Success in the Kitchen: Planning and Time Management

When talking about cooking with friends, the Four State Food Critic often hears lots of kitchen horror stories involving meal failures.  There are plenty of tales of burned meats, baked goods ending in a doughy mess, side dish failures, and holiday dinner fiascos.  In listening to these stories, often times the problem can be traced back to two simple issues – planning and time management.

Just like any other endeavor, if you want to be successful in the kitchen, you must properly plan.  You wouldn’t take a cruise or buy a car without doing some research, but most people tend to just “wing it” in the kitchen and then seem surprised and frustrated when things don’t turn out right. Here are some planning tips that can help:

Read the recipe!

This sounds like a no-brainer, but most folks don’t read a recipe from top to bottom, making sure they have all of the ingredients and understand each of the steps involved (and the time it takes to complete them).  Nothing crushes the confidence of a home cook like getting halfway through preparing a dish and then realizing they are out of a key ingredient (not enough butter – oh no!) or didn’t allow enough time for cooking (three hours in the oven?  I’m doomed).

Gather your ingredients – in the right amounts

Does the recipe call for a cup of milk?  Go ahead and measure it out.  Need a diced onion?  Do it ahead of time.  Need a pinch of salt?  Have it ready.  You’ve seen the cooking shows.  The host needs a teaspoon of chopped garlic and there it is, ready and waiting in a bowl on the counter.  Set up your kitchen station (or ‘mise en place’, as it is known in the trade) the same way.  Now you’ll be concentrating on watching what’s going on during cooking and not fumbling around looking for components.

Be active – not passive

Cooking requires you to be present and in the moment.  You can’t just toss the ingredients into a saucepan, jack up the heat, and then walk away.  Believe me, that’s the recipe for disaster.  Is that pot going to boil over?  Turn it back a bit.  Is the chicken browning in the sauté pan? Gently lift it and check.  Is the cake rising?  Turn on the oven light and look.  A successful chef is a present chef - always watching, tasting, and adjusting during preparation.

Don’t be afraid to write it down

Time management is one of the most tricky things to get right in the kitchen.  That roast needs to finish up (and rest), the mashed potatoes need to be made, the rolls need to bake – all of these things have their own time schedule.  The easiest way to remember all of this is to write it down – and have it handy in the kitchen for reference.  Dinner is at 06:00 PM?  Then the rolls need to go in at 05:30 PM, the potatoes need to be on the stove by 05:10 PM, etc.  Jot down the timeline before you start so you’ll know you are on track.

   

Practice these tips and your kitchen confidence (and success stories) will soar.