The Sacred Art of Mise En Place – Everything in Its Place
Professional kitchens move like well-oiled machines, and there’s one fundamental secret behind this magic: mise en place. This French phrase translates to “everything in its place,” and it’s perhaps the best thing you learn in culinary school. Every single ingredient gets prepped, measured, and positioned exactly where it needs to be before the first burner is even lit.
Professional cooks spend hours chopping up meats, vegetables and herbs so they’re ready to add to the pan when they need them, which helps make sure that you don’t forget about adding any crucial ingredients. The difference between a frazzled home cook frantically searching for the paprika while their garlic burns versus a chef calmly reaching for pre-measured spices is absolutely night and day. This system doesn’t just prevent kitchen disasters – it transforms cooking from chaos into choreography.
Chopsticks – The Ultimate Multi-Tool That Nobody Talks About
When working the line, chopsticks are the go-to tool for just about anything. They can moonlight as tongs, spoons, spatulas – you name it. Walk into any professional kitchen and you’ll spot chefs wielding chopsticks like magic wands, flipping delicate fish fillets, stirring sauces, and even plating garnishes with surgical precision.
Chopsticks are especially helpful during brunch service for when you need to quickly crank out hundreds of scrambled egg and omelette orders. Wooden chopsticks don’t scratch nonstick pans, so you can move quickly without worry, and they break up the yolks and whites with ease when making scrambles. They’re heat-resistant, incredibly precise, and cost almost nothing. Yet most home cooks never even consider grabbing them from their takeout drawer when they’re cooking.
The Chives Wrapping Trick That Saves Hours
Here’s a technique that’ll make you wonder why nobody taught you this years ago. At first, I struggled through cutting them – the chives would constantly move out of place and make it difficult to slice – but then my chef showed me a clever trick. The easiest way to slice chives is to wrap a thin band of damp paper towel around a bunch to hold them together.
This way you can quickly slice an entire bunch at once without any of them falling out of place. It’s such a simple solution that it almost feels like cheating. The damp paper towel acts like a gentle rubber band, keeping everything aligned while you work your knife through the entire bundle in seconds rather than minutes.
Butter Mounting – The Secret to Silky Restaurant Sauces
The idea that restaurants use a ton of butter is not necessarily true all around, but there is one place where line cooks use butter that home cooks might not. When finishing a sauce (usually a pan sauce), cooks may add small cubes of chilled butter to the hot sauce and slowly swirl it in.
This technique – called mounting – gives the sauce a velvety texture and glossy shine and helps mellow out strong flavors like vinegar, wine, or garlic that might be too aggressive. The next time you make a sauce, try adding two tablespoons of chilled butter at the last moment to take it to the next level. It’s the difference between a sauce that looks good and one that looks absolutely restaurant-perfect.
The Salt Water French Fry Revolution
Most people think the secret to perfect french fries is the type of potato or the oil temperature. But professional chefs know there’s another step that completely transforms the game. Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s trick to making perfect french fries at his Los Angeles restaurant Petit Trois is to soak them in salt water before frying them. This seasons them from the inside out and removes excess starch for a crispier, more flavorful fry.
The salt water does double duty – it pulls out excess starch that would otherwise make your fries soggy, while simultaneously seasoning every single bite from the inside out. No more bland centers with over-salted exteriors. It’s a simple fifteen-minute soak that yields results you literally cannot achieve any other way.
The Microwave Garlic Peeling Hack
Peeling garlic cloves one by one is one of those tedious tasks that can drain the joy right out of cooking. But chefs have discovered something that feels almost too good to be true. If you cut the tops off a few garlic cloves and microwave them for 20-30 seconds, the skin will pop right off. It’s just one of the lifesaving garlic peeling hacks we can’t get enough of.
To use this kitchen hack, simply chop the top and bottom off the garlic bulb and then microwave for twenty to thirty seconds. After microwaving the outer shell should slip right off. The brief heat loosens the papery skin without actually cooking the garlic underneath. It’s like having a kitchen assistant whose only job is peeling garlic.
