Tips For The Home Cook

Although I no longer am a food service professional, I do have a few years of professional culinary training and experience under my belt and, for this entry, I thought I'd share some of my knowledge.

1. Do not make beverages for other people. For whatever reason, they do not want them, will not take them, and you'll eventually just spill them wherever you're storing the unused liquid.

2. Most things you can cut up and put in a large plastic container. Don't try that with cake though. Goes stale and tough when you cut it faster than all hell. Get a special cake carrier. They sell the damned things at Wal-Mart, so it's not exactly going to break the bank.

3. Don't try and bake much without having a good bread knife. Chef's need a chef's knife more than anything else, butchers a cleaver, and bakers a bread knife. Longer the better.

4. When they say to let something cool or rest, that's not an optional step. All kinds of stuff can go wrong if you ignore it. Everything from dried out meat to broken cake to the dish simply falling apart.

5. Eat a bit of whatever you bring to a gathering. If you're eating it, they'll be more likely to trust it won't give them food poisoning.

6. If something does blow up in your face, have a backup recipe that's easy to prepare as a substitution. Brownies are that for me. If I bring you brownies, chances are you were going to get something more complex until it went kablooie.

7. If you make muffins from scratch, never use electric devices to bring the batter together. Combine wet ingredients separately from dry, then the wet goes on top of the dry, and they are brought together by gentle folding with a spatula until just combined. No worrying about lumps or funny little bubbles, they'll cook out. Overmix, and you'll have tunneling.

8. Get a spice grinder and grind your own spices. You'll be amazed how incredibly different your food tastes.

9. Use butter, not margarine. Butter is better for you and is also real food. Oh, and it TASTES better. That's important.

10. If you're going to bake cakes, buy cake flour. Yes, it really does matter.

-Frank