TeamCooking is a skill just like any other, and you can learn to be better at it. Maybe you have poor cooking skills or none whatsoever, or maybe you’re a great cook! In any case, you can always learn how to improve your cooking skills. I’m trying to do the same, so we can learn together!
What I’ve noticed is that I cook much better when I cook with love. I know that “the secret ingredient is love” sounds like a total cliché, but there’s something to it. You really need to enjoy cooking a meal to make it delicious. If you instead just try to prepare something real quick and you’re stressed out, your meal is not going to taste the same. We can’t always be in the mood for cooking, but there’s still something we can do.
Surely there are some meals that you enjoy cooking more than the others. When you’re not feeling like cooking, prepare the meal that you prepared a thousand times before. Cook something easy and simple when you’re in a bad mood like one of the 5 lunches you can throw together in 5 minutes using 5 ingredients. Or, simply order a pizza and call it a day. When you do feel great and have time though, try out a new recipe or experiment and come up with something new on your own.
Listen to music while cooking and don’t be afraid to use your hands, taste the food while you’re making it, and get messy. Be sure to tidy up afterward though, and keep in mind that a clean workplace is necessary for success. It can’t be just clean though.
I realized that I enjoy cooking much more since I redecorated my kitchen. Make sure that this is the space where you feel comfortable and relaxed. Adjust it so that everything you might need is easy to reach.
One more thing that helps me enjoy cooking more is making sure that all the ingredients are prepared, measured, or chopped up and ready for me to use before I start to cook.
Buying the ingredients on a farmer’s market right before cooking can also make cooking a more fun experience. I believe all these things can make cooking more enjoyable and therefore better, but let’s learn more about how to improve your cooking skills.
1. Make sure to choose the freshest ingredients and spices
Whether your dish will turn out to be successful mostly depends on the ingredients that you use. This is why buying your ingredients on the day you’ll use them is the best idea. Maybe you don’t have the time to visit the local market every time you need to cook, so refrigerating is fine too, but try to use the ingredients no later than the day after you bought them. When you want to put something in the freezer, use freezer bags because they’ll help preserve the freshness. There are 6 key tips for becoming a master of spices too, but let’s first learn more about how to improve your cooking skills.
2. Invest in the tools and equipment that you need
To learn how to improve your cooking skills you should learn about the kitchen equipment and cooking tools that will make things easier for you and invest in them. Every one of them serves a particular purpose, so having just one kind of knife isn’t enough. The most important ones are the paring knife, filet knife, and chef knife, but if you can buy the whole set you’ll surely use it. There are also different kinds of cooking pots and cooking pans, but a lot more small useful tools that can make things simpler as well. Buying these things online gives you the possibility of reading the reviews, which could help you pick out the best tools you need.
3. Master simple things before trying out something difficult
This is something we can all relate to. We make a few nice meals, and we start thinking that we are master chefs and take on something that we can’t possibly handle. Keep in mind that we need to learn to walk before we start to run. Take it one step at a time and master simple dishes before trying to make something that you got served at a restaurant. Once you’re confident in your skills, you can try out something harder, but the best thing to do is to watch a video of someone else cooking it. If you already ruined a few meals because of difficult recipes, bring your phone, tablet, or even laptop into the kitchen and cook alongside a professional cook.
4. Don’t be afraid to experiment
Although you should avoid preparing difficult meals until you’re ready, there’s nothing wrong with trying to come up with your own recipes. I love following recipes, but it can be boring sometimes, and the real fun is in preparing your own dishes. Don’t do things by the book and rely on your own skills and senses. Start by improvising while doing things by the book and rely on yourself for some ingredients and spices. Modify an existing recipe or come up with entirely new ones simply by tasting the meals while you prepare them and adding spices or ingredients throughout cooking. Maybe there’ll be a few failures, but when you taste something delicious that basically came out of your head, you’re going to love cooking and instantly get better at it.
5. Plan a menu
To cook a good dish you can’t just throw stuff together in the last second and call it a meal. Sure, if you’re an amazing cook maybe you can, but professional cooks plan a menu ahead of time. Planning gives you time to find the perfect recipe, know which ingredients you’ll need, make time to enjoy cooking, make sure that everything is in check, and prepare a dish you’ve been looking forward to cooking. Don’t ever find out that you’re missing an ingredient again, and let me give you one last tip on how to improve your cooking skills.
6. Practice makes perfect
If you’ve read everything so far, you are truly determined to learn how to improve your cooking skills and become a better cook, so you’ve made the first step, and that’s great. Don’t stop though; stay motivated and know that practice makes perfect. Cooking is one of those things that you get better at with time. The more you cook, the better cook you’ll become, as long as you keep trying to do better.
Enjoy!
