Lessons From Amateur Chef Ryan McCorvie: 6 Steps to Improve Your Home Cooking Skills

As the fictional chef Auguste Gusteau said in Ratatouille, “anyone can cook.” Even if they never “learned,” or don’t feel as if they have any innate culinary talent.

Talent does play an important role in great cooking. The world’s best chefs clearly all have something special, maybe even what you’d call genius. But the rest of us can learn, too. And while our creations might never approach the heights of Michelin-starred cuisine, we’re all capable of doing special things in the kitchen.

Becoming a better home cook takes work, of course. Lots and lots of work. And time. And mental energy. And everything else that comes with learning, improving and ultimately mastering a new skill.

It’s doable, though. Here’s how to get started — and move forward — on your personal chef’s journey.

1. Focus on Basic Skills at First, Rather Than Specific Recipes (But Do Those Too)

Everyone walks before they can run. Cooking is no different.

To be a great home cook, you first have to be good at the basics. That requires lots and lots of practice.

Begin by identifying the essential skills every home cook should master. The big ones are:

• Managing the temperature of cooking water (and making it do what you want)
• Making basic sauces and vinaigrettes
• Effectively deglazing a pan
• Effectively searing meat
• Roasting various kinds of vegetables to order
• Whipping cream correctly
• Poaching and hard-boiling eggs correctly (and not just frying or scrambling)

Mastering these and other skills takes time, so think of the process more as a school-year journey than as a single self-taught “class.” But don’t wait to get started.

2. Cook Foods You Want to Eat

As you work to master the basics of home cooking, focus on perfecting your takes on the foods you want to eat. If you’re cooking for others, consider their preferences as well. Cooking meals you actually look forward to consuming will keep you motivated along your culinary journey. Because you may be more familiar with the dishes and pay more attention at the dining table, it may also help you spot subtle problems with your process and devise ways to improve

3. Use High-Quality Knives and Keep Them Sharp

Choosing a kitchen knife is not as complicated or high-stakes as buying a car, but it can feel that way if professional and semi-pro chefs are to be believed. And it is pretty important if you plan to cook often. This is one of those things where spending more upfront can save you some money in the long run. That is, if you also buy a knife-sharpening set and refresh your cutlery on the regular.

4. Perfect Your Mise en Place (And Read the Recipe Beforehand)

“Mise en place” is French for “everything in its place.” Which is quite literally what it means: having every ingredient and accessory in the proper place (and state) before you begin cooking.

Getting your mise en place together before you begin cooking or assembling your meal is important for several reasons:

• It saves you time during the cooking process, which may need to happen on a strict schedule
• It reduces your stress levels
• It prevents you from rushing when you have pots boiling or ovens burning
• It reduces the chances that you’ll miss an important step
• It allows you to focus on quality of ingredient preparation rather than simply “getting it done”

A related pointer: Once your mise en place is set, read the recipe all the way through, even if you’ve read it already.

5. Expand Your Cookware Collection

A confident home chef should have the following items (and then some) in their kitchen:

• A curved (wok-style) frying pan
• A cast iron frying pan set
• At least one size of Dutch oven
• A bowl-style strainer
• A stock pot with strainer
• A steamer
• A rice cooker (yes, really)
• A fine grater or zester
• An immersion blender
• A standing mixer
• Metal bowls in a range of sizes
• Plenty of freezer- and refrigerator-safe food storage

This is not a comprehensive list, mind you. At some point, maybe you’ll be ready to call it good, but until then, keep building.

6. Practice Working in Parallel

This is a fancy way of saying that you should practice breaking up cooking into smaller tasks. Recipes do this for you, of course, but what’s really important for your longevity as a home cook is being able to set and hold to deadlines within the cooking process (that is, how fast you prep your carrots, your onions, your marinade, and so on).

Time to Up Your Home Cooking Game

Taking these six steps will improve your skills and confidence as a home cook. You might never be a world-class chef, but as anyone who’s seen The Bear knows, being a professional chef is a difficult and usually thankless job. Most of us would rather be capable home cooks, content to make elaborate meals for friends and family.

What about you?