Cooking Tips For Kitchen Beginners | Epicurious 101

Tip: when Frank says "cook with your friends and family," he DOES NOT mean as ingredients. I learned this the hard way so you don't have to.

“Most recipes are written the same way” he forgot to mention the 30 page backstory on why this recipe is a priceless family heirloom passed on from generation to generation getting the family through hardship and prosperity alike

My grandmother taught me to copy a recipe from a cook book to a piece of paper - in full. 1) to save the cook book from being ruined by spills and 2) the act of copying helps you learn the recipe.

My biggest tip is make clean up easy for yourself. Clean little things up as you go so you have less at the end. Then right after you plate, rinse off your pots and pans while it'll come of easy! You don't have to super clean them, just rinse most of it off. Then clean up after you eat is a lot easier, you keep your kitchen easier, and you'll be more prone to making dinner instead of walking into your dirty kitchen and giving up cause it's all dirty and ordering take out instead.

Good stuff. The box grater on its side is a genius tip; I’ve never thought of that before, but instinctively it seems like a much more ergonomical technique!

I'll add those to Chef John's tips for my complete list beginners tips: Wet hands make smooth balls Never be afraid of the food it can smell your fear Never throw away the accumulated juices

Another tip I would add is “Cooking can be messy and that’s ok.” There’s a lot of times when I was more focused on keeping the kitchen clean while cooking rather than the actual cooking and a lot of recipes went wrong because of it.

Tip 11: If possible, wash your dishes while you are cooking (some recipes demands 10 or 15 minutes of cooking, that you can use to wash the dishes).

Imagine if Frank had a bunch of brothers who could teach a bunch of different life skills with this kind of laid back, good natured energy and encouragement or just Frank in different aprons

I’ve been cooking for more than a half-century and this year I learned a new technique from Chef Frank: lay the box grater down and push the cheese forward when you need to grate cheese. Easier, faster, less messy, and it saves your fingers and knuckles from getting banged up. 💙 Chef Frank! 💙

I still think that having went to culinary school and worked as a professional cook for a couple of years is the most precious experience I have. I don't like cooking as a professional anymore but I still very much like to cook for others. It's such an easy way to give smiles to peoples faces, even those who don't really care for cooking or food can still be comforted by some good food. From simple things like a mushroom pasta to something a little more complicated like oxtail bourguignon. Love goes through the stomach is a common saying but I completely agree, having someone in the household who can cook properly and enjoys cooking is a gift that should never be overlooked.

I had a very hard day. Those 8 minutes completely rebooted my brain. Thank you Chief Frank, you always know how to put people in a good mood.

I wish there was a video about cleaning the mess of cooking while you cook. I would love to see an explanation about cross contamination, changing cutting boards, the proper hand washing, how to use your time for clean up and avoiding excessive mess, and limiting food waste. Basically all the stuff that gets cut out of these type of videos, but is the reality of what a home cook should expect to deal with. Love the videos. Thank you Chef.

Chef Proto: A recipe should be written well and go along with instructions Recipes online: Person starts with the ingredients you need and then tells their life story and how they made this dish one evening around the holidays and their whole family loved it and only after scrolling half way down the web page and multiple paragraphs do the instructions finally start.

I just love Frank teaching. His enthusiasm is so inspiring and him being as grounded as he is, makes me feel so comfortable and not feel like being talked to from above.

Always happy to see a video with Frank. Even though I like to think I'm no longer a beginner I still appreciate a refresher to make sure I'm not falling into old habits or forgetting anything.

Thank you so much, Frank! I'm a home cook. I took your Fettuccine Alfredo video with Emily and figured out the recipe with grated Parmigiano Reggiano along with the rind for the parm broth, butter, and fresh Fettuccine pasta. (Cost is around $25; I didn't buy an 80 lb. wheel, nor am I up to making the pasta. Yet.) After having made it many times, I've now essentially mastered it. Both wife and daughter love it and ask for it now. It has become easy and relatively quick to make. It is so yummy!

Kudos for the nice and engaging videos. Maybe just a few tips on the carbonara. 1) Most of us Italians use more yolk and less egg white, or even just the egg yolk. You can count 1 yolk per 100g of pasta and then add one extra yolk to the total: 300g of pasta would make 4 yolks. 2) No oil: put the guanciale on a cold skillet and let it slowly get crispy on the outside (but still tender on the inside). 3) Garofalo pasta is excellent! Rigatoni would be the more traditional way. It helps scooping more sauce than spaghetti. 4) Lightly roasted and then crushed peppercorns do add extra flavor to the dish. The same works for cacio e pepe, which is nothing else than carbonara without the eggs. 5) Take out the cooked guanciale from the pan, in order to keep its crunch, and add it once you are almost ready mixing the cooked pasta with the egg/cheese cream. 6) The rendered fat on the pan can often be too much. You can take some of it out and in case add it later on. We use to add a couple of spoons of this fat to the egg/cheese cream. It helps tempering the eggs and makes the mix nice and creamy. 7) No salt in the sauce and very little salt in the pasta water (like half the usual amount)! Always taste your pecorino before preparing carbonara. The more seasoned one can be even too salty. And guanciale is quite savory as well. Parmigiano Reggiano can “soften” the strong taste of pecorino romano, but if you wanna taste the true Roman carbonara, use only pecorino romano. 8) Add very little pasta water. If it’s too dry, add some more. Too much water at once can ruin the dish.

having a bowl for trash / compost next to your cutting board is also very helpful and keeps things tidy.

Like my hair's on fire. I love how he immediately processes what he said and laughed. 😂😂😂