Welcome to Cook Like a Pro, in which we ask some of our favorite chefs for their essential techniques, along with advice on fearlessly frying, flipping, seasoning, and more.
Lift up your eyes from your plate and you never know what you might learn. Below, lessons from the kitchen counter at avec in Chicago:
Every cook is within arm’s reach of a tasting spoon at all times. “‘Did you taste it?’ is one of the most common questions I ask my team,” says chef Perry Hendrix.
If you study the dishes at avec, three ingredients occur with surprising frequency: sliced red onion, torn mint, and parsley leaves. Hendrix’s kitchen uses the combo so much, he’s nicknamed it ROMP. This garnish adds a burst of freshness to anything from charred sweet potatoes with tahini to chicken liver crostini.
When the cooks season, they’re not placing little pinches around the plate—they’re showering the food from almost a foot above to distribute the salt more evenly. (Oh, and they’re doing it throughout the cooking process, not just at the end.)
There’s a squeeze bottle of water at each cook’s station. “Water is an ingredient all cooks use,” Hendrix says, even if it’s not exactly the sexiest one to talk about. A splash can add creaminess to pasta or save a sauce from over-reducing.
One thing you will never see in this (or practically any) professional kitchen is a potholder: All of the cooks have three or four towels tucked into their aprons at any given moment.