10 Easy Tips to IMMEDIATELY Make You a Better Cook

Here are 10 easy tips and techniques that I picked up from my time in culinary school and 15 years of professional cooking that will immediately make you a better cook. The best part is you can start doing all of these today. While they may seem overly simple, they can be the difference between boring and brilliant. The first way to become a better cook is by having consistent knife cuts. Of course, you first have to have a sharp chef's knife. If you don't, the cuts are going to be jaggedy and it's going to be hard to slice through whatever you're trying to prepare. Good knife cuts will help cook your food more evenly and it will make your finished dish that much more beautiful. It shows the people eating it that you took the time to care and show love in that dish. It really just takes practice, that's it. We used to have entire sessions and whole classes in culinary school dedicated to knife cuts alone. That's how important they are. Okay, the number two tip is mise en place. In French, this translates to everything in its place. It means that every single thing that you can possibly prepare for a meal is prepped so that when it comes time to cook, that's all you're doing is cooking. There's nothing worse than stopping in the middle of cooking because you forgot to prep up the fresh thyme. And we made lists every day at the restaurant, so if that's what you need to do, then do it to make sure the cooking process is completely seamless. The number three technique is having a container or a bain-marie full of cooking utensils. What does that even mean? The first thing I did when I came into the restaurant for the day is I gathered a pot, in this case, a bain-marie insert, and I filled it halfway with hot water. And then I gathered a bunch of random cooking utensils like spoons, slotted spoons, rubber spatulas, whisks, grilled spatulas, tongs, anything I thought I would need to help with prep and cooking. It's like when you put something on the grill, then you have to go fish out the tongs from that drawer that barely opens. It is maddening. Have all the cooking utensils ready to roll so that the cooking can roll. All right, number four, spoons. Lots and lots of spoons. You have to taste your food. You have to. If you're learning to cook, it's even better if you taste things at every single stage. Obviously, besides raw or undercooked animal protein. This way, you'll know where things should be at which stage. It also lets you know what you need to adjust to make it tastier. Maybe it needs more salt, acid, herbs. I have a container of like 60 spoons that sits right by my cutting board through the entire prepping and cooking process. I want these to be readily available so that I can simply grab them out, taste it, and figure out what the next step is. Okay, the number five tip, and I know it may seem very simple to you, clean as you go. There's nothing worse than having a completely cluttered cutting board full of leftover vegetable scraps and carrot ends. We need to remove these so that the prepping can move much faster. I usually have a container for these scraps, which you can, in return, freeze and make a veg stock or add it to beef or chicken stock to make it richer. It's a great way to save on things like this and have far better results than what's coming out of the box from the grocery store. Cleaning as you go is simple, but it can greatly reduce stress during the prep and cooking process so that you can focus in on what you need to prep up. All right, the number six technique is adding acid. Adding in a little bit of lemon or vinegar early in the process of cooking things like soups or stews can greatly help balance those things out. Or you can finish protein like pork, chicken, fish, or steak with just a small squeeze of lemon. This acts almost like salt. It enhances and brightens the dish without an identifiable flavor. Essentially, it just makes whatever you're adding it to that much more delicious. Number seven, using herbs. But there's a difference because you can use dry or fresh. In the cooking process, you start with dry herbs and you finish with fresh herbs. Dry herbs need reconstitution, so it's best to put them in at the beginning of the cooking process wherever liquid is present. You'll notice that whenever you use dry herbs that the dish will be even more flavorful the next day, and it's because it had ample time for those flavors to come out. When it comes to fresh herbs, they're so pungent with flavor that you finish recipes with these. They need absolutely nothing to make them tastier. They're ready to go. They can also be a beautiful garnish. Okay, number eight, and probably my favorite technique, is finishing with butter. This will add an incredible amount of body, richness, fat, and a beautiful sheen to your food. I almost always use unsalted butter when I cook and bake so that I can control the salt content instead of a butter company. However, it is okay to use salted butter when you're adding it to things like toast, pancakes, waffles, things of that nature. It's when it's going to enhance without needing to adjust. Finishing your sauces, whether that's a cream base or beef or chicken stock base with a little bit of that unsalted butter, or adding it to the top of a steak as it rests, it will make all of these things incredibly more delicious. You don't believe me? Just give it a try. I guarantee you it will. All right, the number nine tip is starting with whole spices instead of ground spices. Over time, pre-ground spices in jars can greatly lose their potency and flavor, so that's why you start with whole spices, and that's the case for everything, whether it's a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cumin, cardamom, you name it. Once you've identified which spice it is, give it a little gentle toast in a pan over low heat for a few minutes. They'll become so aromatic, and this just adds to the dish that you're putting it in. Then, grind it down using a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle, and from there, spice away, my friends. And last but not least, the number 10 technique, and probably the most important, is the use of salt. Now, while this seems minuscule, it's probably one of the biggest factors between amateur and professional cooking. Now, when someone says a dish is bland, I promise you, 99% of the time, it's because it wasn't properly seasoned with salt. Remember those spoons back at number four? Yeah, these are what those are for. It's also important, as I've stated in almost every video, that you season a little bit at each stage throughout the entire cooking process. Whether the dish starts with onions and then finishes with stock, season the onions, also season the stock. Or perhaps you're cooking chicken. You wanna season the chicken, and you also wanna season the breading you're potentially coating it in. I'm not talking about caking anything up. I'm talking about very gentle seasonings. Again, taste things like the onions or the breading. You'll end up using less salt as things cook down and concentrate, and the flavor will intensify. The end result is something perfectly seasoned that you simply cannot wait to take the next bite of. Also, hugely important, seasoning takes practice. You'll begin to understand your natural rhythm of doing it and how much you seem to sprinkle on each time you do. And of course, when you season, season high. Be about a foot away so that you cover as much surface area as possible so that each bite is delicious. And you'll start to get the hang of it. You'll start to realize, wow, that needs more salt, or whoa, that is way too salty. Practicing everything in cooking is just how you get good at it. And that's it. 10 easy tips and techniques that you can do today and that don't cost anything other than your time and attention to detail. And remember to use what you have. You'll still be able to make beautiful, delicious food. And if you just happen to be looking to fine-tune those knife skills, I've got a great video on how to master those. I'll see you on there.