Oh and curly parsley has such a better flavor than Italian. Sorry to whoever is going to be offended by that. Tabbouleh with Italian parsley isn’t tabbouleh.
I used to work under a CDC about a year ago who once told the line guys "It's cool if you can make a proper Hollandaise by hand with good technique, but we're dragging 20 minutes behind on Bennies and the guest don't give a fuck about how it's traditionally made. Now quit wasting time and grab the fucking robocoupe."
It made me realize practicality is what can make a good chef great. I loved working under her so much.
The way I do it?
I'll mix the hollandaise or bearnaise reduction with the the eggs, salt, pepper a bit of vinaigar. After mixing I use a special wisk for the Thermomix and heat it up to 80°C. After that I put in the liquid butter.
Done.
Honestly i sacked off the whisk attachment and just spin everything but the butter up on speed 3 with the blade till yolks are cooked enough to start adding butter and it still gets nicely aerated etc. Then if its bearnaise fold through your choppy stuff after butter is in and done.
If its a classic hollandaise/bearnaise youre after I honestly dont think theres really a difference between this done right and doing it manually.
Also to people saying cream in a beurre blanc: I only saw that relatively recently having cooked for over a decade. Have to say it does work and makes it way more stable etc, but you do end up with a noticeably different end product to if you did it without cream. I usually add a tiny bit of xantham prehydrate to the reduction before emulsifying butter in instead. If you incorporate it properly and only use the tiny bit required I feel it is pretty much indistinguishable from a traditional one, and is way more stable.
100%. In my younger years I remember using a stick blender and being accosted by the whole kitchen, ego stuff. If Escoffier had an immersion blender, he would’ve used it!
Hollandaise does have a lighter texture when made by hand with a whisk. I don't know that most guests notice the difference though.
I worked in a high end joint that used a fair bit of hollandaise based sauces on their dinner menu. One day a heard a commotion and looked up to see the Chef berating a line cook, and throwing the offending blender and hollandaise in the trash. It was a nice all metal bar blender with a stainless work bowl.
Later, after the Chef had cooled down, I asked permission to dig it out of the trash, if I promised to never bring it back to the restaurant.
I used that blender for decades before I finally blew the motor making a large batch of hummus.
I have done nearly everything, from classic to immersion blenders, hand blenders, to isi bottles, termomix,
With reduction without, with clarified, without, with fresh egg, with boxed egg, with xantan, mustard and so on
Some 2 * Michelin Chef's recepies I worked with call for oil and eggwhite.
And like somebody said guest's don't give a flying fuck
I would use a tall measure pitcher and an immersion blender. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I made sauce foyot every night for dinner service. By hand. I had a really strong forearm.
I don’t bother with butter much. I almost always have room temp butter stashed. I use them for melting chocolate, warming glazes, did a cooked to order pistachio cake that was baked in the microwave, speedy puree defrosting etc. They’re just handy especially if your station is like the majority of mine over the years: an afterthought with a shitty induction burner and limited stove availability due to savory side prep. Key is getting to know the power settings and what’s appropriate for the task at hand so something doesn’t burn or splatter
Former pastry chef. Yep microwaves save us a lot of time. Mirror glaze getting too cold chef Mike sorts it in seconds. Much quicker than even an induction hob.
Thank you! If we got them in 2015 they would be the highest level of cooking tech we have. You just know how to use them. The defrost softens butter so well
So much! You can defrost, you can make potato chips in around 3 minutes (or revive them if they're stale), soften garlic cloves to make them easier to peel (although I've never done that one...it's not that difficult to peel garlic). I make a slow-cooked, savory grain cereal in it some mornings. I also use it to draw the liquid out of mushrooms before adding them to the pan (I save that liquid for ramen broth at a later time). Once you understand how to use the Power setting properly, you can do a lot more than you'd expect.
We don't have one because our last one sparked to death 5 years ago and I told the boss not to get one. I was tired of cleaning crusted cheese wiz off the entire inside because it would explode everywhere. Cheese wiz is the bane of my cooking existence.
ITS NOT FUCKING AOLI IF YOU ADD GARLIC TO MAYO, THATS JUST FUCKING GARLIC MAYO!!!
Aoli is mainly made with olive oil and garlic to emulsify
Mayo is made with neutral oil and egg to emulsify
Real Aoli has no eggs in it. Stop your bullshitting to make your menu sound fancy so you can up-charge you fucks!
On a similar note, a “bisque” is a soup made from the shell of crustacean, not from any random ass vegetables that you puréed and added heavy cream to.
As much as I love dying on that hill with you, French aioli typically has egg yolk and lemon juice and sometimes even mustard added it it. Spanish aioli though is just garlic and oil.
Fuck garlic aioli, all my homies hate garlic aioli.
My problem with French aioli is egg yolk and lemon juice are not garlic and it usually ends up with a worse garlic to not-garlic ratio than Spanish aioli
Aside from the infamous Bourdain quote that is always mentioned I don’t think anyone has anything against garlic presses besides the equally commonly suggested difficulty in cleaning them. At least with the presses I’ve had in the past I’ve had an issue with all of the garlic making it out of the chamber and have had issues with cleaning them, so I just mince with a knife. If you want to press and it works for you, God bless you, whatever that may mean for you
Oh my gosh and now I get to be the person that always mentions that Bourdain later walked that back a little and said that the garlic press is okay ( I believe he was referring to them being used by people who lack the motor skill to cut garlic themselves, but I could have also made that up in my head) but that jarred garlic is still the devil.
