8 Kitchen Hacks Pro Chefs Swear By | Restaurant Talks | Bon Appétit

0:00 [food rasping and sizzling]

0:01 [knife scraping]

0:02 [intense clicking music]

0:06 [food rasping and sizzling]

0:09 [knife slices]

0:09 [bright music]

0:11 - The best tip I have to offer

0:12 is to always use a silicon spatula.

0:15 The whole point of this is that they're thin,

0:16 but they're also really flexible.

0:18 They really take the shape of the bowl or the pan.

0:22 Whatever you're working with, they can adapt to it.

0:24 So it really kind of helps you scoop everything out

0:27 and the bowl comes out really nice and clean.

0:29 I really don't like wastage,

0:30 so I just need to see that everything's come off.

0:32 Indian cooking has cooking

0:34 that happens on a lot of high temperatures,

0:36 and these are meant to withstand really high temperatures.

0:39 When you use a metal spoon that can't go through the corners

0:44 and can't clean up the little stuck tidbits,

0:46 it can start burning and can completely ruin

0:49 the flavor of a curry.

0:50 And this is really gentle on that surface,

0:53 so you could literally use it on the surface to scrape

0:56 and it does no damage to the pans whatsoever.

0:58 The best part about these is that this is so easy to clean.

1:01 It's silicon, it comes off.

1:03 You could literally just pull it off.

1:05 Very easy to wash.

1:06 This is completely 100% dishwasher safe.

1:09 Once you get dependent on them,

1:10 it's very difficult to work with something else.

1:12 [funky upbeat music]

1:14 - My advice is that a microplane

1:16 should be part of every person's kitchen.

1:18 When I'm in the kitchen at work,

1:20 we're trying to get through a lot of projects in the day

1:22 and often a microplane will save you.

1:24 Instead of pulling out my knives and cutting board

1:27 and spending time chopping,

1:28 I can just really quickly add flavor to a dish

1:31 with a microplane.

1:32 Microplane is also really easy,

1:35 pretty safe to use at home as well.

1:38 You eliminate chopping the tip of your finger off

1:40 if you're in a rush,

1:41 so it's just a really good, quick, easy way

1:43 to impart flavor and ingredients,

1:46 and finish dishes with some lemon zest or cheese as well.

1:48 But it really is a great versatile tool

1:51 to make your life a little easier at home

1:53 when you're cooking.

1:55 [upbeat pulsing music]

1:57 - The best tip I have

1:58 is make sure you always work with a sharp knife.

2:00 One, it's safer.

2:01 Dull knives will lead to you slipping and making mistakes

2:04 and cutting yourself.

2:05 And two, it gives you more precise cuts.

2:06 It makes everything look a lot neater.

2:08 How I know they're not sharp

2:09 is when someone's cutting chives or herbs in general

2:12 and they come at all wet and mashed-looking.

2:14 So my favorite way of having a sharp knife

2:16 is using a whetstone.

2:17 So this is Korin's dual-sided whetstone.

2:20 First thing you need to do is soak the coarser side,

2:22 which is a thousand grit.

2:23 So you wanna have a nice towel underneath it.

2:24 Keep it nice and secure so it doesn't move.

2:26 And then when you're sharpening your knife,

2:28 basically they like to say

2:29 two pennies can fit stacked underneath it,

2:31 and then you just go

2:32 [knife scraping]

2:33 long strokes against the whole stone,

2:36 and then you move up a little bit,

2:37 continue to do the same thing,

2:39 move up a little bit,

2:40 continue to do the same thing.

2:41 And now it starts getting a little bit trickier

2:43 because it's the tip of the knife,

2:44 but now you're just gonna wanna really

2:47 put an angle at the tip.

2:48 And you know you're sharpening the tip too

2:50 when you see the little lines.

2:51 It is important to keep on wetting the stone

2:53 as you're doing it

2:54 because you want there to be friction,

2:56 but you don't want there to be too much

2:57 because then you're just gonna grind away your knife.

2:59 And then I will turn it over,

3:01 and this is the polishing side.

3:02 This side, you don't actually wanna soak at all.

3:04 If you soak this, it's gonna become way too soft

3:06 and you could break your stone,

3:08 and you could also just mess up the tip of your knife.

3:10 Once I use the polishing side,

3:11 you're gonna see that it reflects a lot more light.

3:14 So now the knife is nicely polished, wipe it off.

3:17 You can see there's like a mirror's edge.

3:19 It reflects a lot of light.

3:20 One way you can test it

3:21 is you hold a piece of paper at an angle

3:22 and you can slice right through.

3:23 Nice and sharp.

3:24 [upbeat lively music]

3:25 - The best tip I have is use your bench scraper

3:28 to clean and organize your kitchen.

3:31 I always try to, like, clean

3:32 and organize as I'm doing something

3:35 because it just gives me clarity.

3:36 So the bench scraper is a tool that's easily overlooked,

3:40 but once you start using it,

3:42 you can't really go without it.

