The old adage "hindsight is 20/20" couldn’t be more true when it comes to cooking. There are so many things I had to learn the hard way and rather than gatekeep that knowledge, I’m here to share with you the 10 things I wish I knew when I started cooking.

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/d3q_JlwNDJw

Mise en place

While my list of things I wish I knew goes beyond just 10 items, I will say that there is one tip that comes first and foremost.

Mise en place, or the preparation and arrangement of ingredients before cooking is crucial to success.

It allows you to be better organized so you can efficiently cook like a pro.

This is a concept that’s taught in culinary school, but you don’t need to be a classically trained chef to do this at home. 

At the start of every YouTube video I go over my ingredients, my mise en place, and this allows me to effectively demonstrate how to prepare the food.

In this episode we discuss the importance of mise en place along with other cooking tips I wish I knew before I started cooking.

Topics include the importance of keeping a clean kitchen, how to use stainless steel pans, rolling citrus to maximize juice, why pasta water is an essential ingredient, and how reading a recipe through to the end can make a difference.

Top tips

In almost every recipe post I include a "Top tips" section that addresses the needs tips specific to that recipe, and often I'll include the tips we talk about in this episode.

If you've been following along with our recipes, you're likely familiar with the top tips section and I hope have found them useful!

I encourage you to peruse the top tips section whenever making one of my recipes as you'll find bits of info there that can really help elevate your recipes!

Resources

Beef Bourguignon recipe

Italian lentil soup recipe

Prime rib recipe

Buffalo wings recipe

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