Someone Asked, "What Advice Can You Give To People Who Want To Cook And Eat Better At Home?" And 30 Chefs Delivered

A blunt knife is **the** most dangerous thing in the kitchen.

Something I call laddering.

Cook too much of one thing (eg.rice). Not that's your base for tomorrow's dinner (fried rice, or curry and rice) half as much cooking and you can always freeze any left overs.

Yesterday I cooked twice the chicken so tonight I just had to make a salad and put the chicken on top. Tomorrow I have left over salad and I'll make tacos. The following day I've got left over taco stuff that I'm make huevos with and so on.

Half the cooking, super healthy, and you don't get tired of leftovers.

Clean while you cook. Don’t ruin your meal by slaving over it’s remnants on a full stomach.

There is a cookbook called Sauces. Get it, read it, and use it. A good sauce can take a mediocre dish, to a really nice dinner.

Disclaimer: not all sauces are easy to make.

Get your pan and oil hot before you put anything in it. The oil just absorbs into the food if it's not hot. People coming out of culinary school make this mistake all the time.

Buy quality ingredients. You don't have to buy *the best*. Just aim for somewhere in the middle.

Don't overcook stuff, except eggplant. Cook the f**k out of eggplant, then cook it some more.

Salt your water for boiling pasta or potatoes... And not just a pinch either, it should taste almost (but not quite) as salty as sea water.

Fresh cracked black pepper is 100x better than pre-ground. Buy a cheap pepper grinder, they're disposable in the spice aisle, and use that.

Mis en place: everything in its place. Prep, chop, measure out, peel, organize everything before you begin assembly. With a bit of prep the day before I can put a full turkey dinner onto plates in a couple of hours...all from scratch. Because everything is out and measured/weighed.

Try to let your refrigerated ingredients warm up a bit before cooking, if possible. Take them out and leave them on the counter for a little bit.

Also, soups taste soooo much better after they have cooled and had time to rest. Make it on Sunday and eat it the rest of the week.

Every protein gets a sauce. Learn to deglaze the pan.

For the love of God, get your meat from a butcher.

Don't just fry something in oil. Chop up some onions, a bit of garlic (not too much), and use butter instead of oil. Cook until the onions are golden, then add anything.

Learn to use salt properly. Properly used salt should never make a dish "salty" but should enhance the flavors within the dish and bring them to the surface better. Start by adding a little salt, taste, add a little more, taste. You will quickly learn to tell the difference between something that is over or under salted, and something that is just right. Salt content can make or break any dish, even sweets.

Smell your spices together and see if they smell tasty.

Be clean. Wash hands, work surface, and knives (and change cutting boards) between working on foods that will be cooked and those that will be served raw. Don't even have them out at the same time. Nothing will turn you away from doing it yourself harder than making yourself (and others) sick.

The best advice I've gotten was from Roberto Rodriguez's 10 minute Cooking School. (can find on YouTube). He recommends picking just 5 of your favorite dishes and learn to cook those 5 dishes really well. Just keep making them over and over until you can do them perfectly. Then always have those ingredients on hand and if you have someone over you can wow them with your amazing skills.

Get yourself a meat thermometer. They're hella cheap and it takes the guess work out of cooking meats to the correct temp.

The best and easiest improvements everyone can make are:

Season your food.
Let all meat rest after cooking.

These 2 alone will make a drastic difference.