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

0:11 The best tip I have to offer is to always use a silicone spatula.

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

0:27 out 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 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

0:43 the corners and can't clean up the little stuck-ed bits,

0:46 it can start burning and can completely ruin the flavor of a curry.

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

0:53 so you can 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 they're so easy to clean.

1:01 It's silicone, it comes off,

1:03 you could literally just pull it off, very easy to wash.

1:06 This is completely 100% dishwasher safe.

1:08 Once you get dependent on them, it's very difficult to work with something else.

1:14 My advice is that a microplane 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 and spending time chopping,

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

1:32 Microplane is also really easy, pretty safe to use at home as well.

1:37 You eliminate chopping the tip of your finger off if you're in a rush,

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

1:42 quick, easy way to impart flavor and ingredients and finish

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

1:48 But, it really is a great,

1:50 versatile tool to make your life a little easier at home when you're cooking.

1:57 Best tip I have 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 and cutting yourself.

2:05 And two, it gives you more precise cuts and makes everything look a lot neater.

2:08 How I know they're not sharp is when someone's cutting chives

2:11 or herbs in general and they come out all wet and mashed looking.

2:14 So, my favorite way of having a sharp knife is using a wetstone.

2:17 So, this is Kuhn's dual sided wetstone.

2:19 First thing you need to do is soak the coarser side, which is 1,000 grit.

2:23 So, you want to have a nice towel underneath it

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

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

2:29 they like to say two pennies can fit stacked underneath it.

2:31 And then, you just go long strokes against the whole stone.

2:35 And then, you move up a little bit, continue to do the same thing,

2:39 move up a little bit, continue to do the same thing.

2:41 Now, it starts getting a little bit trickier because it's the tip of the knife,

2:44 but now you're just going to want to really put an angle at the tip.

2:48 And you know you're sharpening the tip, too, when you see the little lines.

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

2:53 as you're doing it because you want there to be friction,

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

2:57 cuz then you're just going to 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 want to soak at all.

3:04 If you soak this, it's going to become way too soft and you could

3:07 break your stone and you could also just mess up the tip of your knife.

3:10 Once I use the polishing side,

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

3:14 So, now knife is nicely polished.

3:16 Wipe it off and 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 is you hold a piece

3:22 of paper at an angle and you can slice right through.

3:23 That's some sharp.

3:25 The best tip I have is use

3:27 your bench scraper to clean and organize your kitchen.

3:30 I always try to like clean and organize

3:33 as I'm doing something 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, you can really go without it.

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

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

3:49 You can always like clean your table or your cutting board.

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

3:56 it has like a wider surface so you can like pull more things.

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

4:02 personally like to scrape things out of cutting board.

4:05 You don't want to 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 and just make sure

4:15 you're getting everything of a bowl and then

4:17 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.

4:25 So for a tip it's something everyone is familiar

4:28 with at this point 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 salt,

4:37 cubing up your butter, maybe letting it temper before you use it.

4:40 But surely setting yourself up for success in restaurant and at home.

4:45 So a way to improve or elevate your mise en place is to use these Yakumi pans.

4:50 And these small ones are very useful not only

4:53 in a kitchen and organize your table things in your refrigerator,

4:57 but they're great for a small New York City apartment as well.

5:00 So they're pretty light, they're stackable, and they are easy to clean.

5:04 So these containers not only good for arranging mise

5:07 en place but also simply for storing ingredients or it

5:11 can be like the pre-cooking something like roasting diced onions

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

5:17 So it becomes almost muscle memory so you

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

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 cook kitchens because it's a safety net.

5:32 When you're using a meat thermometer, if you're cooking bone-in chicken,

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

5:39 to the bone 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, you're going to burn your food without cooking it through.

5:48 If it's too cold, it's just going to 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 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, 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.

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

6:21 You know, using a food processor at home 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 when you're making,

6:31 for example, a pie crust.

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

6:35 it like blend and chop up the butter into smaller pieces,

6:39 so you can just use like pulse, and as you're pressing it,

6:42 it will just kind of do it in like a a second or two second intervals.

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

6:50 and only took maybe like 2 minutes for the dough to form,

6:53 versus like a mixer, which might take sometimes up to like 5,

6:57 even 10 minutes for dough to form.

6:58 Like even the creaming method, for example,

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

7:02 it will do it much faster and easier than,

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

7:08 If you're not really comfortable with dicing, slicing, using knife,

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

7:19 My tip is always bring up the best, finest flavor when I ready to daikon radish.

7:26 So, a lot of moisture up, but I don't want to 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, I use I use this tool, Oroshi.

7:37 So, I just want to save ingredient umami.

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

7:43 Basically, no moisture out.

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

7:47 the moisture in the your mouth is explosion in your mouth.

7:51 And that moisture is key.

7:53 So, I just want to bring to you this taste.