Mise en place is a preparation step. Gather all ingredients, measured out, and have them on hand.

Use bleach water to clean up your area and avoid contaminated food. 1 tbsp bleach per 1 gallon water.

Make sure you know what is coming and you are prepared: preheat oven, have all ingredients, etc.

Use a 2-sided cutting board: one flat side, one with perimeter grooves. The grooves to to catch juices, like when cooking chicken. Get a cutting board as big as you can. Keep it from slipping by using a grip liner, like cabinet liners. Use mineral, or wood, oil once a month. Wipe with oil overnight, in the morning wash it with soapy water.

Don't use a knife to scoop ingredients from cutting board, use a scrapper.

Keep your area, countertop, cutting board, knives, etc. clean to avoid mixing ingredients and contaminating your food.

Always start with medium temperature and raise as needed. You start with a cold pan, add oil, and turn on burner to raise temp to 365F. Use a digital (laser) thermometer.

Instead of using oil to cook with, you can use clarified butter. Clarified butter is butter that has had all it's milk solids and water removed, leaving behind pure butter fat. It's also known as ghee.

Reduce wine mixture by half to burn off alcohol and intensify flavor. Boil wine mix and taste every 30 seconds. There is no need to reduce fortified wine.

It's best, when cooking vegetables, to poach them. Put them in boiling water, cook them and immediately put them in ice water. The ice water stops the vegetables from continuing to cook.

Always sautee onion first and caramelize for better flavor. Unless you are cooking bacon, then cook bacon and use the bacon fat to sautee onions. For safety never horizontal cut onions.

Mushrooms contain a lot of liquid. It's this liquid that makes the texture 'squeaky' when chewed. Remove the moisture by sauteeing it before using it in your cooking.

Try to use measurements as a guide, but you don't have to be strict. The exception is for baking, where the measurements are important. Know why you are adding ingredients to help with measurements.

It enhances the flavor and counteracts fat. It can also drop the sweetness of a dish. It helps reduce the oxidation of fruit.

Get a good instant thermometer, a meat thermometer that notifies when meat reaches a specified temperature, and a laser thermometer.

Leave air between food to allow air flow. When first putting in protein start with hot temperature and don't touch it.

Use a ladle to push food through strainer. This will get the most from your straining. When cooking soup or stew or something liquidy, place the strainer into the liquid, put your flour in, then use the ladle to push it through the strainer.

Especially for baking, it will be the best way to measure ingredients.

When an oven first starts the temperature will go max until the desired temperature is reached. So, preheat first to avoid over heating of food.

Use a garbage bowl for scrapping . Use can also use this to get your ingredients for stew or stock.

Learn to be in the moment and not get distracted. Educate your palate. Concentrate.

If a sauce is too thin it will bypas your taste buds, if too thick it will stick to the tongue. Also, you can add butter at the end to make the food creamy.

Learn to use a knife correctly and always use a sharp knife.

Water tastes like nothing, so use stock for better flavor. Sometimes you may need to use water, but keep it to a minimum.

The smaller you cut veggies the faster they will cook. So if the veggies are to be cooked slowly, use large cuts. Make sure your veggies are the same size, as that will help them cook at the same time.

When adding butter to the end of a dish, take the dish off the heat to avoid burning. Always use room temperature butter.

Use a sealed container and layer with fresh herbs. Put a paper towel over the herbs. Put a moist towel over the paper towel and seal the container. This will keep the herbs fresh for up to 2 weeks.

Garlic cooks very fast, like 30 seconds. Wait for the smell and immeditely add your liquid to keep that fragence and flavor.

Instead of using roux, you can put the strainer directly into liquid, add flour or cornstarch, and squash down with a ladle.

To rid flour of its bad flavor, make sure you cook it enough to get rid of it.

The asparagus peel is tough and chewy. Peel this off for better taste and texture.

Always brine your pork in salt water. Lay pork in salt water for a few hours.

If using dried herbs, use half of what you'd use in fresh herbs.