Professional Chefs Share The Top Mistakes Average Home Cooks Make

With the expansion of cable television and then streaming services, a number of competition shows featuring amateur home cooks. Shows like Master Chef and The Great British Bake Off garnered huge followings and spawned numerous global and domestic spin-offs.

The food produced by these amateurs is beyond the talents of even some professional chefs. But what about the average home cook? What can they learn from the professionals?

Reddit user Mrkayne asked:

"Professional chefs of Reddit, what are the top 3 mistakes you see the average home 'chef' commit?"

Browning

"Most people are terrified of letting things get real color. Browning creates flavor. Pale chicken tastes like sadness."

~ Temporary-Let1068

"I'm pretty sure my mother thinks if she sets the stove above 2 on the dial, and she is not boiling water, it will catch on fire."

~ moojoo44

Sharpening

"Sharpen your f*cking knives."

~ Top_Chef

"My wife laughed at me when I had a professional knife sharpening service come sharpen every knife in the house, but she's not laughing now. She is really enjoying the sharp knives and scissors and how much more easily they cut things."

~ PMMeUrHopesNDreams

Common Sense

"Following a recipe religiously and not using common sense or adjusting to suit your taste."

"My chef released a book that mistakenly called for way too much salt for a sourdough, which killed the yeast."

~ Efficient_Fig9

"My wife, god love her, is guilty of this all the time. She will follow the recipe to a tee. Will not deviate in the slightest, even if we’ve cooked it before and know to change it. She even watches me cook and I won’t measure out certain things or add extra of stuff and she’s like, 'what are you doing‽‽ The recipe says this'."

"It’s like, I see it more as a guideline. Better believe I’m adding more salt and garlic that what’s called for. I noticed her dad does the same thing. He worked in a chemistry lab so had to be very precise, so I get it’s hard to change. But man, go off script every now and then."

~ Alone_Rang3r

Salt, Acid, Fat, Heat

"Professional cooking involves a lot of butter."

"Others have said it, but salt, acid, fat and heat."

"I’m a pastry chef and I even salt and acid pastry dishes, a lot of people think you don’t need to but you do. Vinegar in a sorbet can help make the flavour shine."

~ -myeyeshaveseenyou-

Scraping

"Stop scraping the chopping board with the sharp side of the knife. It INFURIATES me."

~ qbnaith

"Learn how to hold your knives properly."

"For the love of all that's holy, stop with glass 'cutting boards' and enamel covered knives."

~ BugApart8359

Tasting

"Not tasting a dish as you go and developing a sense of taste to help drive your dishes and help build intuition for what's missing."

"Too many people want clean measurements for adding salt, spices, or peppers but everyone's taste is different and you need to get comfortable with your own sense of taste to know what and how much of a thing a dish is missing."

~ Flaky_Classic_3248

Gadgets

"Investing in dozens of single use gadgets."

"I think Alton Brown said the only single use kitchen item everyone should own is a fire extinguisher."

"Do as Marco and Gordon do and invest in a good pan and a few knives."

~ Efficient_Fig9

"To be fair, single use gadgets are a game changer for two distinct populations: disabled individuals and younger aspiring chefs. Alton Brown is Alton Brown, so I understand why he wouldn't care to own gadgets that make a home cooked meal simply attainable for people with mobility issues who also can't afford to eat out or hire someone to cook for them."

"As for younger cooks, it's a great way to encourage children who have a passion for cooking to explore said passion in a safe way, since they don't have to handle super sharp knives or other utensils that require very well honed fine motor skills."

~ AdiPalmer

Preheating/Overheating

"Either not preheating pans or going the other way and getting pans too hot, people seem to be obsessed with cranking the heat up to the max in the belief it will cook faster."

~ broadarrow39

Mistakes

"Owned a restaurant for 15 years:"

"Mistake Number 1. Expensive ingredients aren't necessary. Start with the cheapest ingredients and work your way up. I used incredibly cheap cream cheese and expensive butter. Play around and find your brands."

"Mistake Number 2: Getting discouraged when cooking/baking because it doesn't turn out right. Life happens, and food doesn't always listen to our expectations. Pick one recipe and do it a hundred times. I highly recommend starting with Molly's Adult Mac&Cheese with Bon Appétit. Watch the video and practice. We practice and explore with curiosity. Play and explore with one recipe."

