Learning to cook is one of life’s greatest achievements. Improving your culinary skills leads to a better understanding of flavour, so you can create both classic and innovative dishes guaranteed to impress your friends and family. Whether you’ve already mastered the basics or are a complete novice in the kitchen, it is never too late to expand your horizons and take cooking to the next level. Consider the following tips for improving your culinary expertise.
Get The Right Tools
Although a good craftsman never blames his tools, the right culinary equipment is required for better results. Blunt knives and cheap, low-quality cookware may suffice for occasional use, but if you’re serious about improving your cooking skills, it may be time to invest in quality. First, get yourself a set of high-quality kitchen knives and keep them sharp using a whetstone or diamond sharpening tool. Sharp knives are easier to control, making for quicker, more efficient kitchen prep, whereas a dull blade requires more pressure to cut, increasing the risk of slipping and potentially causing injury.
Cook With Quality Ingredients
There is no doubt that good-quality ingredients taste better. The quality of ingredients can make or break a dish, so it is always worth sourcing fresh, outstanding produce. As a rule of thumb, the further your ingredients have had to travel, the less fresh they are likely to be. Consequently, you can improve the quality of your cooking, support local businesses, and benefit the environment by purchasing local and seasonal products. Furthermore, try and source organic and free-range ingredients where possible. For example, local farm-fresh free-range eggs are guaranteed to taste better than their supermarket battery counterparts.
Master The Basic Techniques
Improving your prowess in any skill or hobby starts with mastering the basics. Familiarise yourself with knife techniques such as chopping, dicing and mincing, as well as fundamental cooking methods like frying, poaching, blanching and roasting. You should also learn how to balance flavours - something that will make cooking experimentation considerably easier and more successful. Start by learning to cook rudimentary dishes like roast chicken, sautéed vegetables and al dente pasta. Once you’ve acquired principal cooking techniques, you can take your expertise to the next level.
Season Well
Seasoning your food well creates deep, complex and balanced levels of flavour. Professional chefs advise tasting as you cook to track the development of flavour and season appropriately. While many of us are eager to reduce our sodium intake, don’t be afraid to use salt liberally early in the cooking process. For example, you should always salt your pasta water to enhance the flavour of your noodles from the inside out. Similarly, it is always advisable to salt meat before searing, as this improves the flavour and helps the proteins retain their own natural juices.
Experiment With Recipes
As is the case with any creative art form, culinary experimentation is the key to improvement. Discovering new recipes can be an excellent way to expand your knowledge and try out new dishes from various cultures and cuisines; however, everything will change once you start viewing recipes as guidelines rather than instructions. As your confidence increases and you begin understanding how to balance flavours, you can tweak recipes to your liking. For example, you may want to add a splash of white wine to a basic pasta sauce to add an element of complex acidity.
Learn From Your Mistakes
The more you practise and experiment the fewer mistakes you will make. That said, even the most accomplished chefs make the odd error now and again. Try not to view a mishap as a failure but rather as a learning curve. Mistakes teach problem-solving, encouraging us to find alternative solutions and methods. As you progress, you will also learn how to rework and repurpose dishes that you may have previously deemed unsalvageable.
Cook A Variety Of Dishes
You may have a penchant for a particular type of cuisine, such as Thai, Italian or French, but broadening your palate and attempting dishes from all over the world will give you insight into a wide range of techniques and flavour combinations. You can have a lot of fun with this; for example, challenge yourself to cook a dish from a different country every day for a month. You may even discover a new signature dish or favourite method of cooking.
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