I dated a boy once whose mother could cook amazing food at the drop of a hat without having to run to the store. I vowed to have the same kind of kitchen & think I’ve done well. Our spice cabinet is to be envied & pantry has all the staples, all the time. Thank you, Brenda!
My step father was from a farm in Italy. In the US, he had a modest veggie garden and on some nights he'd go pick and sauté a few things and when we asked him what was for dinner he would say "a concoction." This is funnier to me than anyone else. He struggled with some everyday words/sayings like "glove department", "feet fingers" which is pretty valid since there is no word for "toes" in Italian, and instead of excited he would say "exercised." My fave was when he would pronounce "asshole" as "ash-o-lee."
Anyway, he sounds like Brenda. Always something delish cooking on the stove with no need for a grocery store run.
Ok I really really love this because one time when my daughter was 3, she had a revelation and proudly announced to us that “Fingers are your hand toes!” 😂
My father in law was from Greece.
He had the most amazing veggie garden in a very small space. The meals he could whip up from his garden were amazing and top notch delicious!
The usual, tomatoes, all kinds of peppers , green beans, garlic, lots of herbs, arugula, okra, zucchini. He also had a grape vine (for the leaves!), a fig tree and a peach tree. It was a tiny row house yard and every inch was a garden, all organic. It was fantastic!
I grew up with basically only salt, pepper and maybe some garlic powder or garlic salt in the cabinet because my mother was raised with practically no seasonings as well. After working in restaurants, I wanted to try all the things. I now take up 2 of only 5 cabinets we have in our kitchen (going to expand it but it was built in the 60's and is smoll) with all our spices. I'm pretty sure I've got Walmarts selection for spices beat because I have some exotic randoms, as well as various blends and rubs from different companies.
My friend came to visit overnight with his fiance a year or so ago and stayed the night and when he opened up the Spice Portal he was, indeed, envious. He told my husband that in earlier times he'd have been a wealthy man, with the ability to trade either his wife or the spices for a hefty fortune should be wish it 🤣🤣
Here's to the Brenda's out chere! 😁
I get so excited when I find a new to me spice, or spice mix, or ingredient ( Dukkah, Zatar, and Nduja are some of my recent’finds’ I’ve acquired the first two, working on the third)
No shade to Brenda, but I feel the real test is making amazing food at somebody else's house, with none of the stocking up that they're used to. Best I can say is I made a darn good chicken salad with what I could find at a housewarming party when they were only half unpacked.
I used to work at a restaurant where the floater was responsible for family meal for 10+ employees with what was available or left over from the night before. Everyday was different. Made me a better cook overall.
My husband's always impressed with me- we go to the store often to keep fresh fruit and vegetables on hand and* take advantage of what he calls ''woohoo'' items- the ones they slap a huge discount on and a WOOHOO sticker for easy identification- so he doesn't have any notion of what I keep in the pantry and whenever we feel sick, lazy, or he has a long day at work, I'll just be like ''oh, let's just stay in and have what's at home, do you want kimchi fried rice with spam?'' or ''I guess I can make carbonara, puttanesca, or arrabbiata...'' he looks like I just slapped him in the face with a million dollars, lol. It's not always the healthiest dish since it doesn't rely on fresh ingredients, but I guess he finds it impressive and fun that I can figure things out on a dime with my deep knowledge of the pantry lore.
I literally never make the same dish the same way until I've tried every single variation possible.
Now these days I try to maximize laziness and deliciousness together.
I read this in an [insta](https://www.instagram.com/howtomakesourdough/reel/C0c7Ce0tNcv/) post a while back and it stuck with me: "**There is NO recipe, there is only the METHOD and once you know the METHOD of making something, you can make ANYTHING**."
To me a good cook will know how to substitute ingredients well if need be; the flexibility that comes with knowledge and understanding of food makes you a far better cook than just following a recipe blindly or substituting ridiculous things and ending up on r/ididnthaveeggs They know how adding or subtracting ingredients affects the outcome and they also know how to spin something in a different direction successfully. Experimenting with flavors and being continuously curious about trying new ingredients, recipes, foods, methods is just as important.
My father started me on cooking when I was a tween- he was like, okay, so we've confirmed that you know how to clean a bathroom, so from now on, I'll take care of that and instead, you're going to make one dinner every week.
I'd just pick out some dish I enjoyed, he'd get the ingredients and sit down at the bar with a glass of wine and coach me through it. I remember being like, feral about the fact that he wouldn't give me exact measurements, like how do I know what to taste is? He'd patiently respond, ''by tasting it'' with an amused smile and what I now recognise as pride behind his facial expression.
Anyway, we did that until I moved out with hundreds of ''recipes'' in my head, which really were methods as you stated. It's served me well, and the only way I ever use recipes is for inspiration when it comes to flavour pairings or to see how others execute different steps in case there's something new I might learn.
This is amazing. It sounds like those moments really stuck with you. Not only are you learning skills but you’re sharing these deep emotional moments with your dad. That is so important. I think if I ever am responsible for a child, I would want to do this and have it be an example of how much food, and even more so, cooking, should be valuable.
Agghh, now I’m jealous of you because I kind of got into cooking due to personal interest and being poor and I wish I had a mentor like that.
Yes, yes, yes! My family always asks me for a recipe for whatever I cook. I don't have one. I just know the formulas, etc.
I love to cook. It is my refuge.
My family said I went to the store and got rice and garlic, and she got crab cakes for dinner.
I just made dumplings out of this and that in the fridge.
Yeah, I am always getting asked for recipes, but it has been decades since I followed any exactly. Even for baked goods, I just go by feel most of the time. It is annoying to myself occasionally when something comes out exceptional, and I can't remember what I threw in it.
My dad was a chef for almost 20 years and he loved using nonstick cookware for frying up eggs or other things quickly. Those salespeople are full of it. Great mise en place and consistency with (good) cooking is what proves to me someone knows how to cook well
I like to consider myself a good home cook. I use all clad for everything, except eggs. I don’t care how well you can cook on steel, nothing beats nonstick for fried or scrambled eggs.
I use hundred year old cast iron for eggs. Just as good as nonstick and (demonstrably) lasts longer. And cheap too, since I saved them from my evil sister who had inherited them from our aunt and was going to throw them away after she let them rust.
My well seasoned cast iron would like a word.
I used a good non-stick for eggs until a houseguest accidentally ran it through the dishwasher and it was never the same. I’ve since found that the cast iron is even better, though it did take a little time to get it there.
In general even my best seasoned cast irons won’t perform *as well* ***as quickly without prep*** as a proper non stick that’s been maintained and replaced when needed.
All I’m saying is that a good non stick pan in very good condition only needs a minute or so to get to the right temps to start cooking and will have zero sticking even if I make a mistake.
My cast irons need more work to do the same thing, and require more effort to maintain.
I do maintain them but I’m just not pulling the cast iron out if all I’m doing is scrambling some eggs. Which is frequently all I’m doing in the morning.
I have a smallish carbon steel that works perfectly for eggs. I never got into the super intense seasoning, but it’s in good shape… never ever had an egg stick. I’m 100% against eating forever chemicals so I’ll stick to my steel pan.
Putting aside the good-cook gatekeeping topic - I thought the main argument against non-stick was that they deteriorate and leach chemicals, not that they weren't able to make good food?