Pizza Wheel Herb Chopping
Forget everything you know about chopping herbs with a knife. Turn in the chopping knife: Instead, roll over herbs like parsley and cilantro with a pizza wheel for quick and safe slicing. A pizza wheel also effortlessly chops foods like pancakes and pasta for small children.
The circular blade moves through delicate herbs without bruising them the way a heavy knife can. Plus, you can control the size of your cuts much more precisely. It’s particularly brilliant for large quantities – imagine prepping cilantro for a big batch of salsa in a fraction of the time.
The Towel-Under-Cutting-Board Safety Secret
Professional chefs are obsessive about kitchen safety, and they have a ridiculously simple trick that prevents countless accidents. A simple trick is to place a damp paper towel or cloth underneath your cutting board. The weight of the board will keep it in place.
A simple trick is to place a damp paper towel or cloth underneath your cutting board. The weight of the board will keep it in place. A wobbly cutting board is an accident waiting to happen, but this tiny adjustment transforms any surface into a stable workstation. It takes two seconds and could save you from a serious injury.
The Egg Trick for Non-Stick Everything
Here’s something that sounds completely bizarre until you try it and realize it’s pure genius. According to Talde, “if you put eggs in a pan first, nothing will stick to the pan [afterwards as you cook].” I’ve been working in Chinese restaurants for how long, and every time you make fried rice it’s like, ‘Start with egg, or else it’s gonna stick.’
And I’m like, ‘Yeah, bullshit.’ So then I didn’t do it one time and I’m like, ‘WHAT THE FUCK?!’ All the rice stuck to the fuckin’ wok. The protein in eggs creates a natural non-stick coating that works better than any spray. It’s like seasoning your pan with food instead of chemicals.
Mayonnaise as Grilling Insurance
This might sound absolutely insane, but professional chefs swear by it. It sounds crazy, but chef Michael Cimarusti of Providence restaurant swears by it. A thin coating of regular mayonnaise will prevent the fish from sticking to the grill and add a beautiful brown color when cooked.
The oil in mayonnaise prevents sticking while the proteins help create that gorgeous golden-brown crust everyone wants. It works on both fish and meat, and unlike cooking sprays, it won’t burn off at high temperatures. Your guests will never guess the secret behind that perfect sear.
The Lemon Microwave Juice Extraction Method
Getting maximum juice from citrus fruits is a constant struggle, especially when you need a lot for dressings or marinades. Zap a lemon for ten seconds to break down cells and make the juice flow faster, suggests Laurent Tourondel, chef and partner at L’Amico in New York City. This is good to remember when trying to squeeze out as much juice as possible for a vinaigrette.
Simply microwave the lemons for 7 to 10 seconds and then roll the lemon back and forth on the counter to release the juices. This hack will leave you with more juice using less effort. The brief heat softens the cell walls, making them release their liquid treasure much more easily. It’s like having a mechanical juicer without the cleanup.
The Double Sheet Pan Bacon Technique
Just top the bacon with a piece of parchment paper and another sheet tray. This will prevent the bacon from curling and keep it perfectly flat. This trick is also great for making crackers, crispy tortillas, and anything you want to keep super thin and crispy.
The weight from the top pan keeps everything perfectly flat while it cooks, giving you restaurant-quality presentation every single time. No more curved bacon that won’t fit properly in sandwiches or wraps. It’s such a simple physics solution to a problem that frustrates millions of home cooks every single morning.
Professional chefs don’t succeed because they have access to secret ingredients or magical equipment. They succeed because they’ve mastered these small, practical shortcuts that save time while improving results. The beautiful thing is that every single one of these techniques works just as well in your home kitchen as it does in a restaurant. Start with one or two that appeal to you most, and watch how they transform not just your food, but your entire relationship with cooking. Sometimes the smallest changes create the biggest breakthroughs. Which one will you try first?