"Mistake Number 3: Complicated = Yummy. Simple recipes are ninjas. I have a four ingredient biscuit recipe that could carry a breakfast menu. My grilled cheese sandwiches can increase soup sales. Life is celebrated with big meals. However, life is lived between the day to day meals. Finding joy in these small task moments while cooking is simply bliss."

~ Odd-Resource3025

Pastry

"Ex-Pastry Chef here."

"When it says beat your sugar and butter together, it means it. If you want the best results you can get BEAT IT. And I mean like, changing to a whole different colour. It should be white and fluffy. Don't be shy, don't be scared, keep going."

"If a recipe says 350 for 20 minutes. Do 350 and start your timer at 10 minutes. You can always give the recipe more time, but you can't take it away."

"FOLLOW THE RECIPE/INSTRUCTIONS. Baking is a science, if it asks for 250g of sugar, give it 250g sugar. Don't hold some back because you don't want it to 'be too sweet'. You do that, the whole recipe is out of whack."

"If a recipe asks for frozen berries, or frozen anything, make sure they're still frozen when you add them to your recipe. If you let them defrost, you are adding extra liquid into your recipe and it likely won't turn out the way you hope."

~ EllwyndYumi

Amateur Advice

"I'm NOT a professional, but I am pretty good."

"1.) Not enough salt."

"2.) Not enough fats."

"3.) You're not cooking hot enough. Your pan is too cold and the food is too crowded in the pan. So instead of nice browning and searing, you're steaming your food and cooking it throughout too uniformly (think steak)."

"4.) Add an acid when you feel like the salt isn't helping. You are probably missing acidity. Citrus, vinegar, tomato sauce, etc..."

"5.) Try to mix textures. If your dish is soft, try to add something with a crunchy texture to give the whole dish a more pleasing composition."

~ PostsWifesBootyPics

Practicing

"Trying a dish for the first time when entertaining. Practice, practice, practice! Trial it with your family or neighbours before you attempt to make souffles for the first time for 30 guests."

~ Efficient_Fig9

"I've been making a bunch of different desserts over the past two months and taking them in for my coworkers so I can find a good one for Thanksgiving."

"It's worked out great because not only do I get great feedback on the dishes, but my coworkers have started taking my Saturday shifts so I can bake now dishes."

~ MammothWrongdoer1242

Caramelizing

"Thinking they can caramelize onions in 10 minutes."

"Thinking they can caramelize onions in 20 minutes."

"Thinking they can caramelize onions in 45 minutes."

"Yo, that takes forever to do properly and if it doesn't, you didn't actually caramelize the onions."

~ kr2c

"I caramelized three pounds of onions for French onion soup. It took a couple hours or so. Loads of butter, low heat."

~ baconbitsy

Simplicity

"Keep it simple, keep it clean."

"Don't muddle every dish with the same sauces and mixed spices."

"Realize that cooking is subjective and not objective. Doesn't matter if it's the world's best recipe, sometimes grandma's meatballs is what hits right."

~ t4ngl3d

Baking

"Professional baker here:"

"1a) believing the baking times on the recipe. Every oven is different, every time you use that oven is different, etc. Timers are useful for reminding you that you have something in the oven, but beyond that you have to know what done looks/feels like. Probe thermometers are your friend."

"1b) believing your oven is the temperature it says it is. It probably isn't. It certainly isn't that temperature everywhere."

"1c) Trusting the recipe. Sometimes recipes are wrong about things, even from otherwise solid bakers. Baking intuition takes time to develop, but if something seems wrong, it very well might be. It's okay to throw in an extra handful of flour or a couple tablespoons of water if it seems like you need it."

"2) Underkneading and overworking. Can you overknead the bread dough? Probably not. You will melt your muscles or your mixer before that happens. But after the bulk ferment and now it's time to shape? People screw things up here all the time. Do not make it into a shape that you don't want it to stay. Don't make the dough into a ball and then try to roll it out into a pretzel or a baguette. Only touch the dough to make clear, specific progress towards the shape you want."

"3) Underbaking things. Home bakers (and particularly Americans) are so terrified of overbaking things that they wildly, tragically underbake them. Some things (brownies, snicker doodles) are best if you just barely bake them, but a lot of things (particularly breads, viennoiserie, some cookies, etc) need to get properly, richly browned. Color is flavor! Raw flour doesn't taste good! Gelatinize your starches, caramelize some sugars, and crisp up that crust, people!"

~ mangogetter

Is there a cooking tip you swear by?