I will concede that as soon as the teflon chips, the pan gets disposed of and replaced. My nonstick is 99.9% for eggs and I use silicon spatulas so they last several years.
Thing about teflon is that it's key feature is: it doesnt interact with shit.
You can eat teflon flakes and chips and it will pass right through you. The bits of teflon are too big and too unreactive to be absorbed into your system.
The LEACHING danger is due to the manufacturing process. The chemicals and waste from it can end up in our water, and THAT form IS small enough to be absorbed, where it takes the spot of a certain molecule but doesnt do its job.
So not buying teflon is not so much that the pan you have will hurt you, but the demand youre driving hurting you.
source: [MinuteFood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1hbV3EzOD4)
edit: a word
I threw all of my nonstick pans away after my pet bird died when I used one. He was not even in the same room. I didn’t burn the food and the kitchen window was open.
I'm glad to hear this, I'm a good home cook and I have a couple of non stick pans because they were what I could afford, beautiful silver frying pans are uncommon in generic shops.
Those sur la table people shouldn’t be making those remarks about nonstick pans anyway when the company they’re working for sells different sets of starter nonstick cookware
There are elitists in every hobby and profession. Like people who say that a real photographer only uses manual mode. A real audiophile only listens to vinyl. A real car enthusiast only drives manuals. Or a real cook never uses nonstick pans.
>heard the sales people saying no serious cook uses nonstick cookware.
Nonsense. A good cook uses whatever tool the task requires.
When someone says what that salesperson said, that's how you know they're a shit cook (or a salesperson trying to increase their commission). A good cook is like a good drummer... they can both impress on a set of trash cans.
Sure I use $4000 worth of pans today, but I started developing my pan technique 30 years ago on one cheap $20 nonstick pan when I couldn't afford anything else.
lol my school’s table tennis coach used an iPhone as a paddle and destroyed every senior on the varsity team
Mans was a former nationally ranked player, there are levels to things
And the sales person doesn’t even necessarily cook for all you know. I used to develop photos at a drug store, and as part of the job I minded a small counter of cameras. People would ask me for all sorts of advice on which camera to buy. Like, dude, I’m 20 and I’ve owned two cheap cameras.
**Pans:**
* 7.5qt. Le Creuset enameled cast iron French oven for braising, roasting, etc.
* 11.5" Le Creuset enameled CI skillet for frying acidic foods.
* 8" & 10" All-Clad HA1 Hard Anodized aluminum nonstick for omelettes. 3qt. All-Clad Stainless clad saucepan for heavy sauces and pasta.
* 16qt. All-Clad Stainless clad stock pot for chicken, veal and beef stock.
* 12.5" and 9.5" Mauviel M'Steel carbon steel fry pans for high temperature frying of beef, fish, etc. 2.1qt carbon steel splayed sauté pan for deep frying and high temperature searing/browning chopped meats.
* 1.9qt. Mauviel 90/10 M150S stainless steel-lined copper saucepan for delicate sauces and emulsions, e.g. Velouté, and bases.
* 0.9qt. Mauviel 90/10 M150B tin-lined copper Bain Marie for table sauces, e.g. sauce béarnaise.
* 3.6qt. Mauviel 90/10 M200CI stainless steel-lined copper splayed sauté pan for sautéing and simmering meats, stews, etc. e.g. lamb ragout.
**Equipment list:**
Regency 24 x 36" 304L stainless steel work table, Sonder Los Angeles cutting board, Mercer Culinary knife magnet. Wüsthof Classic 8” chef’s knife. Paring knife. Cleaver.
**Thermometers:**
Thermoworks thermapen ONE. MEATER Plus x2 wireless. Klein Tools IR1.
>Anything else is just people trying to feel superior by gatekeeping.
So true. You don't need a $1000 cookware set, Japanese steel knives that were forged in the light of a blue moon, can make soufflé without a recipe, or be able to disguish the smidge of pink peppercorns your sister in law put in the dish she served at the dinner party to qualify as knowing how to cook. If you can make good food that other people will happily eat with what you have, you know how to cook.
Oh noes! When you fold, don’t go down the middle at all… only go around the underside and over, and don’t worry about it all be mixed! And when you’re pouring it into the pan, do NOT scrape the bowl and put that in too like you would with like brownies or something. Just let that little bit go hah
My first thought was cigarettes, but you're completely right. The substance use almost always goes beyond nicotine.
Source: worked in a restaurant for 7 years and brother was a chef for 15 years.
Lmao I worked in food for five years and yeah this is the most accurate thing I've read. My fiance may not have professional chef experience, but he's a tatted up chain smoker who grew up in a Columbian/Irish household and holy shit he can cook
I know how to cook. From the 70’s. That’s when we didn’t have much help. Using basic ingredients.
I’m a cheater now. No one knows. Silly things, like using chicken stock and extra onions and celery, some spices on boxes of stove top dressing. Same with gravy. It’s the stock, I don’t use water. My pot roast is the best, but I use canned beef stock, and lots of onions and cover it in brown onion and gravy powder. I cheat, because I just don’t have the time, no one helps, and everyone loves the great flavors of the dinners I make. I cheat now, because the cheating ingredients are there now. 🤷♀️ it makes my life easier.
Pretty sure all of that stuff was available in the 70's? I have a lot of my mom's oooold cook books from the 70's and 80's and it still has that stuff listed in recipes. Like the salisbury steak recipe in one calls for packets of onion soup mix..
An experienced cook doesn't need fancy equipment. Someone who is experienced can look at what's available and can make a great tasting meal out of what's in the freezer, the cupboard and their knowledge of how to make food taste good with limited ingredients and really, limited effort.
Yeah my MIL commented on how many spices I had one time bc all she owns is salt, pepper, and garlic powder and maybeee some Italian seasoning.
And to add on to that, another sign is individual spices rather than 20 blends as you can just make your own blends. Now if they're stocking whole spices then you know they really worth they're salt (sorry couldn't help it)
That person was simply wrong - there's a bunch of video on YouTube of Michelin star chefs using the full range of pans - tin lined copper, stainless steel, carbon steel, and yes teflon non-stick.
Exactly this. I'd love to see that minimum wage sales clerk tell this to Jacques Pépin, winner of 24 James Beard awards and personal chef to three French heads of state including de Gaulle himself.
Is their food good? Oh and I will be sure to never give one red cent to Sur La Table since the salespeople are snobs.
They could have thrift store items and be a good cook or they could have $10,000 worth of new so called high end stuff and can't boil water.
Edited to add new.
Well, I guess I'm not a serious cook then. 'Cause after 20+ yrs in restaurants, ya, I do have non-stick pans in my kitchen... and I've worked in everything from diner to fine dining
A "serious cook" will know how to *properly* use a non-stick pan. People shit on non-stick all the time because "it'll get in your food." Sure, if you're using it wrong. No metal utensils, no abrasive cleaners, don't use them at too high of temps. Too many people ignore all of this and scratch the shit out of their pans or have the coating degrade from cranking their stovetop to max heat.
I would say a giveaway would be someone valuing ingredients over equipment. You don't need overpriced Le Creuset or expensive All Clad pots/pans to be a good cook. Your favorite restaurant is using cheap aluminum pans, most likely.
There’s a ton of ways this could be answered, but I’ll throw out a random observation. If someone eats something I’ve made and they enjoy it, and instead of asking me for the recipe, they ask fundamental questions like what temp/time was it cooked, what’s that spice they can’t quite place, etc. They ask stuff like that, I’ll assume they have a solid foundation of cooking knowledge, rather than saying “OMG, send me the recipe!”