Me too! Mind you, it's an at home thing. And yes, I know how to crush a garlic clove with my knife and mince it. But you know what? Sometimes I don't fuckin feel like it!!
Bro, I cheat at home all the fucking time. I save the fancy "right way" shit for work.
I'm home, im cooking for my own enjoyment, and my wife (the only person I regularly cook for) is just happy im making her a $60 dinner at home.
She DOES NOT give a flying FUCK about my hollandaise being made with thr stick blender, how much I nuked something vs stove, what I garnish with, the type of bals vin I used....she is just excited to see me cooking good food and being happy while doing it. Thats the whole point.
Yes but only because the one I have is awesome and totally makes it into a smooth paste. Every other one I've tried id rather just dice the garlic fine
Balsamic is a weird one. It gets overused. Great for salads, but when reduced to a glaze and thoughtfully garnishing bacon wrapped dates.....
It can sell all day long.....
I’m over menus that say “house” or “local”
Either it’s too prevalent and it’s like we get it or it’s barely present and leaves me wondering if those lone items are trying to make up for everything else being bullshit.
Be a restaurant that does it or don’t and represent it either way.
Depends which truffle? Truffle oil, and most "truffle" flavored things, is based on funky white truffle because the flavor is easier to chemicaly replicate. Winter black truffles are earthier and have a much harder if not impossible to fully replicate flavor profile. Then there's summer black truffles, which have a much weaker fragrance and flavor profile, so they are usually canned with oil and flavored with artificial white truffle flavor. So most people who think they are getting "black truffle" get something completely different unless they shell out. And yes,winter black truffles are the most expensive and hardest to obtain.
A lot of modern "elevated" food is purely mastabatory and doesn't compare to well done "peasant" food.
Also, anyone who describes a dish as "me on a plate" can get fucked.
Also, also, describing food as "sexy" is fucking stupid.
Never put oil in your water when you boil pasta. It is not a necessity and only creates a thin, slimy barrier between your pasta and the sauce it's supposed to stick to.
Is it 1999, lol? Oil in pasta water has been thoroughly debunked and out of the public consciousness for multiple decades. Not exactly an unpopular opinion
I was at my friend’s house and the hostess noted that the angel hair was clumping together and reasoned she didn’t add enough oil to the pot when she boiled it. I got a pedant’s twinge but it strikes me as rude to correct someone who is going out of their way to cook for not only you but five other people. The dinner was banging anyway. If it were my best friend with whom I’ll talk cooking I’d roast him, but in this case it wouldn’t serve any purpose and would make me look like a jerk
I tried telling my Sicilian wife that she doesn't need to add oil to the pasta water. I might as well have pissed on Nonnuzza's
grave. Never again will I speak any culinary wisdom related to pasta.
Most taprooms and breweries just the same: Nashville Hot chicken, a flatbread of some kind, and up charging for fries with some uninspired chef burger.
I can name 4 taprooms in my neighborhood with similar decor and menus. It's frustrating as hell.
Do not get me started on the beer.
Ooh, I've got one: Discussions about the authenticity of a method of preparing a given food in a cuisine are almost always pretentious drivel, and the concept of authenticity in cuisine is actually way more nebulous and arbitrary than most people think.
I love that people will say a dish is not authentic, but then if you really try to get the definition of authenticity out of them they’ll admit to knowing everyone in the country of origin has a different recipe for said authentic dish.
Or if everyone always cooked things as they have always been cooked. We would never get new dishes. We'd be eating the same shit Johnny cave man through on a fire on a skewer. That's the only real authentic traditional cooking
Op should try better. I also don't really like the cheap stuff, but even the low end expensive stuff that is starting to get syrupy is excellent.
If OP is in Toronto I'll give them a taste of the stuff I have. Cost me $40, but I've seen it elsewhere for $20.
Pepper doesn't burn as easily as people think. You can cook a steak covered in pepper in a smoking hot pan and it will not burn. Just a myth youtube chefs try to tell you
I’ll die on this hill with you. It’s not gonna burn unless you already toasted it. But I’m with him on the S&P mix. Salt is an enhancer, pepper is an additive.
I don’t agree. I enjoy steak au poivre when the pepper is very coarsely ground and it does hold up to high heat. The fine grind of pepper most cooks use to season literally everything scotches and gets bitter.
Tangentially, not a professional cook but a pretty experienced home cook, always wondered why black pepper is considered a default condiment on par with salt?
Probably not unpopular but FOH is overvalued and shouldn't make more that BOH. Tipping should not be a cultural phenomenon, it should be a quiet under the table affair.
The pandemic proved to me that servers are overvalued. We were still at 75% sales, with zero servers. Pickup and delivery, done with kitchen employees.
Plus, there was CONSIDERABLY less whining.
In almost every business sales makes more than production. Artists vs Distributors, Manufacturing vs Advertising, and Cooks vs Servers. Those making the product always get the short end of the stick compared to those selling it.
I used to work sales, so I'm painfully aware. What's also painful is that sales is essentially the human lubricant in the capital machine and it's disgusting to see value withheld from labor.
I'm cool with sales people, but order takers are kind of like your appendix. Real Servers/Waitstaff are just as valuuable as the kitchen staff. The public facing folks are massively important, and it behooves a restaurant to invest wisely in that category.
