Re: Amateur cooks
Do you want to learn to cook desi dishes ? American/continental dishes?
If you want to learn desi dishes, learn from a mentor – relative or desi friends. Adult Education programs often offer Indian cooking classes and they are often sub-par (compared to your home cooked desi cooking).
If you want to learn to cook non-desi cuisine, grab books and magazines. Cooks Illustrated is a great magazine and you can find lot of good recipes online (http://www.cooksillustrated.com/).
If you are a novice cook, I recommend starting with non-desi dishes since they are easier to make. Start with some pan-seared salmon or shrimp scampi and work your way towards more complex dishes and desserts. After you have prepared some meals without burning yourself, the meals or the kitchen itself, and have acquired some skills like chopping onion w/out crying your eyes out, or crushing garlic, take desi lesson from a relative. Learn to bhoon which is the most important step of desi cooking that non-desis can never seem to master. 