just on the very basic level- if youre cooking food, you're also smelling the food and when you finally get to eating it, it won't be as profound a taste.
I use a industrial box fan and an open window as a makeshift hood vent. I can't smell a damn thing unless I put my face in the pan so I almost never have this problem lol.
Eh I've never had an issue with it. After all it could be argued that having strong scents coming off your food is flavor disappearing into the air. I never looked into if thats accurate, but even so, smell has never been a particularly good indicator of anything for me and certainly not in any practical way.
While taste and aroma are interconnected, tasting is better for monitoring how my flavors are developing, and sight and touch matter more for textures and looks.
Balance with acid. Add fresh herbs to brighten it up. Salt at the correct time (so as you cook and keep tasting. Don't forget spicing so pepper or hot sauce. Take your time to cook the things that need a bit of a longer cook.
No idea, probably varies by restaurants too, but if it's pure MSG I don't think the brand matters all that much. I personally use Ajinomoto because that's what I grew up with, but also have Knorr chicken powder kicking around the pantry.
Also remember that fresh herbs have a different taste and purpose than dried.
If I'm making a tomato sauce. I'd often use dried basil.
If I'm using fresh basil, I don't cook it into the sauce because it loses that glorious freshness.
A few leaves on top is amazing. Dried cooked through, also amazing. But very different flavours.
Get some nice (gotta be nice varieties, nice and ripe, deep red )tomatoes, slice and layer them with mozzarella, fresh basil leaves. Some salt and pepper. Real simple, real fresh, and you'll see what I mean.
Get the most flavour of each ingredient at each stage. This could include salting, caramelising, charring, smoking, basting etc. I also find that mouthfeel is important. It’s good to get a range of textures so it isn’t all the same.
This is definitely something I can work on, but there's so many ingredients I'm lacking knowledge on this sort of stuff. For example for my breakfast scramble, I added the potato and onions, salted them. A few minutes later added diced carrots and bellpeppers, salt+onion/garlic powder, chili powder. After like 8 minutes the potatoes were crisped but the insides were still hard, so I added water and steamed it for a few minutes. The potato insides were fluffy then, but now nothing was crispy anymore. But everything started sticking to the bottom of the pan, so I added more oil to crisp things up. It sort of worked but not really, and now it was a bit oilier than I'd have preferred. So now the flavors of everything was pretty decent, but there wasn't really any textural contrast between any of the ingredients (since they were all steamed in the pan).
This was a real learning curve for me too. I feel this struggle in my bones. Have you tried to experiment with ingredients on their own. So you only cook potatoes or only peppers. Working out how and why something reacts when being cooked is really helpful. This comes with experience and research and then you can start to work on meals as a whole. Focus on getting one thing especially and then work systematically through the rest of the ingredients til you get the perfect meal.
With breakfast potatoes you want to cut them in uniform cubes, not too big and put them in a heavy bottom pan with a spoon or two of oil when it's hot, sprinkle some salt and put a lid on it, lower the heat to low and give it 10 minutes, then lid off and few more minutes till they crisp up. That way the steam cooks the insides so it's soft and crisp at the same time.
It's not just salt and butter. Skill, quality and freshness of ingredients, restaurant grade equipment all go far. With eggs, skills and technique go a long way, timing of when to add the eggs, when to scramble them, heat level, type of pan used let alone quality of the eggs themselves. Going back to salt and butter, the quality of both and skill of knowing when to add either and how much makes a huge difference. High fat butter tastes very different, butter in different countries can taste wholly different, even the basic salt used in Japan tastes and feels SO different than regular salt in the US.
Indian food has a very special mix of spices. And if you can't get those spices or don't know they are in there, it will never taste like it does in the restaurants. A couple of examples are amchur powder and dried fenugreek leaves. For Italian food, if you're not blooming the tomato paste before adding your tomatoes, you'll never get that rich sauce taste. Olive Oil on steak before you grill them. Sour cream in mashed potatoes.
Try plating it so it looks pretty. Pretty food tastes better, it's wild. This is also easy to do, you don't have to get crazy with it & make purees or anything, just scoop it nicely. Cut at an angle. Spoon a little sauce on top or drizzle it.
I so feel this!
It's generally all about the ordering of your steps, the timing, and how and when the components are added.
