The level of knowledge of food and technique you get from first going to a chef school and then working in high end restaurants is pretty much impossible to duplicate on your own as a hobby.
that being said, if you focus on learning technique and about ingredients rather then learning recipes, you can become a very accomplished cook in your own right. No you probably wouldn't survive iron chef, but there's nothing stopping someone from perfecting a dish to the same level you'd get at a Michelin star restaurant.
The fanciest restaurant I've eaten at was average $50-60 but that would be very rare. I really enjoy cooking enough that I'd rather cook my own food. If it's not a dish I've perfected, (which is a bit boring to be honest), it probably won't be quite as good, but I'll have a lot of fun, and it will still be delicious. The more you play around the closer you'll get.
To compete with top chefs at really high end restaurants you need access to a really wide range of very expensive ingredients and tools, and a massive amount of knowledge to use them properly, as well as a lot of practice to learn what actually works. Good luck.
Edited, May 10th 2010 4:15pm by Xsarus
____________________________
01001001 00100000 01001100 01001001 01001011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01000001 01001011 01000101
You'll always be stupid, you'll just be stupid with more information in your brain
Forum FAQ