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Culinary Grads Share Tips They Didn’t Learn In School But Find Very Useful (16 Tips)
A single episode of Hell’s Kitchen or MasterChef is enough to realize how much guts it takes to become a chef. Working under so much pressure, your blood boiling like it was on the menu is the norm in a restaurant kitchen. And being shouted at is a polite way to confirm you’re still in. On the other side of the cooking industry, crashing hopes and dreams are washed ashore on moldy food containers as seen on Kitchen Nightmares. Whether you’re doing good or not, it never gets easier.
So this time, we are looking at the culinary school grads who have likely been to hell and back to see what cooking tips they have to share. Thanks to one Redditor who posed the question “What are some golden tips to cooking you didn’t learn in culinary school?” on r/Cooking, we can now learn their useful tricks without selling our sanity to the kitchen.
It turns out, learning stuff the "normal way," aka tuning in to a "how to make an omelet" video on YouTube, may just as well do the job.
Discover more in Culinary Grads Share Tips They Didn't Learn In School But Find Very Useful (30 Tips)
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#1
Not a food tip but a cooking tip.... a falling knife has no handle. If you drop a knife, get the hell out of the way and let it hit the floor. Washing it is easy enough. Try to catch it and you could be visiting the emergency room.
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#2
If you're a home cook always clean up after your self while you're cooking. You'll thank yourself after you've eaten and you're full and you don't have a sink full of dishes and stuff to put away everywhere.
#3
Recipes are a road map. You don't have to follow them exactly, its ok to deviate. Unless you are baking, in which case, follow the recipe exactly.
To find out more about the subreddit r/Cooking, where the “What are some golden tips to cooking you didn’t learn in culinary school?” question was posted, Bored Panda reached out to the moderator u/zem, who told us more about the community.
The Reddit user u/zem explained that r/cooking has evolved over time “to stress the fact the membership is interested in cooking rather than just food.” Hence, the moderator team has disallowed pictures of food without a complete recipe attached.
“Compare r/tonightsdinner to see what we were trying to discourage; that's a great subreddit too, but it's focused more on the food than on how the reader can make it for themselves,” u/zem added.
#5
Learn cooking techniques instead of recipes.
Don't approach recipes like they're magic spells in the Harry Potter universe. If you wiggle your nose wrong or put in a spec to much of some seasoning you're not going to end up with a completely different dish.
Alton Brown does an incredible job of teaching a cooking technique and then showing you a recipe that applies that technique. If you learn a process instead of a rote recipe you will know how to cook dozens of dishes, and it's really the only way to develop skills in the kitchen.
#6
Pay attention to all your senses. Sauteing things like onions sound different at different stages. More of a hiss at the start as the steam escapes settling down to a crackle once all that's left its vegetable and fat. Similarly everything you cook will have subtle changes to the way they smell as they cook. There have been many times when I have been multitasking and my nose has alerted me to check on whatever I have in the oven. I'm not talking about smelling burning but just the subtle changes as certain stages of cooking are reached. Eventually it becomes second nature.
The moderator also said that the team behind the community is here not because they’re cooking experts, but rather because “we spend a lot of time on Reddit and are basically volunteering some time and effort to keep the community running smoothly.”
The subreddit, which now has 2.2 million members, describes itself as “a place for the cooks of Reddit and those who want to learn how to cook.”
#7
You can use soy sauce or fish sauce as a substitute for salt for a better umami taste. Also, because you'll need less due to the concentrated flavour, it'll naturally be less sodium.
#8
Salt in the hand, not in the pan. When adding salt to a dish, try not to hang a 5 pound box over it.
#9
Salt early, salt late. Adding salt at different points in cooking dramatically affects results.
#10
There’s literally no point, and even a health hazard, to “rinse” pre-cut chicken and salmon.
#11
Electric stoves are much hotter than gas. A high setting on gas will get you a nice sear, but the same on electric will burn. It's not something to worry about in the kitchen, but definitely at home.
#12
Please don’t buy pre-marinated meats in butchers and grocery stores, they’re usually older cuts of meat being ‘rescued’ with a marinade to cover the unfreshness and smell.
#13
A few drops of a hot sauce like Crystal or a fish sauce can be unrecognizable in a vinaigrette, dip or sauce but it can take it to otherworldly levels. A touch of heat, umami, sugar or acid can turn a flat dish into something people crave. Little drops, add more. Stop when you taste it and start salivating.
#14
Using scissors to cut things. Cherry tomatoes, dough, pizza, some cuts of meat, veggies.... So much faster, less to clean up and way cleaner cuts.
#15
You'll move faster if you maintain the saying of 'Everything has a home, and if it's not in my hand, it's in its home.' This way, you can rely on everything being exactly in its place.
Also, stay clean. Not just by wiping up crumbs after you use a cutting board (keep a sanitized towel nearby for a quick wipe and it'll become second nature), but by always keeping 'landing spaces' clear. You go faster when your space is flexible, and that only happens if you stay clean.
#16
Work like an assembly line. Cut all the ends off, then peel everything, then split everything, then slice. Having 500 veggies to chop will take so long if you do each, from beginning to end, individually. When you change jobs or motions or tools, you slow down to recalibrate. The less you change actions, the faster you can get.
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Ilona Baliūnaitė
Žydrūnė Trukanavičiūtė
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