The kitchen in any restaurant is often referred to as choreographed chaos. Hot pans sizzle, knives clatter, and flames dance as chefs orchestrate culinary masterpieces under pressure. Yet, amidst this controlled chaos, there is a method to the madness with easy-to-follow kitchen hacks.
Fortunately, many of these kitchen hacks are not exclusive to the realm of restaurants. From simple shortcuts to ingenious improvisations, these chef hacks can revolutionize the way you approach cooking in your own kitchen, saving time, enhancing flavors, and unlocking a world of culinary creativity.
Essential Kitchen Hacks
Whether you're just getting your footing in the kitchen or can throw together meals like a professional, anyone can benefit from picking up these easy kitchen hacks. These chef hacks are more about how you approach preparing food and can help you build solid, life-long habits that make meal prep faster and safer, while also helping you achieve consistent results no matter what you're cooking.
"Mise en place" is French for everything in its place. In the cooking world, this means having all of your ingredients measured and prepped before you turn on the heat, as well as having all the tools you need out and within easy reach. This might seem like a lot of extra work at first, but it will make your life so much easier.
Mise en place will make cooking any meal a breeze because you will have exactly what you need when you need it without having to worry about your food burning while you're still chopping the next ingredient or digging through your drawers for the right cooking utensil.
If you're looking to step up your knife skills, sharpening your kitchen knives regularly, as well as honing them between sharpening, will make chopping and dicing food much easier. It will also make it much safer. When a knife is not kept sharp enough, it not only makes it harder to slice through food, but also makes the knife more likely to slip and cut your fingers instead. Investing in a whet stone or our Pull Through Knife Sharpener will prolong the life of your knives, as well as prevent kitchen mishaps.
One of the best ways to gauge how your meal is coming along is to taste it as you go along. This will let you know if you need to adjust the temperature or add more seasoning. Cooking is very subjective. It's often the case that the exact measurements of herbs and spices in the recipe you're following aren't quite to your taste.
If you're not as accustomed to eating homemade meals, you might underestimate just how much salt you should be adding to your food. A small taste test at various stages during the cooking process will help ensure that your meal comes out just the way you like it.
Cooking and Meal Prep Hacks
The following easy kitchen hacks are simple cooking techniques that can help you plan, prep, and cook fantastic meals any day of the week, while saving you time and cutting down on food waste. From simplifying batch cooking to making the most of one-pot recipes, discover how professional chefs are using these kitchen hacks to elevate and simplify traditional meal preparation.
If you don't have the luxury of owning a big, sturdy chopping block, you've probably dealt with the frustration of your cutting board moving and sliding around as you're chopping. When handling sharp knives, this can quickly become dangerous. A simple trick to keep your cutting board in place is to lay it on top of a wet paper towel. This will provide added traction that will keep the cutting board steady as you go to town on your meat and vegetables.
If you've ever struggled with browning or caramelizing your food, you might be overcrowding your pan. Whether you're roasting something in the oven or on the stove, be mindful of how much you're putting into the pan. Too much food can lower the temperature of the pan and instead of getting that nice crisp and caramelization, you end up steaming your food. To avoid this, try cooking in smaller batches.
Using fresh herbs gives your cooking fresher, more vibrant flavour. And while cutting your herbs straight from the plant is the best way to insure freshness, not everyone has the space or inclination to keep a whole garden in their kitchen. When using store-bought herbs, the most reliable way to keep them from wilting or turning brown in your fridge is to wrap them in a damp paper or kitchen towel. The moisture will sustain the leaves, which will prevent your herbs from going to waste.
Batch cooking is a fantastic way to save time and cut down on food waste in your kitchen. If you're unfamiliar with batch cooking, it's simply preparing larger quantities of ingredients or foods that you can then use as components in meals you cook throughout the week.
Having parts of your meals prepped ahead of time will save you time cooking, especially during hectic work weeks. It's also helpful for using up fresh ingredients before they go bad in your fridge, thus saving you money on groceries and reducing food waste. Our Dutch Ovens and Stockpots are particularly ideal for batch cooking, featuring ample capacity for recipes of all sizes.
Put simply, one-pot wonders are recipes that can be made with one single pot or pan. These recipes have gained popularity because they cut down on clean up, tend to cook quickly (or require less active cooking time) and don't sacrifice flavour in the name of simplicity.
You may already have some one-pot wonders in your repertoire, like beef stew or chili. These kinds of recipes will allow you to enjoy home cooked meals even when you might not have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. They're ideal for weeknights or for when you just want to have some leftovers to take for lunch the next day. Be sure to equip your kitchen with our multipurpose Dutch Oven and enjoy the simplicity of one-pot wonders.
Professional Cooking Techniques at Home
There was a time when you had to go to culinary school or work in a restaurant to learn these skills. With the advent of the internet, as well as the availability of professional grade cookware, these essential cooking techniques and chef hacks are now accessible to everyone. If you've been wanting to make restaurant-worthy meals at home, consider investing some time in learning the following cooking techniques.
"Sous vide" is a French cooking technique that translates to "cooking under vacuum". It involves vacuum-sealing food in a bag and then cooking it in a precisely regulated water bath. The advent of commercially available vacuum sealers has made sous vide cooking much more accessible to the home cook.
It may seem unconventional, but this method is excellent for cooking many types and cuts of meat as all of the juices and flavours are sealed in. The precision temperature regulation also means you don't have to worry about overcooking your food. And because you're using vacuum-sealed bags, you can prepare multiple meals ahead of time with less clean up needed, making this a great time saver during hectic work weeks.
Emulsions and sauces are a fantastic way to add flavour, texture, and moisture to any dish. They're created by combining two or more ingredients that don't normally mix together, such as water and oil. This is generally achieved with emulsifiers like egg yolks or mustard.
Some popular examples include vinaigrettes, mayonnaise, hollandaise, and béarnaise sauce. Mastering emulsions and sauces will help you elevate your cooking to restaurant-worthy levels. Our versatile saucepans and sauciers are best suited for preparing these types of recipes, creating the ideal environment for emulsions and sauces to simmer and reduce to perfection.
It may be surprising, but presentation has a big impact on the enjoyment of a meal. When plating food, the goal is to create a visually appealing dish that showcases the full depth of flavours and textures of the ingredients. How you plate a meal reflects the time and effort you put into cooking it. While professional chefs have a lot more tools at their disposal, there are basics that everyone can master.
There are a few rules that will help you plate food like a pro. Be mindful to not overcrowd your plate, either by using larger plates or smaller portions. This will allow you to create negative space on the plate and draw the eye to the focal ingredient of the meal. Another tip is to tidy up any errant drops of sauce or grease from getting food onto the plate. These small details make a world of difference. Our Classic Serving Platter offers the ideal blank canvas for all your culinary creations to take center stage, ensuring restaurant-worthy presentation.
Master Meal Preparation with Le Creuset
While all of these kitchen hacks and cooking techniques will help you cook with the confidence of a professional chef, the best kitchen hack of them all is having quality cookware you can trust. Le Creuset offers an extensive range of cookware for any and every occasion. Whether you're looking for stainless steel cookware, a classic Dutch Oven, or bakeware, Le Creuset's cookware is built to last a lifetime.
These were just 11 of our favourite chef hacks, however, for more inspiration, be sure to visit our blog for cooking tips, care and use, and creative ways to get the most out of your Le Creuset cookware!