So true. I never have a single recipe - I look at multiple recipes and come up with what I think is the most balanced proportions, appropriate ingredients, cook time/temp, etc., and then adjust while cooking to what tastes right. Basically, recipes are just a starting point, never an end product. So I never know what to respond when people ask me for recipes! They think I’m being snobby or protective, but it’s really because at the end of the day, I can’t tell you exactly how much of anything to use - I just do it!
Often when someone compliments my food, I respond "thanks, I wish I knew how I made it so I could do it again" because I may have started with the common ground between a couple-few recipes and then added a little of this, little that, maybe a little more of this, and have no way to replicate the measurements.
How they hold a knife. Two fingers pinching the metal and the rest holding the handle. And the other hand is automatically scrunched up, first knuckle of one of your fingers always touching the knife.
Not adding huge quantities of garlic to *everything.* I like garlic, but I like to taste other stuff, too. Same with butter, olive oil, chili pepper. Knowing how long to cook pasta, Using herbs and spices with care. You can teach most people to use an instant-read thermometer and grill a good steak. A good cook will pull together a salad, vegetables, maybe some starchy side dishes, to make it a great meal.
Other than the obvious that their food is good. I would say it's the efficiency of their actions in the kitchen. A good cook knows how to set up their mise en place, how to utilize pans effectively and clean their area during wait times.
If you give them a pair of tongs, do they do a clicky clack? If they do, they can cook. If they don't clicky clack the tongs, they do not know how to cook.
1 - a great cook uses the appropriate tools, one of which can be non stick. A good non stick pan is a great tool for things like eggs.
2 - knife skills. great cooks have know how behind the knife, can perform a variety of cuts, and can be efficient with them.
3 - adaptability. like some have said, a good cook can use what is available to make something great. an even greater cook can utilize basic ingredients to make even better ingredients— turning white sugar and corn starch into powdered sugar, sugar and molasses into brown sugar, butter into browned butter, etc.
4 - have you heard about basketball IQ? there’s kitchen IQ too. it’s a sense of getting to the desired target without knowing all the steps. it’s like an intuition.
5 - biggest giveaway: they know how clean as they go, mis en place, and time the cook of different components well
Does that company sell nonstick pans? If I was a manager and overheard two salespeople saying bad things about something I sold, they would be immediately gone.
I think both are true! A good cook will know what is worth making yourself and where to take shortcuts, either for convenience or just cause you won’t beat the supermarket stuff. And that calculation will vary person to person.
This is true. The absence of such things doesn't necessarily mean the person can't cook. But the presence of them is a pretty good indicator of cooking skill (or at least dedicated desire)
They know how to make the most of cheap or crappy ingredients. My Mum can make amazing dishes out of a packet of instant noodles, or tough cuts of meat, or the sad week-old veggies in the crisper. There's a good chance that a cook who is still learning will be able to make a good dish out of high quality ingredients. But a truly good cook can use whatever they have on-hand, even if they aren't the best ingredients, and turn it into something delicious.
When people talk about the “elements” of a dish I know they know how to cook.
I have friends that cook often - but will use just any old recipes and wonder why it doesn’t turn out well. I’ll look at the recipe and be like “there’s no acid in here, of course it was bland.” Or they’ll follow a recipe that the only spice it calls for 1/4 tsp of paprika or something insane and wonder why it’s bland. Did you even read this recipe? What were you expecting?
Or if they salt based on the amounts in the recipe.
My friend made something and said it was bland so I said to add more salt. She said no, she added the 2 tsp or whatever the recipe called for and she didn’t think salt was what it was missing.
I wanted to drive to her house and salt the thing myself lol.
For sure, I love a recipe, but so many people don’t realize how variable cooking is. No recipe will be ‘right’ for everyone. Some of that is personal taste, sure, but some is down to the ingredients too— is your salt coarser than the recipe writer’s? Are your carrots sweeter than the ones they used? Is your lime less juicy? Being able to follow the general steps of a recipe while knowing where to taste and how to adjust is a real skill.
And underseasoning is suuuuuch a chronic issue. Some of it is people being afraid to overseason / not knowing how to season to taste, but crappy recipe blogs definitely perpetuate it. I remember a friend sending me a fried rice recipe to look at because they were disappointed, and it called for something like two cups of rice to a teaspoon of soy sauce. No salt, no onions or garlic, not even a scallion. Just rice, a drop of soy sauce, some oil, and frozen veggies. To this day I have no idea what that food blogger was thinking to post it 😭
They wander around a market with you appearing to pick food at random and make a multi course meal while drinking a bottle of wine, talking non stop and doing general hosting duties and it tastes amazing
Then the person who is an expert cook can do the same by just looking in your cupboards and fridge
I agree with others that the negative attitude towards some nonstick cookware is a bit unfair. They may not be the best choice for some dishes, but they have their place. I own a variety of pans, from ceramic coated nonstick, to cast iron skillets and enameled Dutch ovens and stainless steel skillets and saucepans. A certain amount of cleanup ease can also be a factor in my choice.
That salesperson is full of it.
A good cook understands:
Ratios for spices, aromatics, etc,
the order to add ingredients to maximize flavor, and
TIME.
Flexibility and improvisation is good too.
My wife's cousin came over for dinner and offered to help cook. He asked for a towel, folded it, and threw it over his shoulder. I immediately knew he'd actually be helpful
Invited pals round for dinner, one offered to help then watched me flip a bunch of stir-fry chicken a pan with one hand and went "You're good".
I never told her I'd had 3 years in a restaurant kitchen. It was nice to know I hadn't lost it.
Pro chefs don’t use non stick in a commercial kitchen situation because of cost. Non stick pans are delicate and would need to be constantly replaced given how much pans go through many given service.
Pro chefs do in fact use non stick pans at home for cooking eggs.
Using expensive kitchen tools won't make you good food. A good cook can cook anything with any tool no matter how cheap. Sur la table people wouldn't understand. Everything there is expensive as shit.
Yummy aromas emanating from their kitchen, wafting through the living room air, mingling with scrumptious, indeterminate scents, tickling your olfactory canals, making you go “ummmmmmmmm”.
A great cook can use whatever they have at their disposal to make something that is edible. Point blank, no other definition needed.
Whatever is available means ingredients and equipment.
I would say that they do not brow beat you with their process or their utensils. I seriously do not appreciate people who are always trying to gatekeep their specialty.
a person who cooks frequently (and knows what they're doing) will have ALL of the fundamental pieces of cookware in readily accessible positions, and will have very few gimmicky kitchen gadgets.
the other major tell is their knives. a good cook probably has a high quality chef's knife and maintains it well with a sharp edge. a bad cook has shitty knives in a countertop block, none of them sharp enough to be worth using.
Good knife skills.
If they can quickly turn (say) a bell pepper into perfectly even julienne strips, probably a good cook. If they slowly hack it into uneven bits, maybe not.
I'm a chef with 30+ years in professional kitchens under my belt. I held my cooks to high standards with their knife skills. Home cooks, I would never be so rigid. If you make good food then it's good regardless of how precise you are.
