Chef Todd Mohr

Free

Cooking with Confidence Expert

Chef Todd Mohr

Chef Todd Mohr Quick Facts

Before I became Chef Todd Mohr, I was Todd Mohr - a guy who liked to cook. A lot of people, including me, even thought I was a pretty good cook. For starters, I had my five meals, well, recipes, I suppose, that I could make well. Being a creative person, I also used some of the techniques from my tried and true "recipes" to experiment a bit with new dishes. Some were good and some not so good, and I usually never knew what the difference was.

Through a series of events, I decided to change careers in 1996 and pursue my passion for cooking, so I enrolled in Baltimore International Culinary College. 18 months later, I emerged: Chef Todd Mohr.

The greatest thing I learned in culinary school was the "how" and the "why" that had been missing from my cooking all those years. My recipes only gave me the "what" - which left so much out! The greatest thing I gained in the years after culinary school, was the practical experience from working in kitchens and experimenting at home. Being observant, I learned even more "hows" and "whys" in addition to "whats" along my culinary journey. This experience and experimentation, more than anything else, is what turned Todd Mohr into Chef Todd Mohr.

The specific details of the last 10 years are not that important, but my experience includes kitchen experience - all the way up to Executive Chef, as well as college teaching experience, starting and operating a successful catering company and then finally, the culmination of all of my passion: opening The Cooking School in Cary NC in 2007.

It was at The Cooking School that I developed and honed the cooking program that has now taught hundreds of people to cook - something that had eluded them until they attended my classes. From The Cooking School, came "Cooking Coarse", my daily video blog that quickly gained a loyal You Tube following due to the uniqueness of the instruction offered. It was through feedback received from "Cooking Coarse" viewers that I decided to launch this website and provide this information to the world.

You see, people were telling me that they had bought cookbooks, watched videos, tuned into the Food Network - all in an effort to learn to cook. However, this information is just not available without formal culinary instruction.

When I started getting emails that my videos had literally changed people's lives, I knew I was on to something and that was when WebCookingClasses.com was born!

It is my hope that this information will provide you with the foundation you need to become one of the hundreds of people who have already been empowered to cook and keep recipes in their proper place - on the back burner!

Free Articles & Book Excerpts

Free Audio & Video Samples

Chef Todd Mohr Audio & Video Programs

Articles by this expert

SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.

191 total
A

Article

Food is a constant expense. Every day, three times a day, whether eating out or cooking at home, you have to spend money on food. If you have to cook on a budget, you’re probably very careful about what you bring home from the grocery for everyday cooking, but how do you protect this investment once it’s in your cabinets or refrigerator?

Recently added

A

Article

These canning how-to tips came out of necessity. You see, I’ve been making my own barbeque sauce since I was a kid, but it caused conflict in my household. I loved using the sauce as a grilling marinade so I’d make gallons of my “New York Attitude” Barbeque Sauce and portion it into used plastic Wonton Soup containers. The shear number of containers would fill my Mom’s refrigerator.

Recently added

A

Article

Of the many Thanksgiving cooking tips I can give you, this is perhaps the most important. It can be the difference between a triumphant meal and an undercooked case of food borne illness. I get many questions on email about correct roasting temperatures. “What temperature should my oven be for turkey”? “What is the correct temperature for chicken”? “How hot should my oven be for…?”

Recently added

A

Article

Mahi mahi recipes are no different than any other recipe. I’m sure you know by now how I feel about recipes. They have inherent flaws that make them very difficult to duplicate consistently. If you’re going to get varied results from the same recipe, why even follow it in the first place? Cooking is a chore when you have to follow someone else’s written instructions. However, cooking becomes inspirational and therapeutic in many ways when you follow your own creativity and desires.

Recently added

A

Article

They asked me to make Bourbon Chicken for the Beer Bourbon BBQ Festival this year. The mistake they made was asking me to send the recipe. They should know better than to ask the guy famous for burning recipes to write something down. That’s just the point, I don’t use recipes. Bourbon Chicken could be White Wine Chicken or Tequila Chicken using the same basic cooking method. Knowing how to saute allows you to create simple and quick dishes using the ingredients you desire. All you have to do is duplicate the basic procedure:

Recently added

A

Article

You can fry in a pan or sauté on the stove top, but knowing the differences between the two methods is an important lesson in cooking college. There are big differences between the basic cooking methods of Pan Frying and Sauté, but most people think they’re the same.

Recently added

A

Article

You don’t need a written recipe to achieve great low carb cooking from home. One basic cooking method and the ingredients YOU desire are all it takes. Earlier this week, I showed you a low carb chicken recipe using sauté method. Today’s inspiration will follow the same procedure with different ingredients.

Recently added

A

Article

What is Demi Glace? It’s only the most indispensible ingredient for making brown sauces. Professional chefs know that the secret to making rich and flavorful gravies for beef, veal, lamb or game lies in the few simple steps needed to make their sauces pop. Demi Glace uses one of the mother sauces called “Espagnole”. The brown sauce is combined with brown stock and reduced by half. This means that the two ingredients are combined and softly simmered until half the moisture evaporates, intensifying the flavor and reducing the volume.

Recently added

A

Article

“What has less flavor than water?” I pose the question to my cooking college class. Nothing! Nothing has less flavor than water. If you’re thinking about poaching fish, chicken, or eggs, why not ADD flavor to the final result by cooking them in a flavorful liquid? That’s the first rule of cooking something in a poaching method. Don’t use flavorless water, always poach items in a flavorful liquid. Have you ever boiled carrots in water? The result is carrots that taste like water and water that is orange. Hmm, where did the flavor go?

Recently added

A

Article

Most home cooks would begin searching cookbooks for a Chicken Kiev recipe that met their tastes, cooking skill, and ingredients on hand. This is most often a time consuming task. Actually, it takes MORE time just to find the recipe that it would to cook this stuffed chicken entrée. In today’s Elements of Entrée Production class at Baltimore’s culinary arts school, we have to prepare lunch for 35 diners in the next classroom. Their class deals with elements of dinner service, and our class provides the food. We’re the chefs, they are the servers.

Recently added

A

Article

Simple cooking is the best cooking. There, I said it for the 1000th time! No matter where I travel, no matter to whom I speak, those people and cultures that know good food say the same thing. In Paris, the spice store shared his incredibly simple secret to eating healthy, “Simple things are good things”. In a fish market on Hawaii, the local fish monger advised me to cook my tuna very rare and very simply. “Only scare the fish with a fry pan, it will be Ono”, he said. Ono is “delicious” in Hawaiian.

Recently added

A

Article

No, you’re not. You’re not looking for another Angel Food Cake recipe. The recipe really doesn’t matter as much as the procedure. So, rather than look for a new written set of instructions, how about scrutinizing the steps that professionals take in creating this fat free dessert? When you perfect the procedure for mixing cakes, all your recipes will come out better. I’ve told you before that it’s not the BAKING of cakes that causes problems, it’s the MIXING of cakes that creates the biggest mistakes.

Recently added

Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Chef Todd Mohr

Cook with your Head - NOT your Recipes!

Contacting Chef Todd Mohr

How to get started

I have a FREE internet cooking video Series

"Cooking Coarse" nearing its 200th episode!

Start with the first episode and watch all of them in order OR pick and choose by topics that interest you!

View the Archive Now:

Or visit my website and review pages of cooking information and ideas by category (including the videos):