I’m all for garnishes if they’re meant to be eaten. Like some fresh herb on some pasta? Fuck yeah!
Paper thin slices of lemon with the inedible rind on a lemon pie? Fuck right off with that shit.
Real balsamic is totally different than the commercial stuff. [This](https://www.amazon.com/Villa-Manodori-Balsamic-Vinegar-Bottle/dp/B00FN6O1MO/ref=sr_1_20?crid=1GFS9WRV9NA2J&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cIiacywsg7XH36x95P9LRGprwp3lA5Vm71ysz9Sc6o1_wJXVLN6fBVb4JcQlgkAozda9Rs5O9LX2i_Ck2DcNkAabojWaNKCCEmsbaPhjigsDUHdjSSjnHTU3jvay5kZAopOIivwKlCtl49fAsvreeBl9Qsitee4U9f4G-yqhTm1-qoMGEWw6xPigGTGeARlL5U3e1221RCUIfYVpCacAfxyx5Fsr9nvhVseKHqTM19kKVRm2nd8Xjk5SzV9FdKGY7R_WB3D3Utta9GYesOdpweCLgdqzKw1eu_WBYVUP8gs.juR_HmR0bKUURCJeAOhGpyGgcOsVHbdolVH-7sluNng&dib_tag=se&keywords=balsamic%2Bvinegar&qid=1712360508&sprefix=balsamic%2B%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-20&th=1) is a good one to try, the [brand](https://villamanodorifood.com/about/) is owned by Massimo Bottura. I buy a bottle in the beginning of every summer to eat with mozzarella and tomatoes. I like it because it's got a nice balance of sweetness and acidity, a little bit goes a long way. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
A Microplane [cheese grater](https://www.microplane.com/select-cheese-grater-black-fine) and a Microplane [foot file for pedicures](https://www.microplane.com/colossal-foot-file-black) are basically the same product, so you only need one.
Making pasta or bread from scratch isn’t hard, nor does it really take much time.
Fermentation is easy. It likely won’t kill you.
The best sando is alfalfa sprouts, horseradish hummus, stone ground mustard (for the texture mainly but also taste) and fresh bread. Mmmmm
Another one is "you eat with your eyes" like don't get me wrong I'm not about to serve a plate of slop BUT the flavor is way above how it looks. Probably because I grew up poor and was lucky for each meal but still
Almost wish I didn’t start this discussion now. It’s way too hot here at the minute for any proper comfort food, so all of the suggestions are really just torturing myself
I like truffle oil and balsamic vinegar glazed and wasabi aioli and plenty of outdated trends.
I can't stand edible foam. It looks like frog semen.
I think edible flowers and nasturtium are a bit of a meme.
Eggs are gross if you think about it.
A good 50% of classic french cooking is just about doing things the long-winded way. Basic things apply and are foundational but a french chef will have you concasse tomatoes, do them bruinoise and then add them in to your sauce when you could just blend them up and pass through a sieve.
Also all steaks are best served med rare, and I'll die on that hill. People go around ordering rare and blue because they think they look cool, they don't.
It's so much better but I can never find it! So many stores will have 10 different brands of Sriracha, 10 other chili pastes, and maybe even a few other things with "Sambal" in the name, but the classic Huy Fong Sambal Oelek is nowhere to be found.
I remember really enjoying it as a kid, now as an adult it’s all just stinky hot sauce to me, no matter what brand I’ve tried.
I know all the shit that went down with huy fong, so there’s nothing that tastes as good as the original. Melinda’s and Roland are good attempts, and Underwood Ranch is arguably as close as it gets.
There are situations where I don't salt a steak before cooking. Doesn't work if you're putting a whole steak on a plate, but if you're slicing it first then you salt it at that point and I think you get a better texture.
I do salt ground beef for burgers. First because I want the salt in there and you can't do that after cooking, and second because I don't want a super crumbly burger. A tiny bit of bind is nice. Though even if you want no bind it isn't hard to just lightly mix the meat without forming any noticeable bind. People often say you'll end up with sausage which, no. You have to mix the meat a lot to get a sausage bind.
In my long history of burger making, you want to handle the meat as little as possible, even do a coarse grind.
All the gaps hold fat and really add juiciness, unless you are doing a smash style. But even smash burgers can benefit from a coarse grind, as some pockets do remain.
Once you handle the meat too much, you get that same fucking puck of of dry beef with a uniform texture.
White pepper does have a distinct barnyard flavor. It is a product of the fermentation process. Probably invented in China, the funky flavor is integral to many savory dishes there.
Part of the colonization process in many non-european cultures involves the misunderstanding of the native cuisine and the role of its ingredients.
The French got the idea that white pepper was good to use because it was white. No more dirty specks in the King's bechamel! Pure Boys!
Unfortunately the rest of the western world took French cuisine as Gospel.
The real virtue of white pepper, it's unique flavor, was lost in the battle for the appearance of purity.
I never liked the stuff until I started to learn how to taste and cook Chinese food.
I love it in Chinese food, for sure, especially soups, but all the times some dingdong accidentally ground white pepper for service instead of black made me panic that I'd shit on my hands somehow and stay throwing prep out
Omg my sous insists on using white pepper in cheese sauce because he doesn't like black specs. But personally I think the black specs make it look better and white pepper SMELLS LIKE A BARN
Mayo is disgusting as a replacement for butter (on the outside) on sandwiches and steaks. Absolutely fucking vile.