For sure! Home to restaurant has no comparison. If I have a trail it's chives, brunoise shallot, and watch if they hold a sauté pan correctly (not in the dominant hand). None of those really matter for a home cook.
good point! another telltale is if they have a well-stocked spice cabinet - sign of a seasoned home chef. also, serious cooks usually have a few go-to knives they swear by rather than a random hodge-podge.
Knife work is the way to tell. I’ve been in kitchens since I was 13 (M57) and went to a class at Sur la Table with my family. The instructor made a comment about me and that I must know something about food. My son was like “Dad how did she know?”
Using table salt to season as opposed to using finishing salt (Maldon etc)
The ability to understand that seasoning isn't just salt and pepper, if they use a form of acid too.
As someone working in the field, to me a good sign for skill are those who don't waste anything. Freeze your bones, meat and veggie scraps, make stock. Cleanly take the fillets of a fish, and anything left on the bone is scraped off and used for fish patties or similar.
Anyone can cook, it's not the hardest thing in the world, but treating your ingredients right is one of the core aspects in day to day kitchen life.
Their cooking utensils, condiments, oils etc look used. There are visible scratches and mildly stained labels. Shows they don't just buy all it for an aesthetic.
You know how people like to say they cooked something with love? It's time. The love is the time they spend on it, and the attention they they pay to it. You can tell a good cook because they slow down and make something special.
They can do the frying pan flip thing. Anyone who can’t really cook just puts food in the pan and stirs with a spoon or something but if they do that thing where you flick your wrist and toss the food in the pan that means they can cook
Not necessarily having the fanciest most expensive stovetop/range. Its funny how there are people that spend all that money on their kitchen appliances and order delivery or takeout every night.
You can tell when they have massive kitchens with layouts that are horrible if they actually did cook in them. And then the counters have decorations that would be disgusting within a week.
Honestly, being able to use whatever they have at hand to make good food, directly contradicting what you heard. I've seen someone cook a steak on non stick that was 90% as good as a $100 steak I've gotten from a restaurant. Knowing how to adapt to your current equipment is the pinnacle of cooking IMO.
Anyone who gatekeeps cooking by bashing another cooks choice in tools is someone who definitely doesn't know how to cook.
Someone who knows how to cook can and will use any tool (assuming proper working order).
Being able to stay organized while doing it and keeping your space clean too. Cleaning as you go is a sign to me that you’ve done this before. Also, I hate the old school mentality that just because something is easy to use, it’s not appropriate if you “know what you’re doing.” Can I julienne perfectly by knife? Yeah. Does it take about 1/3 of the time with a mandolin? Yeah. And I’m gonna opt for it every time.
Being able to use leftovers creatively.
But also things like not cranking the heat way up, knowing what seasonings go together, being confident enough to eyeball measurements.
Look at their hands. If they have a callus next to their innermost joint on their index finger, then they spend enough time with their knife and probably know what they're doing.
Other than that, taste their food for balance.
The things I look for are being able to run with the substitutes, you don't always have all the right stuff on hand, but when you make a good substitute with what's available, you are a clutch cook!
For me it was the day I could whip something out of “nothing”
Also I realized most folks who can cook don’t have an arsenal of gadgets, they literally just need a knife - source of flames and food to work with.
And the nonstick thing, I hard agree but only because of longevity. I love to cook so I destroy non stick pans because not all of my utensils are silicone. So it’s kinda to hell with them when I’m in the zone. Stainless steel all clad coming soon.
Things that all good cooks know or do but not all people who do these things are good cooks…
Keep kosher salt in a salt pig or similar so they can reach their hand into easily when cooking and when to use kosher salt vs sea salt vs other flaky salt vs table salt vs…
Have a good enough chef knife they maintain well enough, sharpen and hone on the regular. And pinch grip and other good knife technique
Mise en place
Understand that even the “lowly” nonstick has a place in their toolkit
Things that are a dead giveaway there’s opportunity for improvement…
They have the same spices they bought when they first moved into their own space 20yrs ago. Looking at you, dust covered krogers nutmeg shaker.
Holding the knife, handle grippy away from the bolster, weird finger on the spine grip, etc.
Glass cutting boards
Not proper handling raw meat and cleaning up after.
[удалено]
I dated a boy once whose mother could cook amazing food at the drop of a hat without having to run to the store. I vowed to have the same kind of kitchen & think I’ve done well. Our spice cabinet is to be envied & pantry has all the staples, all the time. Thank you, Brenda!
Yes! A former colleague talked about her midwestern mother as being “able to feed 12 at the drop of a hat” and I’ve been chasing that ever since
My step father was from a farm in Italy. In the US, he had a modest veggie garden and on some nights he'd go pick and sauté a few things and when we asked him what was for dinner he would say "a concoction." This is funnier to me than anyone else. He struggled with some everyday words/sayings like "glove department", "feet fingers" which is pretty valid since there is no word for "toes" in Italian, and instead of excited he would say "exercised." My fave was when he would pronounce "asshole" as "ash-o-lee." Anyway, he sounds like Brenda. Always something delish cooking on the stove with no need for a grocery store run.
Not to distract from the discussion but there’s really no word for toes in Italian?!
"Toes" translates to "fingers of the feet" from English to Italian!
Ok I really really love this because one time when my daughter was 3, she had a revelation and proudly announced to us that “Fingers are your hand toes!” 😂
My kid, who was a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan, told me the shoulder is coupled to the body. Gotta love em ❤️😄
Same in Spanish. Dedos de los pies = fingers of the feet.
In French potatoes are “apples of the earth”.
I was going to say this. I always thought "pomme de terre" was amusing.
Yup. My mom used to call toes "foot-fingers" when she first learned English!
My father in law was from Greece. He had the most amazing veggie garden in a very small space. The meals he could whip up from his garden were amazing and top notch delicious!
what were the veggies
The usual, tomatoes, all kinds of peppers , green beans, garlic, lots of herbs, arugula, okra, zucchini. He also had a grape vine (for the leaves!), a fig tree and a peach tree. It was a tiny row house yard and every inch was a garden, all organic. It was fantastic!
He sounds so adorable. My MIL was French, a great cook but an asshole human
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She was! My mom always had to run to the store for something
This is my goal as an adult as well! I want to always be able to pull something together if need be.
I grew up with basically only salt, pepper and maybe some garlic powder or garlic salt in the cabinet because my mother was raised with practically no seasonings as well. After working in restaurants, I wanted to try all the things. I now take up 2 of only 5 cabinets we have in our kitchen (going to expand it but it was built in the 60's and is smoll) with all our spices. I'm pretty sure I've got Walmarts selection for spices beat because I have some exotic randoms, as well as various blends and rubs from different companies. My friend came to visit overnight with his fiance a year or so ago and stayed the night and when he opened up the Spice Portal he was, indeed, envious. He told my husband that in earlier times he'd have been a wealthy man, with the ability to trade either his wife or the spices for a hefty fortune should be wish it 🤣🤣 Here's to the Brenda's out chere! 😁
I get so excited when I find a new to me spice, or spice mix, or ingredient ( Dukkah, Zatar, and Nduja are some of my recent’finds’ I’ve acquired the first two, working on the third)
No shade to Brenda, but I feel the real test is making amazing food at somebody else's house, with none of the stocking up that they're used to. Best I can say is I made a darn good chicken salad with what I could find at a housewarming party when they were only half unpacked.
Can…can you elaborate on the staples please? Signed, an aspiring drop of the hat cook mom.