3:43 It just helps you, like, when you're chopping things,

3:46 lift things, put them whatever they need to go,

3:49 or you can always, like, clean your table

3:51 or your cutting board.

3:53 I think using a bench scraper sometimes better than a knife

3:56 because it has, like, a wider surface

3:58 so you can, like, hold more things.

4:00 And then also, I don't like using a knife personally,

4:03 like to scrape things on a cutting board.

4:05 You don't wanna mess up with the sharpness of your knife.

4:09 I like this one because it's flexible.

4:11 So actually when you're, like, using a bowl,

4:13 you can, like, bend it

4:14 and just make sure you're getting everything of a bowl.

4:17 And then you can use this part for a cutting board,

4:20 and it's just very versatile.

4:21 I personally love the plastic one.

4:24 [upbeat music]

4:25 - So for a tip,

4:26 it's something everyone is familiar with at this point,

4:29 which is mise en place.

4:30 It's basically getting ready ahead of time

4:32 and having your ingredients, your tools ready.

4:35 And that can be something like just having your salts,

4:37 cubing up your butter,

4:38 maybe letting it temper before you use it.

4:40 But it's really setting yourself up

4:42 for success in restaurant and at home.

4:45 So a way to improve or elevate your mise en place

4:48 is to use these yakumi pans.

4:50 And these small ones are very useful,

4:53 not only in a kitchen and to organize your table,

4:56 things in your refrigerator,

4:58 but they're great

4:58 for a small New York City apartment as well.

5:00 So they're pretty light,

5:02 they're stackable,

5:03 and they are easy to clean.

5:04 So these containers

5:05 not only good for arranging mise en place

5:07 but also simply for storing ingredients.

5:10 Or it can be that you pre-cooking something,

5:13 like roasting diced onions,

5:15 and keep them in here so they're ready to go.

5:18 So it becomes almost muscle memory,

5:20 so you don't have to run around and look for them.

5:22 [upbeat pounding music]

5:24 - The best tip I have is to use a thermometer.

5:27 I think a thermometer is a great tool to have,

5:29 especially in home-cooked kitchens,

5:31 because it's a safety net.

5:32 When you're using a meat thermometer

5:34 if you're cooking bone-in chicken,

5:36 you're gonna want to get the tip of the thermometer

5:38 close to the bone

5:39 so you get an accurate read of the internal temperature.

5:42 You can constantly check the oil temperature.

5:44 If it's too hot,

5:45 you're gonna burn your food without cooking it through.

5:48 If it's too cold,

5:49 it's just gonna absorb a lot of oil and come out mushy,

5:52 and both of those are a tragedy.

5:54 I think an overlooked use of this tool

5:56 is using it as a cake tester.

5:58 A lot of times, I don't keep my cake tester on me,

6:02 but I'll have one of these closer at reach,

6:04 and if it comes out with dough on it or batter on it,

6:07 I know it's not ready.

6:08 You can get one of these for about $17

6:10 and I think it's a great investment for a cheap price.

6:14 [light upbeat music]

6:17 - I highly recommend every kitchen to have a food processor.

6:21 You know, using a food processor at home

6:23 can really save a lot of time,

6:25 but also you can make, like, a cake in a food processor,

6:28 and it kind of gives you a better control

6:30 when you are making, for example, a pie crusts.

6:33 You don't want to necessarily just, like, turn on

6:35 and have it, like, blend

6:36 and chop up the butter in two smaller pieces,

6:39 so you can just use, like, pulse,

6:41 and as you're pressing it,

6:42 it will just kind of do it

6:43 in, like, a second or two-second intervals.

6:46 At home, I also made like a whole wheat bread

6:49 using a food processor,

6:50 and it only took maybe, like, two minutes

6:52 for the dough to form versus, like, a mixer,

6:55 which might take sometimes up to, like, 5,

6:57 even 10 minutes for dough to form.

6:59 Like, even the creaming method, for example,

7:00 where you have to cream the butter and sugar,

7:03 it will do it much faster and easier

7:05 than let's say in a KitchenAid stand mixer.

7:08 If you aren't really comfortable

7:10 with dicing, slicing using knife,

7:13 then I highly recommend you get a food processor.

7:17 [light upbeat music]

7:19 - My tip is always bring up the best, finest flavor

7:23 when I grated daikon radish.

7:26 So a lot of moisture,

7:27 I don't wanna waste that moisture.

7:29 I think moisture is kind of umami.

7:32 Also, it's best parts of a daikon radish.

7:34 So what I use, I use this tool, onioroshi.

7:37 So I just wanna save ingredient umami.

7:40 So this is you can grate it more bigger.

7:43 Basically, no moisture out.

7:45 Then after shave it, and when you bite it,

7:47 the moisture in your mouth, [whooshes]

7:50 the explosion in your mouth.

7:51 And that moisture is key,

7:53 so I just wanna bring to your dishes.

7:56 [light upbeat music]