Prepare all your ingredients beforehand to cook like a professional.
Cooking is an acquired skill, not necessarily an innate talent, but learning to cook can give you control of your ingredients, save you money and it can be a lot of fun. Coking requires a lot of practice, patience and some help along the way. Watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks and practicing in the kitchen can help to build and strengthen cooking skills. So can trying out tips from professional cooks such as Wolfgang Puck and Mario Batali. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Tips from Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck began cooking with his mother when he was 5 years old and began formal training at 14. Since then, Puck has established several restaurants in the California area in the 1980s and 1990s. His restaurants went national in 2001. Wolfgang puck recommends skimming stocks thoroughly to give them the purest possible flavors. He is also in favor of "shocking" vegetables by briefly boiling them in water and then plunging them in ice water. Doing so will bring vegetables' tastes and textures to their peak. Interestingly, he recommends microwaving limes for 15 to 20 seconds before squeezing them to make for easier juicing. Puck also steams boiled potatoes for 5 minutes before mashing and adding cream and butter. Steaming potatoes dries them slightly so they are more absorptive of the cream and butter.
Tips from Mario Batali
Mario Batali was professionally trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London. He left, however, for more experience with chef Marco Pierre White, followed by three years of training in Northern Italy. Mario Batali recommends that cooks buy the best quality ingredients they can afford to increase the quality of the dish, excepting wine. When a dish calls for wine, he uses inexpensive but robust wines instead. Mario Batali highly prefers fresh ingredients to canned or frozen. He also cooks pasta for one minute less than packages recommend for a perfect "al dente" texture.
Tips from Gordon Ramsay
Scottish born Gordon Ramsay was raised in England and trained under Marco Pierre White and Albert Roux in London before moving to France to train with Guy Savoy and Joel Robuchon. He operates various restaurants in New York, Tokyo, Dublin and Paris, to name a few. Ramsay always prepares all of his ingredients before beginning to cook for a more successful dish. You have enough to do without chopping a new vegetable every step of the way. The one spice he always keeps handy is garlic. Freeze ground garlic cloves in an ice cube tray for easy access. He splurges on quality cook wear for better tasting meals and keeps masking tape and a permanent marker handy to label and date left over ingredients.
Tips from Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay was raised in New York City and got his first professional restaurant job in 1982. He graduated from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan in 1993 but opened his first restaurant 1991. Bobby Flay is a grilling master. He recommends getting the best grade meat you can possibly afford and to look for good marbling of fat throughout steaks for the best flavor possible. He takes meat out of the fridge 20 minutes before grilling to ensure an evenly cooked dinner and always gives the grill plenty of time to preheat. Bobby Flay finds that letting meat rest is absolutely key before slicing to give juices time to seep back into the meat.
Tags: Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Tips from, cream butter, Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre, Marco Pierre White