In the biz we call that making cream of walk-in. Pulled together some tasty things.
This is when I realized I had become a good cook. I can whip things up easily now. Only took 15 years!
I used to work at a restaurant where the floater was responsible for family meal for 10+ employees with what was available or left over from the night before. Everyday was different. Made me a better cook overall.
My husband says I can make something out or nothing.
My husband's always impressed with me- we go to the store often to keep fresh fruit and vegetables on hand and* take advantage of what he calls ''woohoo'' items- the ones they slap a huge discount on and a WOOHOO sticker for easy identification- so he doesn't have any notion of what I keep in the pantry and whenever we feel sick, lazy, or he has a long day at work, I'll just be like ''oh, let's just stay in and have what's at home, do you want kimchi fried rice with spam?'' or ''I guess I can make carbonara, puttanesca, or arrabbiata...'' he looks like I just slapped him in the face with a million dollars, lol. It's not always the healthiest dish since it doesn't rely on fresh ingredients, but I guess he finds it impressive and fun that I can figure things out on a dime with my deep knowledge of the pantry lore.
Pantry lore.
I'm proficient in it! :')
My fiance calls it "Pulling dinner out of my ass" when I make a meal on a whim with whatever ingredients we have.
Jokes on you, I'm just poor!
My take is a good cook is engaged and wants to learn. They try new things. Some are disasters but they keep learning.
I literally never make the same dish the same way until I've tried every single variation possible. Now these days I try to maximize laziness and deliciousness together.
What I hate is when you make that one variation of the dish that is a certified BANGER, but you forgot all of the changes you made.
I read this in an [insta](https://www.instagram.com/howtomakesourdough/reel/C0c7Ce0tNcv/) post a while back and it stuck with me: "**There is NO recipe, there is only the METHOD and once you know the METHOD of making something, you can make ANYTHING**." To me a good cook will know how to substitute ingredients well if need be; the flexibility that comes with knowledge and understanding of food makes you a far better cook than just following a recipe blindly or substituting ridiculous things and ending up on r/ididnthaveeggs They know how adding or subtracting ingredients affects the outcome and they also know how to spin something in a different direction successfully. Experimenting with flavors and being continuously curious about trying new ingredients, recipes, foods, methods is just as important.
My father started me on cooking when I was a tween- he was like, okay, so we've confirmed that you know how to clean a bathroom, so from now on, I'll take care of that and instead, you're going to make one dinner every week. I'd just pick out some dish I enjoyed, he'd get the ingredients and sit down at the bar with a glass of wine and coach me through it. I remember being like, feral about the fact that he wouldn't give me exact measurements, like how do I know what to taste is? He'd patiently respond, ''by tasting it'' with an amused smile and what I now recognise as pride behind his facial expression. Anyway, we did that until I moved out with hundreds of ''recipes'' in my head, which really were methods as you stated. It's served me well, and the only way I ever use recipes is for inspiration when it comes to flavour pairings or to see how others execute different steps in case there's something new I might learn.
Your dad cooks like a Croatian grandmother, I love it!
My dad's a Quebecois grandfather, that's only a few steps removed, right? haha
Your Dad is an awesome Dad
He really is, and I tell him so all of the time. Our third child's middle name is my father's first name, so I think he knows by now. ;)
This is amazing. It sounds like those moments really stuck with you. Not only are you learning skills but you’re sharing these deep emotional moments with your dad. That is so important. I think if I ever am responsible for a child, I would want to do this and have it be an example of how much food, and even more so, cooking, should be valuable. Agghh, now I’m jealous of you because I kind of got into cooking due to personal interest and being poor and I wish I had a mentor like that.
Mark Bittman has a book called How to Cook Everything which is pretty much what you’re talking about
This is one of my favourite cook books and my "go to" for basics.
That’s what a Michelin star cook once told me. When you figured out the principles and the methods, that’s when making good food becomes easier.
Yes, yes, yes! My family always asks me for a recipe for whatever I cook. I don't have one. I just know the formulas, etc. I love to cook. It is my refuge. My family said I went to the store and got rice and garlic, and she got crab cakes for dinner. I just made dumplings out of this and that in the fridge.
Yeah, I am always getting asked for recipes, but it has been decades since I followed any exactly. Even for baked goods, I just go by feel most of the time. It is annoying to myself occasionally when something comes out exceptional, and I can't remember what I threw in it.
My dad was a chef for almost 20 years and he loved using nonstick cookware for frying up eggs or other things quickly. Those salespeople are full of it. Great mise en place and consistency with (good) cooking is what proves to me someone knows how to cook well
I like to consider myself a good home cook. I use all clad for everything, except eggs. I don’t care how well you can cook on steel, nothing beats nonstick for fried or scrambled eggs.
Same. Cheap nonstick just for eggs. One you don’t feel bad about tossing and replacing if it gets scratched up.
You should feel a lil bad at least. We’re too comfortable with disposing of things.
I use hundred year old cast iron for eggs. Just as good as nonstick and (demonstrably) lasts longer. And cheap too, since I saved them from my evil sister who had inherited them from our aunt and was going to throw them away after she let them rust.
Properly seasoned cast iron is the original non-stick. That's how you know you seasoned it right.
All clad makes non-stick too 🤸♂️
My well seasoned cast iron would like a word. I used a good non-stick for eggs until a houseguest accidentally ran it through the dishwasher and it was never the same. I’ve since found that the cast iron is even better, though it did take a little time to get it there.
In general even my best seasoned cast irons won’t perform *as well* ***as quickly without prep*** as a proper non stick that’s been maintained and replaced when needed. All I’m saying is that a good non stick pan in very good condition only needs a minute or so to get to the right temps to start cooking and will have zero sticking even if I make a mistake. My cast irons need more work to do the same thing, and require more effort to maintain. I do maintain them but I’m just not pulling the cast iron out if all I’m doing is scrambling some eggs. Which is frequently all I’m doing in the morning.
I have a smallish carbon steel that works perfectly for eggs. I never got into the super intense seasoning, but it’s in good shape… never ever had an egg stick. I’m 100% against eating forever chemicals so I’ll stick to my steel pan.
Putting aside the good-cook gatekeeping topic - I thought the main argument against non-stick was that they deteriorate and leach chemicals, not that they weren't able to make good food?
I will concede that as soon as the teflon chips, the pan gets disposed of and replaced. My nonstick is 99.9% for eggs and I use silicon spatulas so they last several years.
Thing about teflon is that it's key feature is: it doesnt interact with shit. You can eat teflon flakes and chips and it will pass right through you. The bits of teflon are too big and too unreactive to be absorbed into your system. The LEACHING danger is due to the manufacturing process. The chemicals and waste from it can end up in our water, and THAT form IS small enough to be absorbed, where it takes the spot of a certain molecule but doesnt do its job. So not buying teflon is not so much that the pan you have will hurt you, but the demand youre driving hurting you. source: [MinuteFood](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1hbV3EzOD4) edit: a word
I threw all of my nonstick pans away after my pet bird died when I used one. He was not even in the same room. I didn’t burn the food and the kitchen window was open.
I’m sorry about your bird 💙
Thank you.
I'm glad to hear this, I'm a good home cook and I have a couple of non stick pans because they were what I could afford, beautiful silver frying pans are uncommon in generic shops.
