What makes restaurant food taste so good?
February 4, 2015 by DarcieHave you ever eaten at a restaurant and tried to replicate the meal at home, but felt it was missing something that you couldn’t quite pin down? You may have wondered why you weren’t able to recreate the flavors you remembered. Asbury Park Press tackles this question in an article fresh from the Jersey Shore.
Maybe it’s the fact that restaurants often use more salt than home cooks, or maybe it’s because you didn’t invest in a culinary school education. But perhaps it’s something else. Anthony Bourdain thinks it could be as simple as a single ingredient. He believe that shallots can solve many problems of home cooks. Writing in Kitchen Confidential he says “”You almost never see this item in a home kitchen, but out in the world they’re an essential ingredient…Shallots are one of the things – a basic prep item in every mise-en-place – that make restaurant food taste different from your food.”
Since he’s written that book shallots have become much more mainstream, but there are other secrets. Chef Mike Jurusz, owner of a South Seaside Park restaurant, thinks one key component is heat. “The hotter the equipment, the better, and it is the key to cooking and getting things done fast, like a quick sear or a fast sauté to lock in the flavors,” he says.
Other chefs look at the restaurant meal through a more romantic light. “I think the restaurant experience is more sensory,” said Marilyn Schlossbach, owner of several Jersey Shore restaurants. “In a restaurant, someone else is handling the preparation of the meal, which allows you to relax with your companions and enjoy the bigger experience.” So maybe it’s not the ingredients or the preparation; it’s the atmosphere.
We’ve received a lot of help in making restaurant-quality meals with the plethora of chef-driven books that have hit the shelves in recent years. Do you use these books help you recreate restaurant meals, or do you have other secrets?
Photo of Shallot Tatin from BBC Good Food Magazine
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