The Culinary Studio

Nobody taught us this. We learned it after years of serving plates of mussels that looked identical but tasted completely different depending on where they landed in the pan.

The ones closest to the heat. The ones that took the longest to open. The ones buried under the others. All cooking at different rates, all ending up at different textures, none of it visible from the outside.

Mussels punish inattention and reward presence. You have to watch them. You have to be there for the whole thing.
Tag someone you would make these for.

The thing about cooking professionally is that you think you are immune to the mistakes you teach other people not to make.

You are not.

Professional kitchen standards and home fridge reality are two very different things. This was the latter.

The number of times I have stood at a fridge door running calculations that have no business being run, that is between me and my conscience. What I will tell you is that Bacillus cereus has ended the careers of people who knew exactly what it was.

Save this one. Not for you. For the version of you at 11pm on a Thursday who is very tired and very hungry and about to make a bad decision.

If you’ve never cooked with fish sauce, this is why you should.

It doesn’t make your chicken taste fishy. It makes it taste more like chicken than chicken does. Two tablespoons into this Thai curry marinade and it amplifies everything around it while completely disappearing into the background.

Brown sugar, curry paste, lime, lemongrass, garlic and fish sauce. One bowl, one hour, your grill or your oven. This is the marinade your chicken has been waiting for.

Save this and follow for more chef secrets.

This sauce takes five minutes and one pan.

Just don’t add your cream too soon.
Brown sugar already has molasses in it. Add more and you’ve built a depth of flavour that white sugar can never touch. Pull the pan off the heat completely before your cream goes in and it folds in smooth every single time.

Sticky toffee pudding, vanilla ice cream, or a spoon at midnight. All valid.

Save this and follow for more chef secrets.

Pad Thai without tamarind is sweet and salty. Pad Thai with tamarind is the real thing. Most home cooks skip it because they do not know what it is. Now you do. It is the backbone of the sauce and the reason restaurant Pad Thai tastes different from yours.

Save this before you make it.

This chicken didn’t happen by accident.

Salt at one teaspoon per pound draws moisture in and takes flavour with it. The spices build the crust. Ginger garlic paste opens the surface so the heat can pe*****te. Yogurt tenderizes and helps everything brown. Every single ingredient is doing a specific job. Most home cooks skip at least one and wonder why the result is flat.
Dump them together. Mix well. Coat every surface. That is the whole secret.

Part 1 of 3. Follow so you don’t miss the rest.

Send this to someone whose chicken never looks like this.

I asked my business partner and fellow Red Seal chef what she is making this long weekend.

Everything ahead of time. Salads prepped, meats marinating, chimichurri ready to go. When the sunshine hits she is not standing over a stove. She is already at the table.

What are you making this long weekend?

Tell us in the comments.

Knife Skills -Red Seal Chef - Part 5 of 5: Cilantro

Cilantro stems are usable. Leaves and thin stems together, use the root in a curry sauce or bride. And if you hate cilantro, science is on your side - there’s an actual gene that makes it taste like soap to about 15 percent of people.

That’s all 5. Follow so you don’t miss what’s next.

Knife Skills - Red Seal Chef - Part 4 of 5: Italian Parsley

Flat leaf parsley has real flavour. Curly parsley is garnish. Strip the leaves, tight pile, rock the knife one direction. Chop close to serving. It oxidizes fast once cut. Follow for Part 5 of 5.