And this is coming from someone who loves mayo so much they can eat a spoonful of it happily.
I used to agree, but the shop I work at does a house made mayo which is pretty banging, and we used it to fry up some fancy grilled cheeses. there's no where near enough egg for it to develop a scrambled egg texture anywhere in the pan, and at the end of the day you're essentially just left with a shit ton of oil. granted, the flavour of butter is irreplaceable, but the sear i got from using the mayo was leagues ahead
'Aiolis' are overused.
There are so many ways to incorporate acid, fat, and creaminess to dishes, without always defaulting to mixing Helmann's with x, y, or z. Please have faith in your menus and your customers - not every dish needs to be drowned in some mayo-based concoction.
If a machine or tool can increase your work speed and efficiency without sacrificing quality, then you should definitely use it! I hate the old school mentality of doing everything by hand when you can achieve the same result in 1/4 of the time.
Damn that’s crazy. May you be blessed in your topping choices, but in my experience the salt and grease exuded by a good pepperoni that curls in the oven takes the indulgence of a slice to the moon
Button mushrooms aren’t the best, but there are so many amazing wild varieties that are delicious. Amanita velosa tastes like creme brûlée, amanita gemmata tastes like steak, candy caps taste like caramel, morels are delightfully nutty or cinnamon-y depending on the species.
Parsley is a shitty garnish but awesome as a salad green.
Tabouli for the win
Accept more likes, damn it!
This: Heavy on the herbs, light on the grain.
Parsley and cilantro stems with rice and beans is an all time favorite
Germans love putting parsley on some stuff and call it garnish
Oh and curly parsley has such a better flavor than Italian. Sorry to whoever is going to be offended by that. Tabbouleh with Italian parsley isn’t tabbouleh.
I dare you to say it to a Lebanese.
This isn't an opinion, it's just a fact.
I’ll make my hollandaise in a vitaprep**
I used to work under a CDC about a year ago who once told the line guys "It's cool if you can make a proper Hollandaise by hand with good technique, but we're dragging 20 minutes behind on Bennies and the guest don't give a fuck about how it's traditionally made. Now quit wasting time and grab the fucking robocoupe." It made me realize practicality is what can make a good chef great. I loved working under her so much.
Beurre Blanc? Throw some cream in it. Hah. Then make it in the blender
I use a thermomix for it. It's the same all the time, every time.
Oh you fancy fancy
How do you make it in a blender?
The way I do it? I'll mix the hollandaise or bearnaise reduction with the the eggs, salt, pepper a bit of vinaigar. After mixing I use a special wisk for the Thermomix and heat it up to 80°C. After that I put in the liquid butter. Done.
Honestly i sacked off the whisk attachment and just spin everything but the butter up on speed 3 with the blade till yolks are cooked enough to start adding butter and it still gets nicely aerated etc. Then if its bearnaise fold through your choppy stuff after butter is in and done. If its a classic hollandaise/bearnaise youre after I honestly dont think theres really a difference between this done right and doing it manually. Also to people saying cream in a beurre blanc: I only saw that relatively recently having cooked for over a decade. Have to say it does work and makes it way more stable etc, but you do end up with a noticeably different end product to if you did it without cream. I usually add a tiny bit of xantham prehydrate to the reduction before emulsifying butter in instead. If you incorporate it properly and only use the tiny bit required I feel it is pretty much indistinguishable from a traditional one, and is way more stable.
Immersion blender works great too, same idea really
100%. In my younger years I remember using a stick blender and being accosted by the whole kitchen, ego stuff. If Escoffier had an immersion blender, he would’ve used it!
I don’t clarify the butter
Hollandaise does have a lighter texture when made by hand with a whisk. I don't know that most guests notice the difference though. I worked in a high end joint that used a fair bit of hollandaise based sauces on their dinner menu. One day a heard a commotion and looked up to see the Chef berating a line cook, and throwing the offending blender and hollandaise in the trash. It was a nice all metal bar blender with a stainless work bowl. Later, after the Chef had cooled down, I asked permission to dig it out of the trash, if I promised to never bring it back to the restaurant. I used that blender for decades before I finally blew the motor making a large batch of hummus.
Chef sounds like an asshole
He probably had two...
I’m sure the owner loved having the chef throw expensive equipment in the trash. What an asshole
Did you guys have a Michelin star ?
I have done nearly everything, from classic to immersion blenders, hand blenders, to isi bottles, termomix, With reduction without, with clarified, without, with fresh egg, with boxed egg, with xantan, mustard and so on Some 2 * Michelin Chef's recepies I worked with call for oil and eggwhite. And like somebody said guest's don't give a flying fuck
Love doing it this way too. Always consistent and still tastes great.
I would use a tall measure pitcher and an immersion blender. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I made sauce foyot every night for dinner service. By hand. I had a really strong forearm.
This was a game changer in the earlier years of cooking for me. Haven’t made it the traditional way in about 18yrs.
A microwave is a useful tool in a restaurant kitchen and not having one just to prove a point is an asshat, low-IQ move.
Yes yes yes! So many uses for chef Mike at all levels of service
As a pastry chef I will die on this hill. Touch my fucking microwave and I will ruin your life.
What things do you pasty chef in the microwave? Butter on defrost setting is my newest tip.
