Foundations: Where Good Cooking Starts

Before you start torching steaks or playing with sous vide, you need the base moves. These are the habits and techniques that separate “winging it” from cooking with purpose.

Knife Skills

Your knife is an extension of your hand. Learn to hold it right, keep it sharp, and practice cuts: dice, julienne, chiffonade. Why it matters? Even cuts = even cooking. Ragged onions don’t just look bad, they cook unevenly and throw off flavor.

Mise en Place

Fancy French for “everything in its place.” It’s the habit of prepping before you cook, chopping, measuring, organizing. Once the heat’s on, you don’t want to be scrambling for garlic while your onions burn. It’s calm, not chaos.

Searing (a.k.a. The Maillard Move)

That brown crust on meat, fish, even veggies isn’t just color, it’s flavor chemistry. High heat + dry surface = the Maillard reaction, where amino acids and sugars transform into deep, savory complexity. Don’t crowd the pan. Don’t fuss. Let it sear.

Deglazing

See those brown sticky bits (fond) after searing? That’s pure gold. Deglaze with wine, stock, even water to lift it into a sauce. This is how you go from “pan-fried chicken” to “pan-roasted chicken with pan sauce.”

Seasoning & Balance

Salt isn’t just about saltiness, it opens up flavors. Fat rounds things out. Acid cuts through heaviness. Heat brings excitement. Knowing how to layer and adjust them is how you fix a dish on the fly. A squeeze of lemon at the end can turn “eh” into “oh yeah.”

The takeaway:
These are less about recipes and more about mindset. Master them and you stop being a slave to instructions—you actually cook.