• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

Chefs can spend many hours of the week in the kitchen chopping onions. While it is a common kitchen chore, many people are intimidated by the task. Luckily, anyone can easily learn to properly chop an onion, and without a tear in sight. To begin, gather an unpeeled onion, a cutting board and a chef’s knife that is at least twice as long as the onion. Make sure your working space is well-ventilated. It is the build-up of sulfuric compounds that causes tears.   Place the onion on the clean cutting board. Place the vegetable so that both ends – the root and... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

Whether you are a professional chef or your cooking experience is preparing meals for your family, roasting the perfect chicken should be a required skill. Not only will you impress family and friends, but a roasted chicken prepared one day can be delicious leftovers the next. If you are just beginning your culinary journey, perfecting the roast chicken process is easy to do and will give you the kitchen confidence to tackle more ambitious dishes.     While there are many recipes that tout the “perfect roast chicken” with various ingredients and steps, they... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

Keeping your chef’s knife sharpened is essential to not only making your job in the kitchen easier, but making it safer as well. Using a dull knife, especially on something such as a tomato, forces you to apply more pressure than you would with a sharpened blade, which means knife slippage is more likely to occur. Since a sharp knife is a chef's best friend, it is important to know how to sharpen your knives.     Sharpening your knife with a whetstone The best way of sharpening a knife is with a whetstone, but it might take a little time and practice to get the... read more

• Last updated 1/10/12 by Denis Dubiard

Dishes prepared with fresh herbs will have more flavor than dishes made with dried herbs. Whether you’ve grown your own herbs or purchased them at a farmer’s market, you might be unsure how to prepare fresh herbs for cooking. Luckily, using fresh herbs in your cooking is not difficult. While there are several methods of preparation that will work, each herb does have its own preference.   Basil Best known for flavoring Italian tomato sauces, pizzas and grilled vegetables, basil is best used as whole leaves or torn by hand. While the flavor is generally described... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

I have been working on making homemade yogurt for the past year and wanted to post some step by step photos of the process I have been using. This is an open article/wiki so please feel free to add comments or make changes as you feel will improve the content of the article.   Ingredients 1/2 gallon of whole milk 2 packages of yogurt start (5 grams each) or 2-4 tablespoons of yogurt from a previous batch.   Tools Thermometer Non-reactive pot. preferable enameled cast iron such as le cruset.     Many people use store bought yogurt but I... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

    By: Ruben Urias     Enough with the twenty ingredient roast turkey recipes!  It happens every year as the holidays approach.  Magazines, television programs, and even celebrity chefs, push and prod the cooking public into spending far too much time and money on recipes and ingredients that only marginally improve their turkeys.  This year, take a stand and focus on the basics done right.  Instead of adding one-eighth of a teaspoon of this herb, and one-half teaspoon of nineteen other spices, just know that you can roast a juicy, very flavorful turkey... read more

• Last updated 2/4/12 by Jim

How to Make Rugelach - Jim Berman       In just about every deli, there is some form of cookie as dessert. In a New York deli, the black and white cookie is king. Where I grew up in Pittsburgh, the sesame seed cookie, halavah, was the packaged slab, almost perfunctory, next to the cash register. Sure, there were the tri-cornered Hammenstashen as the holiday season dictated. And my Gummie (my grandmother’s endearing moniker) made the driest, cardboard-stiff snickerdoodles. Ever. They would shatter diamonds with the most gentle of glances. But, my grandmother... read more

• Last updated 4/3/13 by Jim

The cantankerous cook behind many of ChefTalk's educational pieces and book reviews got his start at the ripe, old age of 15 at a small fishing club on the Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. After several failed, ill-fated attempts at following through to study economics in New York and Pittsburgh, Jim reluctantly gave in, dropped out and dove headfirst into the murky waters of cooking. He worked in Santa Fe and migrated back east to settle, for now, along the shore of the Delaware River. Here, Jim has worked on opening a colonial restaurant, in various capacities in... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

Safety First When Deep Frying A Turkey A few words on safety: 1.)  The cooking equipment must be set up in a clear level area away from buildings and things that can catch fire.  Nothing puts a damper on the holiday season liking burning your place to the ground.  And it has far reaching effects in ruining the holiday for others: an insurance adjuster is now going to be called away from their family, a few firefighters are going to have to miss their holiday meal thanks to the inferno that was your home.  So please, follow the safety advice: set up in a flat... read more

• Last updated 1/7/12 by Nicko

Written By Chef Peter Martin When it comes to Thanksgiving, I admit it, I am a staunch traditionalist.  Fluffy mashed potatoes, glistening ruby red cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes slumbering beneath a blanket of toasty marshmallows  and stuffing redolent of sage, all surrounding the centerpiece, a beautiful golden turkey with crackling skin and moist, tender flesh.  In my opinion it doesn't get much better than that.     As a chef I have often times been tempted to try and improve on this theme by bringing new techniques and exotic ingredients to the... read more