Chefs Use These 7 Tools to Fine-Tune Their Dishes & Hide Their Mistakes

The Late Night Gourmet

The Late Night Gourmet

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From one of my favorite cooking sites...these are things that chefs do to fine-tune their dishes, and things we can follow in developing ours:

https://food52.com/blog/20286-daniel-patterson-s-7-dials-of-taste

While there's a lot more detail on the page, I've decided to reproduce some key point below:

1. Salt = The MVP. Salt is "the most important seasoning of all. It enlivens, it draws out flavor, it balances sweetness and acidity, and it boosts aroma.

2. Sweet = The Good Cop. Sweet mellows salt, sour, and bitter: As the foil to the salty, sour, and bitter dials, sweet is the tool that can tame any member of that aggressive trio.

3. Sour = The Bad Cop. Sour cleans up fatty or murky flavors, brightens vegetables and soups (lemon zest does wonders for tomato sauce!), and creates complexity among otherwise flat flavors.

4. Bitter = The Frenemy. Bitterness contributes complexity to dishes that might otherwise be too plain or boring—but a little goes a long way, so use it conservatively.

5. Umami = The Dark Horse. Adding ingredients high in umami will give your finished dish more depth and power (and give a light, flyaway dish more substance).

6. Fat = The Team-Player. A flavor that is bound in an emulsion with fat has more staying power and intensity than it otherwise would.

7. Heat = The Wildcard. Heat creates dynamic, complex flavors, bringing liveliness to dishes that might otherwise be bland.
 
@The Late Night Gourmet,

Concepts: ( tools are tangible physical instruments):

Taste can be objective in terms of the senses, salty, sweet, bittier, sour and savory or commonly called umami.

However, taste is also highly subjective, in terms of what we deem pleasant or dis-tasteful.

The history of these concepts date back thousands of centuries, to the founding of Ayurveda, in ancient India and similarly in ancient China.


Furthermore, there are scientifically proven facts on: after tastes, acquired tastes, disorders of taste and the functional structures of how the human body deals with all of these sensations, transmissions, physical body process reactions etcetra ..

It is an extraordinarily profound subject and unfortunately in the Western World, the lack of these practices have caused uncountable illnesses.

Excellent post !
Thank you and have a lovely day ..
 
When I saw the list of "tools", I thought, "I already know all that!" But then I realized that I don't have a checklist, so to speak, when a dish isn't delivering the flavor I want. I think most of us have a good idea of how to use salty, sweet, and spicy elements to balance each other. The application of sour elements to balance fatty flavors is something I've stumbled upon, but never consciously done. It's more like "I'm going to try this". Now, I just have to remember to do these things when I cook.
 
@The Late Night Gourmet,

Perhaps by taking a look online at Ayurveda recipes, should be a jump starter in the how to´s or the nearest Barnes & Noble Bookshop or similar ..

As I stated above, this is an ancient concept dating back thousands of centuries, from India and China, and unfortunately, in the Western World, the lack of these practices are very evident especially in the Fast Krap Plastic Food Restaurants ..

The James Beard Foundation, perhaps could connect you to chefs in your region to " Inter Exchange " with you .. Sort of a playing in the kitchen with the goal of empowering your culinary skills and enhancing your new skills in this specific Ayurveda concept ..

Worth the effort ..

Have a nice evening ..
 
Francesca said:
Concepts: ( tools are tangible physical instruments):
Click to expand...
'Tools of the trade' can refer to skills as well as physical tools.

The Late Night Gourmet said:
From one of my favorite cooking sites.
Click to expand...
Its a fave of mine too.

I'd say these are pretty good tools, concepts or whatever you wish to call them. They are certainly all things I think about when developing a recipe. :okay:
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
The application of sour elements to balance fatty flavors is something I've stumbled upon, but never consciously done. It's more like "I'm going to try this". Now, I just have to remember to do these things when I cook.
Click to expand...

The first thing that jumps to mind when I read this is that the tradition of adding uplifting garnishes is quite common in older cultures dishes.

Such as gremolata (finely chopped lemon zest, parsley & garlic) sprinkled over osso bucco before serving.
 
@ElizabethB

An extraordinarily profound topic .. In all reality, to learn indepthly about Aryvedic food combining and collaborating ingredients, one must attend specialised courses in India, where this is an age old tradition dating back approx. 8,000 years ..

One can read about this topic, however, nothing is the same as face to face contact with native Indian Chefs who have been practicing this for an entire lifetime.

It is the same for Japanese cuisine and the preparation of Nigriri and Sashimi etcetra, and all cuisines actually .. and French Pastries ..

My viewpoint .. This is why there are advanced culinary and pastry making courses for example; Alain Ducasse located in both Paris and London ( he is bilingual ). Or the Paul Bocuse Institute .. And many institutes are affiliated with the Bocuse Institute for specialised training .. Travelling outside of one´s native land to study under native chefs is one of the best forms of learning possible ..

Have a nice day .. Thank you for your liking my post ..
 
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In light of @Frizz1974's reply, I had a re-read and a re-think on this thread. It's quite true that a lot of older recipes add things to quite simple dishes or single ingredients to enhance the flavour in some way. Adding a spoon of vinegar or cumin seeds to cabbage is one thing that springs to mind. My Mum always did that, and I still do it. Some of the [photos of] recipes in the 1920s books I have look fantastic with the way they are served, garnishes etc. Could it be that cooking in the 1950s and onwards rather lost its way, and in fact we are going back to how food should be?
 
Elawin said:
In light of @Frizz1974's reply, I had a re-read and a re-think on this thread.

Could it be that cooking in the 1950s and onwards rather lost its way, and in fact we are going back to how food should be?
Click to expand...


I wrote a report when I was last studying that touched on the history of industrialising food. The research was a lot of fun, and not shocking to those who really follow food as a hobby. The western world took a massive leap away from the stove and into the super market. To the detriment of our health.

You know how we look at periods of history and struggle to understand how seemingly intelligent people were convinced of some crazy thing or other en masse? That's exactly what is going to happen when they look at the rapid change in the western diet.
 
@Frizz1974 -

Good point.

I am not a food historian. It would be a very interesting subject to study.

I have read that since the original Food Pyramid was put out by the USDA in 1992. Obesity rates in the US sky rocketed.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?...608050831179450351&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0

The pyramid was originally developed in Sweden in 1974. In the US people took it to heart and gorged on carbs. Unfortunately when the Media promotes foolishness the general public responds like lemmings jumping into the sea. Excuse me - at times I have a rather low opinion of my fellow countrymen. Our society has become stupid. If it is on the evening news or on the internet then it must be true and good. Few people actually do research on so called "Miracle Diets" or "Miracle Cures". Makes me crazy.

:oops: There I go again on a rant. Sorry.
 
Don't be sorry... that report ended up being a 24 page rant along exactly those lines. The next stage was to turn it into a PowerPoint presentation & present it to my classmates. I could have ranted for 2 hours instead of the 20 minutes I decided had to be the limit.
 
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