6 keys to growth in the kitchen

I went from never cooking anything beyond noodles and butter, to cooking three varied meals per week with some including multiple recipes. In the last 3 years, I have experienced exponential growth in the kitchen, and below are some of the key ways I have advanced to where I am today. These are not listed in order of importance — they all matter!

1. Rarely cooking the same meal twice

Obviously, this one has gone out the window now that I am developing recipes. And there is a lot of value in cooking a meal more than once — each time you will learn from your mistakes, and improve the result next time.

For me personally though, I credit my growth to the variety in my cooking. Having a rotation of 8 to 10 recipes I stick to does not interest me in the slightest. That would keep me stuck in my comfort zone — a surefire way to plateau. I enjoy the novelty that comes with each new recipe, and in my short life, I would like to experience as many flavor combinations as possible. A meal has to set a very high bar for me to want to make it again.

At first, I had doubts about being a recipe developer. But I quickly realized that after 3 years of cooking a different meal every time, 3 days per week, I have built an extensive toolbox of knowledge which is more than enough to enable me to create my own delicious food. I understand how to build layers of flavor in a dish. I understand how to infuse sauces with various spices. I understand the difference between a bland salad someone might call “rabbit food”, and a salad that packs loads of flavor and nourishment with each bite. I understand the best cooking methods for different vegetables. I learn something new every time I cook, and experience greater and greater heights of palette pleasure as a result. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

2. Tasting as you go

There is certainly a reason cooks emphasize this one! Achieving growth is going to be very difficult if you do not understand how each new flavor interacts with the dish as a whole, or where you went wrong if you do not achieve the result you are looking for.

When you follow blogs you trust and have a decent understanding of cooking, it’s easy to add in the 10+ spices and ingredients as the recipe instructs without thinking twice. But that cook likely went through multiple trials to get that recipe right, and if you taste the recipe as you go, you will understand why their methods are successful. For me, this helps me understand how to achieve success in my own creations.

3. Taking on increasingly challenging endeavors

Notice I did not say “increasingly challenging recipes”, though that is important. One of the hardest skills to master as a line cook at Noodles and Company was effective multitasking. What dish can afford to cook for another 15 seconds while I tend to another one? Which of the 6 dishes I am managing is at the most critical moment?

In my home kitchen, this translates to cooking multiple recipes at one time, and understanding how to manage time in a way that will ensure all dishes are completed at the same time. Cooking multiple recipes at once activates my quick decision making skills, and enables me to become a more effective, well rounded cook.

4. Paying attention to how heat and timing affect results

Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Noodles was when to add food to a pan. I would turn on a burner, wait for the pan to preheat (30 seconds is a decent rule of thumb, depending on the heat level), and then spray oil on the pan. Then, food would only get added to the pan once the oil moved around in the pan in the same way water would. The oil should not appear thick and slow moving — it should appear to have “thinned out” to the consistency of water and move about the pan accordingly.

When food is added to a pan, there should be an immediate sizzle noise. If this does not happen, the pan is not hot enough. If the sizzle sound is very intense, the pan is too hot. It just takes practice to know what the correct threshold is, but this understanding is highly important in every single meal I make.

There is a lot to say on this topic, but I will just summarize by saying heat and timing operate together in a critical way during the cooking process. This understanding will enable you to troubleshoot issues in a recipe you are following (for example, I followed a recipe where I added probably twice as many potatoes as what was called for. I understood that due to the extra volume of food, I would have to blast the heat up to high instead of medium to achieve the result the recipe was going for).

5. Paying attention to how food makes you feel

As a society, we have become quite disconnected from the food that we eat. Diet plays a critical role in our health, yet some of us are not mindful of the specific effects each food has on our bodies. As I have eaten cleaner and cleaner over the years, I have become acutely aware of my body’s response to each meal.

Food goes beyond just making a person feel “good” or “bad.” Among the healthy meals I make, I notice nuanced differences in the way I feel as a result. If a recipe does not make me feel good, is not one I will make again, and I will certainly not share it with others on a food blog.

I think a lot of us pay attention to the palette pleasure we experience from a meal, but the awareness ends there. As food is the most intimate way we interact with the outside world, it is important to understand a meal’s impact from start to finish. This can help someone grow as a cook, as they develop a greater understanding of their body’s unique response to each meal.

6. Learning from more experienced cooks

This one is quite obvious, so I won’t say much on it. Most, if not all people, learn and grow through more experienced guides and role models. Cooking other bloggers’ food is the only way I have become able to create my own recipes.

On that note, to create easy recipes that are delicious and successful, I need to be cooking other people’s recipes at a minimum of an intermediate skill level. I need to be at a level of mastery in the execution of easy recipes if I expect those cooking my food to achieve a great result.

Soon I will write more about my top three favorite food bloggers introduced here between my photos, but for now, you have an idea of how I have grown to the cook I am today! If you are looking for an easy and delicious recipe, I would recommend checking out my vegan patty melt, peanut tofu stir fry, roasted red pepper chickpea pasta, or cocoa oat burger with raspberry vinaigrette.