When we are cooking for children it can be important to be able to make food fun. Even if we want to prepare a meal for ourselves or friends it can add lot to meal if we can make it fun.

Perhaps the most obvious way to make a vegetarian meal fun is to barbecue. A cook out will always be fun, even when it rains. But can vegetarian food be barbecued? The answer to that is yes.

Many vegetables can be grilled on the barbecue. Fresh corn cobs barbecue well, as do peppers. These can be laid directly on the bars of the grill. Tomatoes should be pierced with a sharp knife first to prevent them exploding. Vegetables such as potatoes can be wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked more slowly at the edge of the grill. The same technique can be adopted with many other root vegetables.

Baked carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes are all delicious done in this way. You can coat them in oil first, add some thyme and garlic cloves and wrap them up in foil parcel. You may like to add some balsamic vinegar to get a really rich taste. Younger palates may prefer a honey glaze.

Instead of burgers and other meat products you can make burgers out of cooked beans. Simply mash a selection of different coloured beans such as cannellini beans and kidney beans and form them into patties. A little egg may be used to help them hold their shape. They can be seasoned with salt and pepper, fresh herbs, chopped onion, garlic and chilli.

Cook them briefly on either side until they are brown and serve them on a bun with tomato relish and pickles. You may use a bought burger bun, but it also possible to make bread over a barbecue. simply wrap some bread dough around a stick and place it over the grill. It will rise and cook into a sort of curly bread stick. Children love doing this.

Even if the weather is too bad to cook out of doors making bread must rate as one of the most fun ways to cook vegetarian food. An afternoon spent in the kitchen with the smells of new baked bread counts as one of life’s great experiences.

Add a simple vegetarian salad or a soup and you have a complete meal. Add a bottle of wine and you have a supper for friends.

What about desert? Always remember that chocolate is a vegetarian food. A fondue of cheese sauce and a selection of fruits, cakes and biscuits to dip into it will make the perfect end to a vegetarian meal.

But gourmet cooking can be achieved at home if you are willing to devote some time and attention to it. Gourmet cooking is essentially good cooking that uses the best ingredients and has a certain integrity to it.

Gourmet cooking can be simple food. Increasingly, even top restaurants are serving food that would once have been regarded as the food of poor people. But today when our palates are assaulted by some much processed food this kind of food has an authenticity that most of our diet lacks.

A simple meal of cheese sourced from a farm’s own dairy and hand made bread is a gourmet meal. A braised leg of spring lamb with minted new potatoes dug up only hours ago is a gourmet cooking.

Regional specialities cooked slowly with care and attention are gourmet cooking. When most food is fast food, slow food is gourmet food.

If gourmet cooking is about paying attention to ingredients it is also about paying attention to yourself. A gourmet cook must have integrity too. It is important to take pride in yourself. Hone your skills and always be prepared to learn more.

Books are useful. The best books are those that explain techniques rather than just give you recipes. It is your skill in technique that will make you a gourmet cook once you have good quality ingredients.

Some skills need to be learned from the experts. Consider enrolling on a course. A few days spent with a chef, a baker or a butcher will impart skills that cannot be picked up from a book. Not least working with a real artist in these trades will inspire you in your quest to become a gourmet cook.

Equipment is important to a gourmet cook. This doesn’t mean acquiring a battery of fancy gadgets. All you need are knives and pans but they should be of the best quality you can afford. That goes especially for knives and take care to keep them sharp. Have respect for your equipment and it will help you to become a gourmet cook.

If one word sums up what being a gourmet cook means it is that – respect. As a gourmet cook you must respect your ingredients, the skills of others, your diners, your equipment, and above all yourself. That is the only way to become a gourmet cook.