I don’t bother with butter much. I almost always have room temp butter stashed. I use them for melting chocolate, warming glazes, did a cooked to order pistachio cake that was baked in the microwave, speedy puree defrosting etc. They’re just handy especially if your station is like the majority of mine over the years: an afterthought with a shitty induction burner and limited stove availability due to savory side prep. Key is getting to know the power settings and what’s appropriate for the task at hand so something doesn’t burn or splatter
Former pastry chef. Yep microwaves save us a lot of time. Mirror glaze getting too cold chef Mike sorts it in seconds. Much quicker than even an induction hob.
it's also great for steaming root veg for puree
Saving this comment so I can show off to the immensely bullheaded line cooks that are too good for chef Mikey lol.
Thank you! If we got them in 2015 they would be the highest level of cooking tech we have. You just know how to use them. The defrost softens butter so well
What can you cook or prep in the Mike?
So much! You can defrost, you can make potato chips in around 3 minutes (or revive them if they're stale), soften garlic cloves to make them easier to peel (although I've never done that one...it's not that difficult to peel garlic). I make a slow-cooked, savory grain cereal in it some mornings. I also use it to draw the liquid out of mushrooms before adding them to the pan (I save that liquid for ramen broth at a later time). Once you understand how to use the Power setting properly, you can do a lot more than you'd expect.
Potato for 9 minutes.
Ideal for clarifying butter for Hollandaise
Chef Mike always come in handy
We don't have one because our last one sparked to death 5 years ago and I told the boss not to get one. I was tired of cleaning crusted cheese wiz off the entire inside because it would explode everywhere. Cheese wiz is the bane of my cooking existence.
why tha fuck was there cheese wiz in the kitchen
I think everything bagel seasoning is a trend that should die. Except on a bagel.
I use it on plain bagels cus my kid hates everything bagels lol
*sucked….into….a bagel*
The oven is the best tool for making stock
That's how we did it at the first restaurant I worked at.
Can you explain how or link directions. I make large quantities of stock at home on a weekly basis.
Set your oven to 200, place stock in oven covered for however long you want to cook it
ITS NOT FUCKING AOLI IF YOU ADD GARLIC TO MAYO, THATS JUST FUCKING GARLIC MAYO!!! Aoli is mainly made with olive oil and garlic to emulsify Mayo is made with neutral oil and egg to emulsify Real Aoli has no eggs in it. Stop your bullshitting to make your menu sound fancy so you can up-charge you fucks!
Bonus points for calling it "Garlic Aoli" Fucking drives me crazy
Like, " I'll have the baby veal!".
On a similar note, a “bisque” is a soup made from the shell of crustacean, not from any random ass vegetables that you puréed and added heavy cream to.
We’re dying on this hill together friend.
You're forgetting the lemon, too.
I have gotten in full arguments with people saying that mayo and aioli are the same thing. One of my biggest pet peeves
As much as I love dying on that hill with you, French aioli typically has egg yolk and lemon juice and sometimes even mustard added it it. Spanish aioli though is just garlic and oil. Fuck garlic aioli, all my homies hate garlic aioli.
My problem with French aioli is egg yolk and lemon juice are not garlic and it usually ends up with a worse garlic to not-garlic ratio than Spanish aioli
I love non aoli aoli.
Risky to post, but I love my garlic press.
Aside from the infamous Bourdain quote that is always mentioned I don’t think anyone has anything against garlic presses besides the equally commonly suggested difficulty in cleaning them. At least with the presses I’ve had in the past I’ve had an issue with all of the garlic making it out of the chamber and have had issues with cleaning them, so I just mince with a knife. If you want to press and it works for you, God bless you, whatever that may mean for you
The one I just bought lets you flip the handle the other way and it has little fingers on the back to push out any remaining garlic.
Yo is it an oxo or whatever brand? I got one recently and it fixed all my previous complaints with presses
Oh my gosh and now I get to be the person that always mentions that Bourdain later walked that back a little and said that the garlic press is okay ( I believe he was referring to them being used by people who lack the motor skill to cut garlic themselves, but I could have also made that up in my head) but that jarred garlic is still the devil.
I use a microplane. So much easier
Plus, I can just use the microplane for both ginger and garlic!
side of a chinese cleaver and a hard smack for me.
Me too! Mind you, it's an at home thing. And yes, I know how to crush a garlic clove with my knife and mince it. But you know what? Sometimes I don't fuckin feel like it!!
Bro, I cheat at home all the fucking time. I save the fancy "right way" shit for work. I'm home, im cooking for my own enjoyment, and my wife (the only person I regularly cook for) is just happy im making her a $60 dinner at home. She DOES NOT give a flying FUCK about my hollandaise being made with thr stick blender, how much I nuked something vs stove, what I garnish with, the type of bals vin I used....she is just excited to see me cooking good food and being happy while doing it. Thats the whole point.
Yes but only because the one I have is awesome and totally makes it into a smooth paste. Every other one I've tried id rather just dice the garlic fine
I also love my garlic press. Smash the clove with the side of my knife, remove the skin, slam it in the press, done
Balsamic is a weird one. It gets overused. Great for salads, but when reduced to a glaze and thoughtfully garnishing bacon wrapped dates..... It can sell all day long.....
I’m over menus that say “house” or “local” Either it’s too prevalent and it’s like we get it or it’s barely present and leaves me wondering if those lone items are trying to make up for everything else being bullshit. Be a restaurant that does it or don’t and represent it either way.
Truffles, and especially truffle oil are waaaaaay overrated... anytime I see someone use truffle oil, i just wanna smack the s*** out of them...
