Chef Watch: 4 Big Little Cooking Tips

In this video, Chris Kimball from America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated fame shares a few tips for making the cooking process a little quicker and easier on the chef and how to produce better results.

The best tip I’d ever learned was that of mise en place, which basically is a fancy French way of saying “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Before you begin cooking, do yourself a favor and get everything you need ready in advance, specifically if you’re planning to execute a recipe. It makes the process go a thousand times faster.

The one thing I’d like to add is that if you don’t want to buy something to sharpen your knives – I know I don’t… y’all know I’m El Cheapo – then don’t be afraid to look for a place in your area that’ll sharpen your knives for you. My former farmer’s market had a booth where people brought their knives and waited in line to have them sharpened. Gotta get creative… because the LAST thing I want to do is spend $130 on something and it’s not an electricity bill… or shoes.

Emphasis on shoes.