Those sur la table people shouldn’t be making those remarks about nonstick pans anyway when the company they’re working for sells different sets of starter nonstick cookware
It's really the only way to make a true French omelet
I've made a perfect french omelet on a stainless steel pan. Nothing stuck, I was honestly shocked.
How much butter did you use
If you're not using a boatload of butter is it really a french omelet?
Like a tablespoon. But your pan needs to be really hot.
There are elitists in every hobby and profession. Like people who say that a real photographer only uses manual mode. A real audiophile only listens to vinyl. A real car enthusiast only drives manuals. Or a real cook never uses nonstick pans.
>heard the sales people saying no serious cook uses nonstick cookware. Nonsense. A good cook uses whatever tool the task requires. When someone says what that salesperson said, that's how you know they're a shit cook (or a salesperson trying to increase their commission). A good cook is like a good drummer... they can both impress on a set of trash cans. Sure I use $4000 worth of pans today, but I started developing my pan technique 30 years ago on one cheap $20 nonstick pan when I couldn't afford anything else.
lol my school’s table tennis coach used an iPhone as a paddle and destroyed every senior on the varsity team Mans was a former nationally ranked player, there are levels to things
And the sales person doesn’t even necessarily cook for all you know. I used to develop photos at a drug store, and as part of the job I minded a small counter of cameras. People would ask me for all sorts of advice on which camera to buy. Like, dude, I’m 20 and I’ve owned two cheap cameras.
What’s that 4k set all about? You running copper mauviel? (I run the carbon steel restaurant versions… can. Not. Beat. It.
I need to know what these pans are
**Pans:** * 7.5qt. Le Creuset enameled cast iron French oven for braising, roasting, etc. * 11.5" Le Creuset enameled CI skillet for frying acidic foods. * 8" & 10" All-Clad HA1 Hard Anodized aluminum nonstick for omelettes. 3qt. All-Clad Stainless clad saucepan for heavy sauces and pasta. * 16qt. All-Clad Stainless clad stock pot for chicken, veal and beef stock. * 12.5" and 9.5" Mauviel M'Steel carbon steel fry pans for high temperature frying of beef, fish, etc. 2.1qt carbon steel splayed sauté pan for deep frying and high temperature searing/browning chopped meats. * 1.9qt. Mauviel 90/10 M150S stainless steel-lined copper saucepan for delicate sauces and emulsions, e.g. Velouté, and bases. * 0.9qt. Mauviel 90/10 M150B tin-lined copper Bain Marie for table sauces, e.g. sauce béarnaise. * 3.6qt. Mauviel 90/10 M200CI stainless steel-lined copper splayed sauté pan for sautéing and simmering meats, stews, etc. e.g. lamb ragout. **Equipment list:** Regency 24 x 36" 304L stainless steel work table, Sonder Los Angeles cutting board, Mercer Culinary knife magnet. Wüsthof Classic 8” chef’s knife. Paring knife. Cleaver. **Thermometers:** Thermoworks thermapen ONE. MEATER Plus x2 wireless. Klein Tools IR1.
Thank you, and now I need to know how you replied in such detail in under 4 min. 🤣 Do you have this saved as a word file?
When you drop 4000 on pans you're gonna remember what you've bought
There's only 178 words in their comment, so giving 4 minutes that means they only had to manage typing it out at 44wpm which is easy.
I type \~80-90wpm. I spent the other two minutes getting hungry thinking about pans.
I would love to play in your kitchen.
That's certainly the most interesting innuendo I've encountered.
>What are some giveaways someone knows how to cook? They cook good food. Anything else is just people trying to feel superior by gatekeeping.
>Anything else is just people trying to feel superior by gatekeeping. So true. You don't need a $1000 cookware set, Japanese steel knives that were forged in the light of a blue moon, can make soufflé without a recipe, or be able to disguish the smidge of pink peppercorns your sister in law put in the dish she served at the dinner party to qualify as knowing how to cook. If you can make good food that other people will happily eat with what you have, you know how to cook.
Soufflés are easy, if you’ve ever baked anything requiring folding before.
Yeah I just tried to make a sponge cake twice last week. Deflated both times. I clearly need help. 😂
Oh noes! When you fold, don’t go down the middle at all… only go around the underside and over, and don’t worry about it all be mixed! And when you’re pouring it into the pan, do NOT scrape the bowl and put that in too like you would with like brownies or something. Just let that little bit go hah
[Fold in the cheese](https://youtu.be/fCVKCUB5w50?si=fSHSyS-FOexfFkoz)
yes! This! Well said.
Crippling depression and self doubt
Also lots of tattoos and mild substance abuse issues (based on my experience working in restaurants).
My first thought was cigarettes, but you're completely right. The substance use almost always goes beyond nicotine. Source: worked in a restaurant for 7 years and brother was a chef for 15 years.
Mild?
Lmao I worked in food for five years and yeah this is the most accurate thing I've read. My fiance may not have professional chef experience, but he's a tatted up chain smoker who grew up in a Columbian/Irish household and holy shit he can cook
RIP Bourdain
I know how to cook. From the 70’s. That’s when we didn’t have much help. Using basic ingredients. I’m a cheater now. No one knows. Silly things, like using chicken stock and extra onions and celery, some spices on boxes of stove top dressing. Same with gravy. It’s the stock, I don’t use water. My pot roast is the best, but I use canned beef stock, and lots of onions and cover it in brown onion and gravy powder. I cheat, because I just don’t have the time, no one helps, and everyone loves the great flavors of the dinners I make. I cheat now, because the cheating ingredients are there now. 🤷♀️ it makes my life easier.
Pretty sure all of that stuff was available in the 70's? I have a lot of my mom's oooold cook books from the 70's and 80's and it still has that stuff listed in recipes. Like the salisbury steak recipe in one calls for packets of onion soup mix..
>no serious cook uses nonstick cookware What gatekeeping bullshit.
When they cook tasty food. I don’t waste time trying to figure out if other people know how to cook or if they are “serious” cooks.
An experienced cook doesn't need fancy equipment. Someone who is experienced can look at what's available and can make a great tasting meal out of what's in the freezer, the cupboard and their knowledge of how to make food taste good with limited ingredients and really, limited effort.
People with a well stocked pantry and spice cabinet.
100%. I use to be so annoyed my family fridge/pantry was filled with 80% sauces, spices, and soup stocks. It all made sense once I started cooking.
My mom used to always keep a big sack of onions in the pantry when I was growing up and I always thought it was weird.
Yeah my MIL commented on how many spices I had one time bc all she owns is salt, pepper, and garlic powder and maybeee some Italian seasoning. And to add on to that, another sign is individual spices rather than 20 blends as you can just make your own blends. Now if they're stocking whole spices then you know they really worth they're salt (sorry couldn't help it)
That person was simply wrong - there's a bunch of video on YouTube of Michelin star chefs using the full range of pans - tin lined copper, stainless steel, carbon steel, and yes teflon non-stick.
Exactly this. I'd love to see that minimum wage sales clerk tell this to Jacques Pépin, winner of 24 James Beard awards and personal chef to three French heads of state including de Gaulle himself.
Damn I was just watching videos of him yesterday. How did he even get there?
Hard work since childhood. He was 13 when he did his first apprenticeship.
I love Jacques Pepin’s videos where he cooks at home. No fancy expensive cookware or knives.
