The Microwave Isn’t Just for Leftovers
Let’s start with what might shock you the most: professional chefs actually use microwaves. Chef Laurent Tourondel recommends zapping a lemon for ten seconds to break down cells and make the juice flow faster. This technique works perfectly when you need maximum juice for vinaigrettes or any dish requiring fresh citrus.
Citronelle’s Michel Richard uses a microwave to melt chocolate and poach meringue, which means he doesn’t have to stand over a double boiler. The microwave saves precious time and prevents the chocolate from seizing up, which can happen with traditional double-boiler methods. Even frozen vegetables can be perfectly cooked in the microwave for just two minutes, making weeknight dinners infinitely easier.
Store-Bought Kimchi Gets the Chef Treatment
Some of the best chefs, cookbook authors and cooking experts use no-shame shortcuts at home, with Rachel Yang, whose restaurant kimchis were featured in Food and Wine magazine, admitting she eats a favorite store-bought kimchi at home. This fermented powerhouse transforms ordinary dishes into something extraordinary without the weeks of preparation traditional kimchi requires.
The beauty of kimchi is that it can last in the refrigerator for months, and it can be enjoyed without having to do anything to it – an instant vegetable that’s always at the ready. Chefs know that the spicy fermented staple of Korean cuisine is a quick way to add a punch of flavor to just about anything, including sheet pan noodles, shrimp burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. The fermentation process creates complex umami flavors that would otherwise take hours to develop through traditional cooking methods.
Garlic Powder Makes the Grade
Here’s something that might make purists cringe: many professional chefs reach for garlic powder instead of fresh cloves when cooking at home. One chef made a batch of easy kimchi using garlic powder, fish sauce and anchovy soup base to the flour/water paste, proving that convenience ingredients can deliver authentic flavors.
The reality is that garlic powder offers consistent flavor without the hassle of peeling, chopping, and dealing with sticky fingers. It dissolves evenly into sauces and marinades, and won’t burn as easily as fresh garlic during high-heat cooking. Restaurants buy Costco’s 3-pound packages of pre-peeled garlic, and don’t think for a minute that they haven’t caught onto this enormous time-saver. If professional kitchens embrace these shortcuts, there’s absolutely no shame in using them at home.
Frozen Vegetables Are a Chef’s Secret Weapon
The convenience and longevity of frozen vegetables is hard to beat, and an even greater reason to love frozen produce is that it is often prepped and ready to go straight from its packaging, saving you the trouble of slicing and dicing. Modern flash-freezing techniques actually preserve nutrients better than fresh vegetables that have been sitting in your cridge for a week.
You can toss some packages straight into the microwave, or add them to soups, stews, pastas, and stir-fries. Professional chefs understand that time is money, and spending twenty minutes washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables for a quick weeknight dinner just doesn’t make sense. The texture difference in cooked dishes is often negligible, and the nutritional content can actually be superior to “fresh” produce that’s been transported long distances.
Pre-Made Pasta Sauce Gets the Professional Touch
A pot of pasta and a jar of your favorite marinara sauce is always an easy answer to “What’s for dinner?” But you can also use the prepared sauce to more easily assemble lasagna, as the base for a Bolognese-style sauce with ground meat, or to simmer meatballs in for spaghetti night. The trick is knowing how to enhance store-bought sauce to taste restaurant-quality.
Smart chefs doctor jarred sauce with fresh herbs, a splash of wine, or quality olive oil to elevate the flavor profile. You can keep it simple by just stirring it into a bowl of rice, creating an instant comfort food that takes minutes to prepare. The key isn’t avoiding convenience products altogether – it’s knowing how to make them work for you.
Potato Chips Replace Fresh Potatoes
This might sound crazy, but it’s genius when you think about it. Seattle star chef Mutsuko Soma uses potato chips for tortilla española, and Ferran Adria, who some call the world’s greatest chef, does the same. The chips are already cooked and seasoned, eliminating the need to slice, fry, and season potatoes separately.
Spanish chef José Andrés uses fresh tubers in Jaleo’s tortilla de patatas, but he subs in potato chips at home. The texture is surprisingly similar to traditional fried potatoes, and the time savings are enormous. This hack works particularly well for dishes where the potatoes will be further cooked or mixed with other ingredients that mask any textural differences.
The Pizza Crust Shortcut Revolution
Dickerman and San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins embrace store-bought pizza crust at home, while Des Jardins and Seattle chef Tom Douglas enjoy packaged potstickers – Douglas buys them from Costco and stir-fries them for his daughter. These chefs understand that homemade doesn’t always mean better, especially when quality commercial products are available.
Store-bought pizza dough from the grocery store bakery is often made fresh daily and tastes just as good as homemade versions. The time saved can be spent on creating interesting toppings or perfecting sauce recipes. This approach lets you focus your energy on the elements that make the biggest impact on flavor rather than spending hours on basic components.
Breadcrumbs Replace Traditional Thickeners
Chefs can use breadcrumbs as flour by mixing them with sauce, and as the starches release, you’ll get a nice, flour-like paste. This technique works particularly well in gravies and soup bases where you need quick thickening power without the risk of lumps that can occur with traditional flour slurries.
Extra burger or hot dog buns can be torn into pieces and frozen in a zipper-top bag, and ten to 20 pulses in a food processor will transform them into ready-to-use bread crumbs – no thawing necessary. This double-duty approach prevents food waste while creating a useful cooking ingredient. Some chefs will use crackers as seafood stuffing, and while sliced bread takes time to dry out, most crackers just need to be crumbled and they’re good to go.
The Dirty Little Secret About “From Scratch”
“Can I quickly tweak it to make it exactly what I want without spending hours doing it the ‘right way’? Absolutely.” This philosophy perfectly captures how professional chefs approach home cooking. They understand that the goal is delicious food, not impressing anyone with unnecessary complexity.
The key is knowing the tradeoffs and which ones are worth it to you, with price being one consideration: sometimes with shortcut ingredients you’re literally buying time. Professional chefs make these calculated decisions every day in their restaurants, so why wouldn’t they apply the same logic at home? The real skill lies in knowing which shortcuts enhance your cooking and which ones compromise it.