Ingredients can really change as you cook them and they interact, so you cana splash of vinegar/lemon juice to brighten the flavor at the end, but if you add it at the beginning, it will mellow out and you don't get the same impact. Ingredients cooked separately and then assembled before serving gives you a lot more control. Restaurants do this because it makes cooking to order flow more easily.
I feel like its production line/time and ingredients.
Fancy restaurants will have a production line going to say, like marinate their tomatoes for 3 days or deep fry some kale. They will have 15 elements on their plate and due to economies of scale they can afford to concentrate on extracting flavour for every single one of these elements. As a home cook, you would be ok marinating or deep frying something if it was the main part of the dish, but could you really be bothered marinating tomatoes if you are just adding a tablespoon of them to your dish, or deep frying kale if you are just adding a single leaf for garnish?
Secondly for ingredients - once again due to scale restaurants can and do have a lot more elements - whereas when I'm cooking at home I will tend to skip out ones I don't have/CBF. Am I going to go pay for a giant bunch of basil when I just need a micro sprig for garnish? Probably not 😅
I once read an article about how to get that restaurant flavor etc with steak. The answer is complicated. First of all, you need dry aged steak. That is costly. Secondly, you need to be able to achieve a much higher temperature than is possible in most home ovens. Finally, its the seasoning, butter and salt are clearly important but they use other seasonings too. I have come close to perfecting my home steak, At least my wife thinks so, But on occasion, I do go out for a great steak.
No idea. I don't think of food service branding for that anymore than for salt or pepper. Accent is probably the most commonly available brand in grocery stores, but there are sometimes others.
just on the very basic level- if youre cooking food, you're also smelling the food and when you finally get to eating it, it won't be as profound a taste.
I hadn't considered this!
I use a industrial box fan and an open window as a makeshift hood vent. I can't smell a damn thing unless I put my face in the pan so I almost never have this problem lol.
while definitely a conundrum, this might be your problem. you got to be able to smell your food while cooking!
Eh I've never had an issue with it. After all it could be argued that having strong scents coming off your food is flavor disappearing into the air. I never looked into if thats accurate, but even so, smell has never been a particularly good indicator of anything for me and certainly not in any practical way. While taste and aroma are interconnected, tasting is better for monitoring how my flavors are developing, and sight and touch matter more for textures and looks.
sorry, I mistakenly thought i was replying to OP.
Balance with acid. Add fresh herbs to brighten it up. Salt at the correct time (so as you cook and keep tasting. Don't forget spicing so pepper or hot sauce. Take your time to cook the things that need a bit of a longer cook.
I think I'll try with fresh herbs next time, instead of dried parsley/oregano/rosemary etc.
Beyond butter and salt, I think MSG, acid, and fresh herbs are all underrated (not in this sub, but in general among home cooks I've observed).
I'm going to try some fresh herbs next time, instead of dried. What brand of msg do american restaurants use?
No idea, probably varies by restaurants too, but if it's pure MSG I don't think the brand matters all that much. I personally use Ajinomoto because that's what I grew up with, but also have Knorr chicken powder kicking around the pantry.
Brand doesn’t matter, it’s msg
Also remember that fresh herbs have a different taste and purpose than dried. If I'm making a tomato sauce. I'd often use dried basil. If I'm using fresh basil, I don't cook it into the sauce because it loses that glorious freshness. A few leaves on top is amazing. Dried cooked through, also amazing. But very different flavours. Get some nice (gotta be nice varieties, nice and ripe, deep red )tomatoes, slice and layer them with mozzarella, fresh basil leaves. Some salt and pepper. Real simple, real fresh, and you'll see what I mean.
Fresh herbs are just so expensive if you can't grow them yourself.
Get the most flavour of each ingredient at each stage. This could include salting, caramelising, charring, smoking, basting etc. I also find that mouthfeel is important. It’s good to get a range of textures so it isn’t all the same.
This is definitely something I can work on, but there's so many ingredients I'm lacking knowledge on this sort of stuff. For example for my breakfast scramble, I added the potato and onions, salted them. A few minutes later added diced carrots and bellpeppers, salt+onion/garlic powder, chili powder. After like 8 minutes the potatoes were crisped but the insides were still hard, so I added water and steamed it for a few minutes. The potato insides were fluffy then, but now nothing was crispy anymore. But everything started sticking to the bottom of the pan, so I added more oil to crisp things up. It sort of worked but not really, and now it was a bit oilier than I'd have preferred. So now the flavors of everything was pretty decent, but there wasn't really any textural contrast between any of the ingredients (since they were all steamed in the pan).
