What I Learned About Professional Cooking and How It Helps

It’s All About Butter

The amount of butter we used at the school was astounding. We would melt a 25 lb. case of butter at a time. At the restaurants where I work, that is just the start. Everything has melted butter in it or on it. Some places just use melted butter while others use clarified butter. This is why everything tastes so much better when you eat out.

I prefer to use clarified butter because of the smoke point as well as the flavor. If you are trying to watch your weight, use vegetable oil or olive oil, but what I learned about professional cooking and how it helps me cook better than my friends is to use butter and lots of it. Or, if you have it, duck fat. Restaurants purchase it by the tub and use it like butter.

How You Cut It Really Does Matter

At the Cordon Bleu, we spent hours practicing our knife cuts: brunoise, macédoine, juliennne, batonnett, and tournee. Most of these are not called for in everyday use. Brunoise, a 1/8 by 1/8 by 1/8 inch square cut, is generally too small for anything but garnish. Macédoine, the 1/4 by 1/4 by 1/4 inch cut, is pretty standard. Even if you go for a larger 1/2 by 1/2 by 1/2 inch cut, you should aim for all the pieces of whatever you are cutting to be the same size. This is because pieces that are the same size cook at the same rate so you don’t end up with some pieces that are overcooked and some that are undercooked. This is important when cooking vegetables as well as preparing meats for stews.

The Oven Is Your Friend

More often than not, whatever people try to fry ends up dry and tough. But what I learned about professional cooking and how it helps me keep my food moist and delicious is to pre-heat the oven between 350 to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Start by searing the meat in the frying pan. Once you have a nice color on both sides of the meat, put the frying pan in your oven. You may want to check with the manufacturer if the pan handle is rubber or plastic, but most pans are safe up to 400 degrees fahrenheit. This method gives the outside of the meat a good texture, color, and flavor but then cooks the rest of it evenly so you won't have one hot side that forces the juice out of the other side, which is why fried meat ends up dry.

Practice Practice Practice

No one can learn to ride a bike by reading a book, but for some reason many people believe they will learn to cook if they read enough cookbooks. What I learned about professional cooking and how it helps me everyday is that in order to learn how to cook, you have to cook. And yes, things will burn, overcook, undercook, turn out blue, but if each time you crash a meal you walk away just a bit smarter and knowing why it crashed, you will be a much better cook than you ever thought possible.

When I was at the Cordon Bleu, there were students in the last class that would still have problems making rice, even the most basic "bring two cups of water to a boil, add a touch of salt, add a cup of rice, lower the heat to low, and simmer for ten minuets until done" recipe.

Try the recipe you want to make. Cook it a couple of times. Change it to suit your taste and make it your recipe. This is the only way to get better.

What I Learned About Professional Cooking and How It Helps

Recipes are more like guides than strict formulas. Don’t be afraid to change the recipe to fit your ingredients or to suit your guest’s dietary needs. Add more butter or, if you have it, duck fat. And never forget that cooking is first and foremost fun.

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