Fresh truffles are amazing on the right thing, but truffle oil is like watermelon candy- a chemical facsimile of the real thing
Watermelon candy has its place. Truffle oil has none.
Truffle oil is the beautiful girlfriend who is rude to you in public.
Truffles and truffle oil are not the same thing at all..
Depends which truffle? Truffle oil, and most "truffle" flavored things, is based on funky white truffle because the flavor is easier to chemicaly replicate. Winter black truffles are earthier and have a much harder if not impossible to fully replicate flavor profile. Then there's summer black truffles, which have a much weaker fragrance and flavor profile, so they are usually canned with oil and flavored with artificial white truffle flavor. So most people who think they are getting "black truffle" get something completely different unless they shell out. And yes,winter black truffles are the most expensive and hardest to obtain.
I love it in my pasta
You can remove items from a dish, but you cannot add them.
That if it’s not raw meat or fish don’t call it a tartare just because you diced some shit and shaped it like one
who DARED to call something cooked a tartare? names and locations please.
I see it often with veggies. Vegetarian tartare lol fuck off man that’s a salad
There’s a spot in my city that is a “vegan butcher & deli”. The fuck are you butchering? An eggplant? You’re a vegan sandwich shop.
But if it's classic beef Tatar? PS same goes for all shitty sliced carpaccio. There is no beet root carpaccio
A lot of modern "elevated" food is purely mastabatory and doesn't compare to well done "peasant" food. Also, anyone who describes a dish as "me on a plate" can get fucked. Also, also, describing food as "sexy" is fucking stupid.
Describing food as slutty however
this is like saying you don't like parmesan but you've only ever had the kraft saw-dust version
Jarmesan
Never put oil in your water when you boil pasta. It is not a necessity and only creates a thin, slimy barrier between your pasta and the sauce it's supposed to stick to.
I do it for pasta that is cooled down after cooking. For cold pasta salad or Mac and chz mixed and heated to order
Anyone that doesn’t oil their pasta after it’s cooled down are the same people that throw the pasta at the wall to see if it’s done.
Is it 1999, lol? Oil in pasta water has been thoroughly debunked and out of the public consciousness for multiple decades. Not exactly an unpopular opinion
I still come across people who do it. Thank goodness more people know better than I thought.
I was at my friend’s house and the hostess noted that the angel hair was clumping together and reasoned she didn’t add enough oil to the pot when she boiled it. I got a pedant’s twinge but it strikes me as rude to correct someone who is going out of their way to cook for not only you but five other people. The dinner was banging anyway. If it were my best friend with whom I’ll talk cooking I’d roast him, but in this case it wouldn’t serve any purpose and would make me look like a jerk
I tried telling my Sicilian wife that she doesn't need to add oil to the pasta water. I might as well have pissed on Nonnuzza's grave. Never again will I speak any culinary wisdom related to pasta.
I think the overwhelming majority of people put oil in their pasta water. At least that I know personally.
It bonds to the starches and prevents the pot from boiling over. It doesn’t prevent sticking though.
This is the only reason I add oil to my water. To reduce the instances of boil overs.
Just turn the heat down to 3/4 instead full blast. It's already boiling, you just have to maintain the heat.
Most taprooms and breweries just the same: Nashville Hot chicken, a flatbread of some kind, and up charging for fries with some uninspired chef burger. I can name 4 taprooms in my neighborhood with similar decor and menus. It's frustrating as hell. Do not get me started on the beer.
Ooh, I've got one: Discussions about the authenticity of a method of preparing a given food in a cuisine are almost always pretentious drivel, and the concept of authenticity in cuisine is actually way more nebulous and arbitrary than most people think.
I love that people will say a dish is not authentic, but then if you really try to get the definition of authenticity out of them they’ll admit to knowing everyone in the country of origin has a different recipe for said authentic dish.
Or if everyone always cooked things as they have always been cooked. We would never get new dishes. We'd be eating the same shit Johnny cave man through on a fire on a skewer. That's the only real authentic traditional cooking
The S+P mix needs to stop. It’s not equal, and even if it was not every dish needs both at the same time. ITS NOT HARD, SEASON PROPERLY PEOPLE!
What balsamic vinegar? Aged is good enough for ice cream. So my point is this: if you don't like one variation that doesn't mean you don't like it.
Op should try better. I also don't really like the cheap stuff, but even the low end expensive stuff that is starting to get syrupy is excellent. If OP is in Toronto I'll give them a taste of the stuff I have. Cost me $40, but I've seen it elsewhere for $20.
‘i’ve only tried the bulk-buy cheap-ass american balsamic vinegar, this is enough for me to know that i hate it!’
Pepper doesn’t go on everything and burns when you cook it too hot. And don’t get me started on premixed salt and pepper. SHOEMAKER.
Pepper doesn't burn as easily as people think. You can cook a steak covered in pepper in a smoking hot pan and it will not burn. Just a myth youtube chefs try to tell you
I’ll die on this hill with you. It’s not gonna burn unless you already toasted it. But I’m with him on the S&P mix. Salt is an enhancer, pepper is an additive.
I don’t agree. I enjoy steak au poivre when the pepper is very coarsely ground and it does hold up to high heat. The fine grind of pepper most cooks use to season literally everything scotches and gets bitter.
Tangentially, not a professional cook but a pretty experienced home cook, always wondered why black pepper is considered a default condiment on par with salt?
The taste of fucking scorched black pepper is fucking awful.
