Ten easy things you can do right now to make your good food great.

A few simple secrets that seperate your favorite restaurant food from your own:

1. Get rid of the iodized table salt. It is basically iodized beach sand. A dish is only as good as the ingredients going into it. This includes the seasoning. I always have kosher salt in my kitchen. A good sea salt is great to have on hand too but may be a little more costly.
2. Shop local farmers markets. To be more specific, shop as local as possible period. Especially when it comes to produce. Most produce in supermarkets is sub par. This is because a lot of produce received by supermarkets must be picked BEFORE it’s at its peak ripeness to increase shelf life. Tomatoes are a great example. Supermarket tomatoes (even those “on the vine”) are picked green and exposed to ”ripening” gases to turn them red on the truck while in transport. Perfectly safe to eat and look pretty, but pale in comparison in taste to one left to ripen entirely on the vine.
3. Do the work. Peel your own garlic, chop your own veggies, don’t buy salads in a bag. As soon as you cut something, you break its cell structure. Whatever aroma, oils, etc present begin to be released and decompositon is sped up. Fresher is better. It takes a few seconds to take the peel off the clove of garlic. Put in the time. It will be worth it. Whenever possible break down your own proteins. It is cheaper to buy a chicken whole and cut it to your needs. Chicken without skin? Seriously, why bother? Get some tofu and marinate it.
4. Do the work pt. 2. Ever read the ingredients on a box of mac and cheese or how about your favorite salad dressing? You’ll find a lot of ingredients there that aren’t necessary. Not only are they not good for you, they don’t taste good. Boil your own pasta, make you’re own sauces/vinaigrettes. Do it once and you’ll see how easy it is. Don’t be intimidated. Need a recipe? E-mail me.
5. Know your oils/fats and their smoke points. Different fats burn at different temperatures. The more solids it has (like butter) the faster it will burn. Good rule of thumb, the clearer it is, the hotter you can get it. You don’t want to sear your steak with a dark green extra virgin olive oil. Burnt olives don’t taste good. Even on steak.
6. Don’t be afraid of high heat and know when to use it. If you don’t want it to stick or you would like the benifit of having a nice crust on it, GET THE PAN/GRILL SMOKING HOT! If you want that nice crust on your fish or steak, the pan has to be smoking. Literally. (Remember, clearer oils with high smoke points! Grapeseed, canola, etc.)
7. When buying pans for home use stay away from plastic handles. The secret to using high heat correctly is knowing when to turn it off. Sear on the stove, finish and cook to temperature in the oven where the food won’t scorch. If your pan has plastic handles it can’t go in the oven without melting. Consider this when purchasing.
8. If your pan is hot, it’s non stick. If you’ve ever put a drop of water on a hot pan and watched it skip around, you’ve seen this concept first hand. The number one reason most people’s food sticks to the pan is not for lack of fat/oil. It’s because the pan is cold. You should really only need one non stick pan in your kitchen.
9. If it’s done in the pan, it’s over done on the plate. Just because you’ve turned off the heat or taken the roast out of the oven doesn’t mean it’s stopped cooking. Food holds onto heat for a good amount of time. As long as it’s hot, it’s still cooking!! If you want your roast cooked to medium and you take it to medium in the oven, it will be medium well in about 10 minutes sitting on the table. Very important when cooking eggs and baking cookies. In fact, this concept is easiest learned when cooking scrambled eggs. Put them on the plate just a “little runny.” They will set in a few minutes on the plate. NO RUBBERY EGGS!! Imagine that?
10. Use sharp knives. Not only is this safer (less force used to cut means fewer slips and mishaps) but it effects the flavor of your food. Once again, cutting means cell damage. “Cut” cell damage produces a cleaner flavor than “torn” cell damage. Chop herbs with a dull knife and then try again with a VERY sharp knife. Just 5 mins on the cutting board and you’ll see a difference between green parsley and black parsley. Green parsley tastes better.

Now go to it!!  Happy cooking!

-Frank