excellent take on modern French cooking. The section on building sauces is worth the cost by itself. Definitely one to buy used as it is a 1200+ page hardcover, with an original cost of $40.

Kamman's book is probably too advanced. Though Gary speaks to wanting to learn to cook, having played cards with him I would guess he's not the studious type. More of a bluffer. So the easiest route to the best result is going to be the ticket. I'll have a look at Pepin's book, though.

[Jenise]

I can just imagine Jenise, you watching this fiasco and with your innate helpful nature having to struggle to hold back when you could see the whole thing going down the tubes. When you finally got to step in, I'll bet everyone was in awe.

No, not at all. Just relieved that the dough was rolling out so well finally, and dinner would soon be served.

Sad to say, it reminds me a tiny bit of the first dinner party we threw while Len and I were still a relatively new item. I had lovingly and painstakingly made Bolognese sauce for lasagne. I put the noodles into the boiling water and I can't remember what happened after that but for whatever reason I didn't stir them. Well, they just glued themselves together.

I always add a dollop of oil to the cooking water when pre-cooking lasagna noodles; they're so flat they do easily stick together, even when stirred.

But your story's funny...maybe we need to start a courtship cooking thread?