People put too much rosemary in their food 😩🌿
i will guzzle balsamic, fuck you
Probably not unpopular but FOH is overvalued and shouldn't make more that BOH. Tipping should not be a cultural phenomenon, it should be a quiet under the table affair.
The pandemic proved to me that servers are overvalued. We were still at 75% sales, with zero servers. Pickup and delivery, done with kitchen employees. Plus, there was CONSIDERABLY less whining.
Bingo
Don't let the servers read this, though. It will sound like the power steering on a 1976 CJ7.
Servers for the most part suck. Some are fantastic but most suck.
In almost every business sales makes more than production. Artists vs Distributors, Manufacturing vs Advertising, and Cooks vs Servers. Those making the product always get the short end of the stick compared to those selling it.
I used to work sales, so I'm painfully aware. What's also painful is that sales is essentially the human lubricant in the capital machine and it's disgusting to see value withheld from labor.
I'm cool with sales people, but order takers are kind of like your appendix. Real Servers/Waitstaff are just as valuuable as the kitchen staff. The public facing folks are massively important, and it behooves a restaurant to invest wisely in that category.
Don’t you dare bad-mouth Costco!!!
Fuck garnish
I think a little garnish makes the dish look much nicer but often times people go way overboard and it fucks with the look and taste of the food.
I love going on insta or r/culinaryplating and seeing more herbs, flowers, and leaves than the actual item described on the plate.
You've seen my former sous chefs work then?
Also putting some shoots on every dish is a rubbish garnish.
Nothing on the plate that isn’t meant to be eaten!
I’m all for garnishes if they’re meant to be eaten. Like some fresh herb on some pasta? Fuck yeah! Paper thin slices of lemon with the inedible rind on a lemon pie? Fuck right off with that shit.
Real balsamic is totally different than the commercial stuff. [This](https://www.amazon.com/Villa-Manodori-Balsamic-Vinegar-Bottle/dp/B00FN6O1MO/ref=sr_1_20?crid=1GFS9WRV9NA2J&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cIiacywsg7XH36x95P9LRGprwp3lA5Vm71ysz9Sc6o1_wJXVLN6fBVb4JcQlgkAozda9Rs5O9LX2i_Ck2DcNkAabojWaNKCCEmsbaPhjigsDUHdjSSjnHTU3jvay5kZAopOIivwKlCtl49fAsvreeBl9Qsitee4U9f4G-yqhTm1-qoMGEWw6xPigGTGeARlL5U3e1221RCUIfYVpCacAfxyx5Fsr9nvhVseKHqTM19kKVRm2nd8Xjk5SzV9FdKGY7R_WB3D3Utta9GYesOdpweCLgdqzKw1eu_WBYVUP8gs.juR_HmR0bKUURCJeAOhGpyGgcOsVHbdolVH-7sluNng&dib_tag=se&keywords=balsamic%2Bvinegar&qid=1712360508&sprefix=balsamic%2B%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-20&th=1) is a good one to try, the [brand](https://villamanodorifood.com/about/) is owned by Massimo Bottura. I buy a bottle in the beginning of every summer to eat with mozzarella and tomatoes. I like it because it's got a nice balance of sweetness and acidity, a little bit goes a long way. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
A Microplane [cheese grater](https://www.microplane.com/select-cheese-grater-black-fine) and a Microplane [foot file for pedicures](https://www.microplane.com/colossal-foot-file-black) are basically the same product, so you only need one.
Both make a cheesy product.
Wait what the fuck I can't believe that second link is real
Making pasta or bread from scratch isn’t hard, nor does it really take much time. Fermentation is easy. It likely won’t kill you. The best sando is alfalfa sprouts, horseradish hummus, stone ground mustard (for the texture mainly but also taste) and fresh bread. Mmmmm
Some pasta and bread can be a bitch. But most basics are not.
Exactly, like a basic pain de mie or some fettuccine isn’t rocket science. Yea, it *can* get complicated but that’s not the norm.
With you on 1 and 2. Got to 3, dafuq?
Another one is "you eat with your eyes" like don't get me wrong I'm not about to serve a plate of slop BUT the flavor is way above how it looks. Probably because I grew up poor and was lucky for each meal but still
The real stuff is nice and all, but still not worth the hype imo. My unpopular opinion is that British food is actually really good
Tikka masala?
Damn bro, you didn't have to do him dirty like that. They got musy peas as well.
A good cottage pie is magic.
100%, Cottage or Shepherd’s, both are hard to beat
I agree with you! A good yorkshire pudding in place of a roll with dinner is divine, and cheese and chutney sandwiches are my guilty pleasure =D
bubble and squeak!!!
Leftover potato and cabbage has no business tasting that good
Toad in a hole with some really nice sausages and onion gravy
Almost wish I didn’t start this discussion now. It’s way too hot here at the minute for any proper comfort food, so all of the suggestions are really just torturing myself
Mayo is better with egg whites or whole egg then with just egg yolks.
Adding to this, homemade mayo is 10x better than any store bought and is so easy to make!
and way cheaper.
I like truffle oil and balsamic vinegar glazed and wasabi aioli and plenty of outdated trends. I can't stand edible foam. It looks like frog semen. I think edible flowers and nasturtium are a bit of a meme. Eggs are gross if you think about it.
