Professional Chefs Reveal 6 Common Mistakes That Amateurs Make
What's your kitchen folly?
6 June 2017
When it comes to kitchen experiments, we’ve all had our fair share of embarrassments. And as it turns out, professional chefs are the ones with the worst kind of experiences.
The only difference that makes them a PRO (and us amateurs) is that they don’t give up on a bad dish like we do. They spend hours perfecting the recipes, sauteeing the ingredients and measuring spices — till they get that restaurant-worthy result.
All those long hours and culinary pitfalls teach them how to avoid common kitchen mistakes. Their cooking hacks include every possible way that we laypeople go wrong.
But all thanks to a Reddit thread, chefs are sharing their words of wisdom. From stirring too much to not seasoning each individual ingredient going into a dish, let's just say we've been doing A LOT of things wrong.
1. Stirring too much.
Sometimes, the best you can do is to leave the dish alone. Just because you're constantly moving it doesn't mean you're improving the taste. Let it rest for a while so that it fully absorbs the flavours.
2. Not tasting the ingredients enough.
Whether it's their lack of confidence on the recipe or an over-confidence on their skillset, many home cooks skip the tasting process, especially when cooking out of recipes book.
Cookbooks only serve as guides, it's you who has to decide what works best for your taste buds.
3. Starting without chopping and prepping.
Multi-tasking in the kitchen often leads to overcooked meat and undercooked veggies. Chefs suggest that you chop all your veggies and collect all spices before you start mixing them.
Some recipes require quick additions and waiting even a minute to measure some milk can throw off everything. Even if it's a slow recipe you don't want to be halfway through and realise you're missing something.
4. Pressing down the burger on a grill.
Don't. Just don't do that. It might impress your guests but constantly pressing and flipping your beef patty takes all the juicy flavours out of the meat.
5. Too spicy? Add sugar or butter. Too sweet? Add lemon juice.
We've all committed this one crime and we'll probably do it in the future too.
Here's a life-saving tip: If you’ve added too much of one ingredient and the dish isn’t tasting right, the perfect counter ingredient can neutralise the flavours.
6. Not using the correct sharp tools.
Pros treat their tools like babies and so should you.
According to many experienced cooks, keeping your knives sharp is easy but most people don't know how. A lot of people own a honing steel but only use it when their knives start to dull, maybe once a month or less which won't work. A honing steel is designed to be used every time you use the knife.
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