Top Ten

Chef Hacks

For Home Cooks

Quick Summary

Make life easier and seamless, whether you are a waterburner or the occasional boast at a family gathering with your mutton kassa. How? With hacks from top chefs. These chefs know what’s up in the kitchen when you struggle with the theatrics of your very own Comedy of Errors or look at new ways to repurpose your leftovers (and get bogged down by the steps). Bookmark this list for underrated kitchen hacks. 

Deep Dive

For most, cooking tends to be a necessity, not a hobby. But whether you’re a beginner squirting lemon everywhere but on your dish, or know your way around the kitchen, there are tried and tested hacks from chefs that are worth cultivating. Luckily, most chefs are more than happy to share their treasured hacks that might seem small but go a long way to make a functional kitchen, save money and also time. From keeping your cooking station clean to storing everything in the right place, these tips are practical enough to make a difference but simple enough that you can easily add them to your cooking routine.

Mise En Place

This is a term associated with professional chefs, and you can use it in your daily repertoire, too. It refers to preparing dishes and ingredients before service begins (for home chefs, this would be for daily to weekly cooking). Renowned chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor recommend preparing certain condiments in advance, like ginger garlic paste, which is used extensively in Indian dishes like bhindi masala, pulao and more. 

Clean As You Go 

Do you thrive in messes? It’s time to change that. Top chefs are quite assiduous when it comes to cleanliness, unlike the dhaba down the street, whose kitchen is no short of a nightmare for a germaphobe. Cooking dal and spilt some liquid? Mop it up with a kitchen towel. These go for ground spices, vegetable ends and peels. Squeeze in windows of time between chopping, washing, and simmering curries to get that kitchen counter squeaky clean. It not only makes for a more hygienic cooking but also makes it easier to clean up afterwards. 

Cutting Board Hack

Cooking Indian dishes means using a lot of garlic, ginger and for non-vegetarians, fish, meat and eggs. This will make your cutting board stinky over time, no matter how much you wash it; this is particularly true for wooden chopping boards rather than plastic ones. Chef Ryan Keough from New York suggests first rubbing coarse salt after each use and then rubbing half a lemon on it. You can wash this off afterwards. 

Keeping Herbs Fresh

Celebrity chefs like Vikas Khanna swear by this hack. Want to keep your dhaniya or curry leaves from wilting like the famed, heartbroken romantic Devdas? Buy them fresh, use what’s needed, and, like you would with freshly cut flowers, keep them in a glass of water. Then, cover the entire arrangement with a plastic bag or wrap and place it in the refrigerator. Change the water every 48 hours and use the herbs as needed. They should stay usable for more than a week, this way. 

Sharpen Your Knives

Professional chefs use sharpening stones to sharpen their kitchen knives. You will see this in person if you go to special restaurants that live for their showmanship, like certain sushi chefs. You don’t need to go to great lengths to get your own whetstone; you can find a cheap alternative online that gives you different sharpening modes in one tool. 

Keeping Your Chopping Board From Slipping 

Whether you’re using a plastic chopping board or a fancy polished granite or wooden table, your cutting and chopping board can turn into a sledge at times. As much as a sledge is fun, it’s not what you need when your ingredients go flying and your knife leaves dents in the wood or kitchen counters off the chopping board. Some chefs swear by using a damp paper or kitchen towel underneath to keep it from slipping. It also works for bowls, plates and other utensils used for mixing, whisking, and whipping ingredients. 

Seasonings Hack

Reading labels is a must. Many dried herbs and seasonings come in little bottles, made from glass or plastic. Some chefs believe cooks should avoid using them over a steaming pot of whatever you are cooking. Using them directly over your bubbling dish will trap steam in them and ruin the texture of whatever is in them. This is especially true for ingredients like salt, pepper and dry herbs, which will be rendered unusable. 

Get That Dough Right

Chef Ranveer Brar has been very lucid about making the perfect dough. He recommends kneading the dough until just done and checking by squeezing the dough in a fist. If it holds shape, it’s ready. He also recommends a resting period of 20-30 minutes for the dough. As for the dough, which is used to make puris and luchis, he suggests using exactly what the recipe suggests to get the perfect dough and kneading with 50 per cent pressure for the dough to come together on its own. 

The Spice Hack

Home chefs have been doing this for ages. That spice box at your grandmother's or even your mother’s place serves a purpose. Essentially, store your spices in clear containers. It might not be one big box, but it can be spread out over 10-15 of them, and if you like a little bit of aestheticism in your kitchen, you can even buy an entire decorative set online. Chefs like Madhur Jaffrey highly recommend this hack, and she also recommends keeping pre-made spice blends for common everyday dishes like chana masala and pav bhaji masala. 

Getting Rid Of Spicy Fingers

You’ve got to thank the spiciest chef on the internet, Gordon Ramsey, for this one, who has a neat little trick for getting rid of chilli and pepper hands. It’s hard to resist cleaning the knife with your finger or even the cutting board or kitchen counter when you spot seeds or the end of your chillies lounging around. In case you do all of them, and end up rubbing your eyes after chopping onions, or wipe away your tears, rub lemon on your hands and wash as usual.

No More Tears

Cooking shouldn’t feel like a Sanjay Leela Bhansali tragedy with your kitchen tools and ingredients as your villains. With these insider shortcuts that seasoned chefs swear by, you can make cooking a joy. Every clean counter, sharpened knife, and perfectly rested dough is one less reason to cry in the kitchen (unless it’s over that emotional first bite).