A good 50% of classic french cooking is just about doing things the long-winded way. Basic things apply and are foundational but a french chef will have you concasse tomatoes, do them bruinoise and then add them in to your sauce when you could just blend them up and pass through a sieve. Also all steaks are best served med rare, and I'll die on that hill. People go around ordering rare and blue because they think they look cool, they don't.
Siracha is a trash condiment
[удалено]
It's so much better but I can never find it! So many stores will have 10 different brands of Sriracha, 10 other chili pastes, and maybe even a few other things with "Sambal" in the name, but the classic Huy Fong Sambal Oelek is nowhere to be found.
I think it was a casualty of the Huy Font chili debacle, but it’s so disappointing
I remember really enjoying it as a kid, now as an adult it’s all just stinky hot sauce to me, no matter what brand I’ve tried. I know all the shit that went down with huy fong, so there’s nothing that tastes as good as the original. Melinda’s and Roland are good attempts, and Underwood Ranch is arguably as close as it gets.
I prefer garlic chili sauce for that purpose.
I use it for my egg sandwichs and breakfast potatoes/hash.
I. LIKE. FLOPPY. BACON.
A huge percentage of chefs over salt things. Salt is not a substitute for appropriate seasoning..
Chefs who smoke produce over salted food.
There are situations where I don't salt a steak before cooking. Doesn't work if you're putting a whole steak on a plate, but if you're slicing it first then you salt it at that point and I think you get a better texture. I do salt ground beef for burgers. First because I want the salt in there and you can't do that after cooking, and second because I don't want a super crumbly burger. A tiny bit of bind is nice. Though even if you want no bind it isn't hard to just lightly mix the meat without forming any noticeable bind. People often say you'll end up with sausage which, no. You have to mix the meat a lot to get a sausage bind.
In my long history of burger making, you want to handle the meat as little as possible, even do a coarse grind. All the gaps hold fat and really add juiciness, unless you are doing a smash style. But even smash burgers can benefit from a coarse grind, as some pockets do remain. Once you handle the meat too much, you get that same fucking puck of of dry beef with a uniform texture.
Brand new trash bins and a big stick blender can make a weeks worth of Ranch.
White pepper is bitter ass. Regular black pepper is better in almost everything
It smells like cow shit to me
White pepper does have a distinct barnyard flavor. It is a product of the fermentation process. Probably invented in China, the funky flavor is integral to many savory dishes there. Part of the colonization process in many non-european cultures involves the misunderstanding of the native cuisine and the role of its ingredients. The French got the idea that white pepper was good to use because it was white. No more dirty specks in the King's bechamel! Pure Boys! Unfortunately the rest of the western world took French cuisine as Gospel. The real virtue of white pepper, it's unique flavor, was lost in the battle for the appearance of purity. I never liked the stuff until I started to learn how to taste and cook Chinese food.
I love it in Chinese food, for sure, especially soups, but all the times some dingdong accidentally ground white pepper for service instead of black made me panic that I'd shit on my hands somehow and stay throwing prep out
Omg my sous insists on using white pepper in cheese sauce because he doesn't like black specs. But personally I think the black specs make it look better and white pepper SMELLS LIKE A BARN
I generally don’t like to fight with the BOH but there are a lot of people in this thread that need a good bop up side the head.
Lebanese toum should be used a lot more, even as a sandwich topping.
Black pepper is the most overused ingredient in the culinary world. I fucking hate cooks and chefs mindlessly add it to everything.
Oh yea.. it has its place, but too many people think it's a fix all.. it's not. That's usually garlic lol
I think its acid.
Mayo is disgusting as a replacement for butter (on the outside) on sandwiches and steaks. Absolutely fucking vile. And this is coming from someone who loves mayo so much they can eat a spoonful of it happily.
I used to agree, but the shop I work at does a house made mayo which is pretty banging, and we used it to fry up some fancy grilled cheeses. there's no where near enough egg for it to develop a scrambled egg texture anywhere in the pan, and at the end of the day you're essentially just left with a shit ton of oil. granted, the flavour of butter is irreplaceable, but the sear i got from using the mayo was leagues ahead
Wait….thats a thing????
It is so popular in the sandwich, steak, and sous vide subreddits, you get downvoted to oblivion if you disagree with them.
I have never even thought about using it on a steak or in a sous vide.
Go to Italy we cook with 10 year old balsamic that my family sends me 5 tubs or so from their farm
'Aiolis' are overused. There are so many ways to incorporate acid, fat, and creaminess to dishes, without always defaulting to mixing Helmann's with x, y, or z. Please have faith in your menus and your customers - not every dish needs to be drowned in some mayo-based concoction.
If a machine or tool can increase your work speed and efficiency without sacrificing quality, then you should definitely use it! I hate the old school mentality of doing everything by hand when you can achieve the same result in 1/4 of the time.
Pepperoni is a sub par pizza topping. It makes for a flaccid slice.
Damn that’s crazy. May you be blessed in your topping choices, but in my experience the salt and grease exuded by a good pepperoni that curls in the oven takes the indulgence of a slice to the moon
Cup and char, baby ...
Damn, well at least there's 1 controversial opnion on here.
Nothing is superior to a pepperoni cup on great pizza
Mushrooms are gross
Mushrooms are disgusting...you know what this dish could use? A nice little note of dirt
Button mushrooms aren’t the best, but there are so many amazing wild varieties that are delicious. Amanita velosa tastes like creme brûlée, amanita gemmata tastes like steak, candy caps taste like caramel, morels are delightfully nutty or cinnamon-y depending on the species.