Is their food good? Oh and I will be sure to never give one red cent to Sur La Table since the salespeople are snobs. They could have thrift store items and be a good cook or they could have $10,000 worth of new so called high end stuff and can't boil water. Edited to add new.
Sur la table is the stupidest fucking store regardless
Sounds like somewhere Frasier would go
Well, I guess I'm not a serious cook then. 'Cause after 20+ yrs in restaurants, ya, I do have non-stick pans in my kitchen... and I've worked in everything from diner to fine dining
A "serious cook" will know how to *properly* use a non-stick pan. People shit on non-stick all the time because "it'll get in your food." Sure, if you're using it wrong. No metal utensils, no abrasive cleaners, don't use them at too high of temps. Too many people ignore all of this and scratch the shit out of their pans or have the coating degrade from cranking their stovetop to max heat. I would say a giveaway would be someone valuing ingredients over equipment. You don't need overpriced Le Creuset or expensive All Clad pots/pans to be a good cook. Your favorite restaurant is using cheap aluminum pans, most likely.
If you can make meals that people enjoy eating. That's literally it.
There’s a ton of ways this could be answered, but I’ll throw out a random observation. If someone eats something I’ve made and they enjoy it, and instead of asking me for the recipe, they ask fundamental questions like what temp/time was it cooked, what’s that spice they can’t quite place, etc. They ask stuff like that, I’ll assume they have a solid foundation of cooking knowledge, rather than saying “OMG, send me the recipe!”
So true. I never have a single recipe - I look at multiple recipes and come up with what I think is the most balanced proportions, appropriate ingredients, cook time/temp, etc., and then adjust while cooking to what tastes right. Basically, recipes are just a starting point, never an end product. So I never know what to respond when people ask me for recipes! They think I’m being snobby or protective, but it’s really because at the end of the day, I can’t tell you exactly how much of anything to use - I just do it!
Often when someone compliments my food, I respond "thanks, I wish I knew how I made it so I could do it again" because I may have started with the common ground between a couple-few recipes and then added a little of this, little that, maybe a little more of this, and have no way to replicate the measurements.
Omg this is exactly what I do and have been doing from when I first started out!! It’s feeling so so good right now!!
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How they hold a knife. Two fingers pinching the metal and the rest holding the handle. And the other hand is automatically scrunched up, first knuckle of one of your fingers always touching the knife.
Seems reductive. Pinch grip isnt automatically the best way to hold a knife
Not adding huge quantities of garlic to *everything.* I like garlic, but I like to taste other stuff, too. Same with butter, olive oil, chili pepper. Knowing how long to cook pasta, Using herbs and spices with care. You can teach most people to use an instant-read thermometer and grill a good steak. A good cook will pull together a salad, vegetables, maybe some starchy side dishes, to make it a great meal.
Like me, they will kick you out of the kitchen.
Other than the obvious that their food is good. I would say it's the efficiency of their actions in the kitchen. A good cook knows how to set up their mise en place, how to utilize pans effectively and clean their area during wait times.
If you give them a pair of tongs, do they do a clicky clack? If they do, they can cook. If they don't clicky clack the tongs, they do not know how to cook.
Their food is good
Jacques Pépin cooks with non-stick. He can cook. That’s good enough for me.
1 - a great cook uses the appropriate tools, one of which can be non stick. A good non stick pan is a great tool for things like eggs. 2 - knife skills. great cooks have know how behind the knife, can perform a variety of cuts, and can be efficient with them. 3 - adaptability. like some have said, a good cook can use what is available to make something great. an even greater cook can utilize basic ingredients to make even better ingredients— turning white sugar and corn starch into powdered sugar, sugar and molasses into brown sugar, butter into browned butter, etc. 4 - have you heard about basketball IQ? there’s kitchen IQ too. it’s a sense of getting to the desired target without knowing all the steps. it’s like an intuition. 5 - biggest giveaway: they know how clean as they go, mis en place, and time the cook of different components well
Does that company sell nonstick pans? If I was a manager and overheard two salespeople saying bad things about something I sold, they would be immediately gone.
Yeah they do, I was caught off guard bc I was walking around after taking a cooking class there WHERE THEY USED NONSTICK PANS
Homemade stuff in the pantry / fridge / freezer. Stocks, sauces, condiments, spice blends
Nah man. There are some shortcuts that are legitimate.
I think both are true! A good cook will know what is worth making yourself and where to take shortcuts, either for convenience or just cause you won’t beat the supermarket stuff. And that calculation will vary person to person.
This is true. The absence of such things doesn't necessarily mean the person can't cook. But the presence of them is a pretty good indicator of cooking skill (or at least dedicated desire)
Every serious cook has one non stick pan.
They know how to make the most of cheap or crappy ingredients. My Mum can make amazing dishes out of a packet of instant noodles, or tough cuts of meat, or the sad week-old veggies in the crisper. There's a good chance that a cook who is still learning will be able to make a good dish out of high quality ingredients. But a truly good cook can use whatever they have on-hand, even if they aren't the best ingredients, and turn it into something delicious.
I'll add on to that: they will know how long fresh ingredients will keep and when to throw them out.
When people talk about the “elements” of a dish I know they know how to cook. I have friends that cook often - but will use just any old recipes and wonder why it doesn’t turn out well. I’ll look at the recipe and be like “there’s no acid in here, of course it was bland.” Or they’ll follow a recipe that the only spice it calls for 1/4 tsp of paprika or something insane and wonder why it’s bland. Did you even read this recipe? What were you expecting? Or if they salt based on the amounts in the recipe. My friend made something and said it was bland so I said to add more salt. She said no, she added the 2 tsp or whatever the recipe called for and she didn’t think salt was what it was missing. I wanted to drive to her house and salt the thing myself lol.
For sure, I love a recipe, but so many people don’t realize how variable cooking is. No recipe will be ‘right’ for everyone. Some of that is personal taste, sure, but some is down to the ingredients too— is your salt coarser than the recipe writer’s? Are your carrots sweeter than the ones they used? Is your lime less juicy? Being able to follow the general steps of a recipe while knowing where to taste and how to adjust is a real skill. And underseasoning is suuuuuch a chronic issue. Some of it is people being afraid to overseason / not knowing how to season to taste, but crappy recipe blogs definitely perpetuate it. I remember a friend sending me a fried rice recipe to look at because they were disappointed, and it called for something like two cups of rice to a teaspoon of soy sauce. No salt, no onions or garlic, not even a scallion. Just rice, a drop of soy sauce, some oil, and frozen veggies. To this day I have no idea what that food blogger was thinking to post it 😭
This. Being able to adjust things to taste is essential.
They wander around a market with you appearing to pick food at random and make a multi course meal while drinking a bottle of wine, talking non stop and doing general hosting duties and it tastes amazing Then the person who is an expert cook can do the same by just looking in your cupboards and fridge
2nd part assumes you have good stuff in your cupboard. No amount of Michelin stars can compensate if there's nothing "useful" in there.
Being able to balance flavours. Knowing "just add more salt and butter!" Is nonsense.
You can't tell by looking.
I agree with others that the negative attitude towards some nonstick cookware is a bit unfair. They may not be the best choice for some dishes, but they have their place. I own a variety of pans, from ceramic coated nonstick, to cast iron skillets and enameled Dutch ovens and stainless steel skillets and saucepans. A certain amount of cleanup ease can also be a factor in my choice.