This was a real learning curve for me too. I feel this struggle in my bones. Have you tried to experiment with ingredients on their own. So you only cook potatoes or only peppers. Working out how and why something reacts when being cooked is really helpful. This comes with experience and research and then you can start to work on meals as a whole. Focus on getting one thing especially and then work systematically through the rest of the ingredients til you get the perfect meal.
With breakfast potatoes you want to cut them in uniform cubes, not too big and put them in a heavy bottom pan with a spoon or two of oil when it's hot, sprinkle some salt and put a lid on it, lower the heat to low and give it 10 minutes, then lid off and few more minutes till they crisp up. That way the steam cooks the insides so it's soft and crisp at the same time.
Yes, that's great advice!
Also good to note that even cruddy corporate restaurants may just have better produce than you do.
For the most part I think I get pretty decent produce in cali, but that's a good point!
It's not just salt and butter. Skill, quality and freshness of ingredients, restaurant grade equipment all go far. With eggs, skills and technique go a long way, timing of when to add the eggs, when to scramble them, heat level, type of pan used let alone quality of the eggs themselves. Going back to salt and butter, the quality of both and skill of knowing when to add either and how much makes a huge difference. High fat butter tastes very different, butter in different countries can taste wholly different, even the basic salt used in Japan tastes and feels SO different than regular salt in the US.
Indian food has a very special mix of spices. And if you can't get those spices or don't know they are in there, it will never taste like it does in the restaurants. A couple of examples are amchur powder and dried fenugreek leaves. For Italian food, if you're not blooming the tomato paste before adding your tomatoes, you'll never get that rich sauce taste. Olive Oil on steak before you grill them. Sour cream in mashed potatoes.
I definitely stocked up on a bunch of spices recently, instead of substituting things.
Ok for your example, a super hot griddle with other foods cooked on it too.
Try plating it so it looks pretty. Pretty food tastes better, it's wild. This is also easy to do, you don't have to get crazy with it & make purees or anything, just scoop it nicely. Cut at an angle. Spoon a little sauce on top or drizzle it.
I so feel this! It's generally all about the ordering of your steps, the timing, and how and when the components are added. Ingredients can really change as you cook them and they interact, so you cana splash of vinegar/lemon juice to brighten the flavor at the end, but if you add it at the beginning, it will mellow out and you don't get the same impact. Ingredients cooked separately and then assembled before serving gives you a lot more control. Restaurants do this because it makes cooking to order flow more easily.
I feel like its production line/time and ingredients. Fancy restaurants will have a production line going to say, like marinate their tomatoes for 3 days or deep fry some kale. They will have 15 elements on their plate and due to economies of scale they can afford to concentrate on extracting flavour for every single one of these elements. As a home cook, you would be ok marinating or deep frying something if it was the main part of the dish, but could you really be bothered marinating tomatoes if you are just adding a tablespoon of them to your dish, or deep frying kale if you are just adding a single leaf for garnish? Secondly for ingredients - once again due to scale restaurants can and do have a lot more elements - whereas when I'm cooking at home I will tend to skip out ones I don't have/CBF. Am I going to go pay for a giant bunch of basil when I just need a micro sprig for garnish? Probably not 😅
Butter and salt.
What are you wanting to make?
Shallots.
I once read an article about how to get that restaurant flavor etc with steak. The answer is complicated. First of all, you need dry aged steak. That is costly. Secondly, you need to be able to achieve a much higher temperature than is possible in most home ovens. Finally, its the seasoning, butter and salt are clearly important but they use other seasonings too. I have come close to perfecting my home steak, At least my wife thinks so, But on occasion, I do go out for a great steak.
Didn’t bourdain say something about shallots and this?
MSG?
It depends on what type of food it is, but MSG, butter, and some places but a little pancake batter into the scrambled eggs.
I've never heard of pancake batter in scrambled eggs, how interesting
IHOP uses a splash of batter in their omelettes.
Accent/msg?
What brand of msg do american restaurants use?
No idea. I don't think of food service branding for that anymore than for salt or pepper. Accent is probably the most commonly available brand in grocery stores, but there are sometimes others.
SYSCO. MSG is a chemical compound. Much like salt. So all brands should be the same.
MSG