Today my cookbook SECRETS OF THE BEST CHEFS arrives on shelves all around the country. As a self-taught but enthusiastic home cook (aka: The Amateur Gourmet), I spent a year cooking with 50 of the nation's best chefs -- from Alice Waters to José Andrés, Lidia Bastianich to Tom Douglas -- in order to improve my game in the kitchen. Needless to say, after crossing 11 cities and logging hours upon hours at the stove with these culinary giants, then testing and adapting over 150 of their recipes at home, I became a much better cook. I think my book, when you read it, will do the same for you.
As you prepare to read the copy you'll be buying today (MIND CONTROL), here are 10 quick ways for you to become a better cook based on my experiences creating this book. Start here, then cook your way through the recipes, and chances are you'll be wowing your loved ones with food that you can't believe you made yourself. Trust me: if I can do it, you can do it too.
- Cook Often. The best chefs are the best chefs because they spend most of their time cooking. Looking at all of the chefs who I met and cooked with while writing this book, almost every single one either went to culinary school or grew up in a family of cooks. That makes sense because in both cases they had to make the same dishes over and over again until they had those dishes mastered. That repetition reinforces basic techniques -- sharpening your knife, seasoning properly, getting your pans hot -- techniques that resonate throughout a lifetime of cooking. So if you say "I'm a bad cook," chances are it's because you don't cook often enough. Make yourself cook at least three times a week and watch your skills improve immeasurably.
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