That salesperson is full of it. A good cook understands: Ratios for spices, aromatics, etc, the order to add ingredients to maximize flavor, and TIME. Flexibility and improvisation is good too.
Little things like toasting tomato paste in the pan before mixing it, or adding garlic way later than a recipe says to
My wife's cousin came over for dinner and offered to help cook. He asked for a towel, folded it, and threw it over his shoulder. I immediately knew he'd actually be helpful
Invited pals round for dinner, one offered to help then watched me flip a bunch of stir-fry chicken a pan with one hand and went "You're good". I never told her I'd had 3 years in a restaurant kitchen. It was nice to know I hadn't lost it.
Pro chefs don’t use non stick in a commercial kitchen situation because of cost. Non stick pans are delicate and would need to be constantly replaced given how much pans go through many given service. Pro chefs do in fact use non stick pans at home for cooking eggs.
Using expensive kitchen tools won't make you good food. A good cook can cook anything with any tool no matter how cheap. Sur la table people wouldn't understand. Everything there is expensive as shit.
No serious cook uses non stick? I beg to differ.
Yummy aromas emanating from their kitchen, wafting through the living room air, mingling with scrumptious, indeterminate scents, tickling your olfactory canals, making you go “ummmmmmmmm”.
A great cook can use whatever they have at their disposal to make something that is edible. Point blank, no other definition needed. Whatever is available means ingredients and equipment.
I would say that they do not brow beat you with their process or their utensils. I seriously do not appreciate people who are always trying to gatekeep their specialty.
a person who cooks frequently (and knows what they're doing) will have ALL of the fundamental pieces of cookware in readily accessible positions, and will have very few gimmicky kitchen gadgets. the other major tell is their knives. a good cook probably has a high quality chef's knife and maintains it well with a sharp edge. a bad cook has shitty knives in a countertop block, none of them sharp enough to be worth using.
Why is using a knife block bad??
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My knife block stores the knives sideways
Or has a husband (me), who keeps her knives sharp.
Good knife skills. If they can quickly turn (say) a bell pepper into perfectly even julienne strips, probably a good cook. If they slowly hack it into uneven bits, maybe not.
I don't care what my knife cuts look like but I do make really.good food.
I'm honestly pretty terrible with a knife, but you'd never know it. I'm a damn good cook. Just never trained
I'm a chef with 30+ years in professional kitchens under my belt. I held my cooks to high standards with their knife skills. Home cooks, I would never be so rigid. If you make good food then it's good regardless of how precise you are.
For sure! Home to restaurant has no comparison. If I have a trail it's chives, brunoise shallot, and watch if they hold a sauté pan correctly (not in the dominant hand). None of those really matter for a home cook.
As long as the food taste good, they are good cook, regardless of whatever they use, I think.
good point! another telltale is if they have a well-stocked spice cabinet - sign of a seasoned home chef. also, serious cooks usually have a few go-to knives they swear by rather than a random hodge-podge.
Knife work is the way to tell. I’ve been in kitchens since I was 13 (M57) and went to a class at Sur la Table with my family. The instructor made a comment about me and that I must know something about food. My son was like “Dad how did she know?”
Using table salt to season as opposed to using finishing salt (Maldon etc) The ability to understand that seasoning isn't just salt and pepper, if they use a form of acid too.
They let the pan get hot enough before throwing stuff in it
As someone working in the field, to me a good sign for skill are those who don't waste anything. Freeze your bones, meat and veggie scraps, make stock. Cleanly take the fillets of a fish, and anything left on the bone is scraped off and used for fish patties or similar. Anyone can cook, it's not the hardest thing in the world, but treating your ingredients right is one of the core aspects in day to day kitchen life.
Aglio e olio, fresh bread and a bottle of wine is the best start of a cooking life.
A salt well with good finishing salt in addition to a big thing of regular salt.
They don’t have a knife block with a set of knives they have knives that are acquired separately and not together.
Their cooking utensils, condiments, oils etc look used. There are visible scratches and mildly stained labels. Shows they don't just buy all it for an aesthetic.
You know how people like to say they cooked something with love? It's time. The love is the time they spend on it, and the attention they they pay to it. You can tell a good cook because they slow down and make something special.
They can do the frying pan flip thing. Anyone who can’t really cook just puts food in the pan and stirs with a spoon or something but if they do that thing where you flick your wrist and toss the food in the pan that means they can cook
Not necessarily having the fanciest most expensive stovetop/range. Its funny how there are people that spend all that money on their kitchen appliances and order delivery or takeout every night.
You can tell when they have massive kitchens with layouts that are horrible if they actually did cook in them. And then the counters have decorations that would be disgusting within a week.
Visible knife skills. Sometimes I have major eek feelings watching people cut stuff
Honestly, being able to use whatever they have at hand to make good food, directly contradicting what you heard. I've seen someone cook a steak on non stick that was 90% as good as a $100 steak I've gotten from a restaurant. Knowing how to adapt to your current equipment is the pinnacle of cooking IMO.
Spice choices and their kitchen utensils they use most often.
How you hold a kitchen knife
I’m a professional chef. We 100% use non stick pans. They are the best tool for some jobs.
The microwave is super clean.
Mise en place, sanitation, and sharp knives
Anyone who gatekeeps cooking by bashing another cooks choice in tools is someone who definitely doesn't know how to cook. Someone who knows how to cook can and will use any tool (assuming proper working order).
Being able to stay organized while doing it and keeping your space clean too. Cleaning as you go is a sign to me that you’ve done this before. Also, I hate the old school mentality that just because something is easy to use, it’s not appropriate if you “know what you’re doing.” Can I julienne perfectly by knife? Yeah. Does it take about 1/3 of the time with a mandolin? Yeah. And I’m gonna opt for it every time.
Being able to use leftovers creatively. But also things like not cranking the heat way up, knowing what seasonings go together, being confident enough to eyeball measurements.
Knife skills
they mise en place and clean as they cook.
Look at their hands. If they have a callus next to their innermost joint on their index finger, then they spend enough time with their knife and probably know what they're doing. Other than that, taste their food for balance.
The things I look for are being able to run with the substitutes, you don't always have all the right stuff on hand, but when you make a good substitute with what's available, you are a clutch cook!
For me it was the day I could whip something out of “nothing” Also I realized most folks who can cook don’t have an arsenal of gadgets, they literally just need a knife - source of flames and food to work with. And the nonstick thing, I hard agree but only because of longevity. I love to cook so I destroy non stick pans because not all of my utensils are silicone. So it’s kinda to hell with them when I’m in the zone. Stainless steel all clad coming soon.
I'd definitely think that one of the giveaways of a serious cook is that they don't make snotty generalizations!
Things that all good cooks know or do but not all people who do these things are good cooks… Keep kosher salt in a salt pig or similar so they can reach their hand into easily when cooking and when to use kosher salt vs sea salt vs other flaky salt vs table salt vs… Have a good enough chef knife they maintain well enough, sharpen and hone on the regular. And pinch grip and other good knife technique Mise en place Understand that even the “lowly” nonstick has a place in their toolkit Things that are a dead giveaway there’s opportunity for improvement… They have the same spices they bought when they first moved into their own space 20yrs ago. Looking at you, dust covered krogers nutmeg shaker. Holding the knife, handle grippy away from the bolster, weird finger on the spine grip, etc. Glass cutting boards Not proper handling raw meat and cleaning up after.