Techniques

Salt-crust baking completely encases food — most commonly whole fish — in a thick shell of salt bound with egg whites, then bakes it in a hot oven. The salt hardens into a rigid dome that seals the food inside, creating a self-basting, high-humidity micro-environment. The food steams in its own juices while being gently heated from all sides. The result is a purity of flavor and silkiness of texture that no other cooking method replicates.

Filleting a whole cooked fish is the skill that bridges cooking and service. For salt-crust dishes, it's the final act: the crust is cracked in a dramatic reveal, and then clean, bone-free portions are delivered to each plate without mangling the delicate flesh. Speed, the right tool, and one confident motion along the spine are all you need.

Garlic-oil infusion is the process of gently heating sliced garlic in oil to extract its flavor compounds into the fat. The two-stage variant adds a critical refinement: the garlic is infused and removed before higher-heat cooking begins, then returned at the end. This preserves both the infused oil and the garlic's texture, preventing the most common failure mode — burnt, bitter garlic in an otherwise perfect dish.

Mounting with butter transforms a thin pan dripping of oil, wine, and lemon juice into a single velvety sauce that clings to food and delivers every flavour simultaneously. It takes 20 seconds and changes the character of the dish completely.

A dry brine of salt and baking soda widens the narrow window between perfectly cooked and rubbery shrimp. Salt redistributes moisture; baking soda raises surface pH, accelerating Maillard browning and creating a clean, snappy bite. It costs nothing and takes minimal effort.

Shrimp are so small and thin that the sear IS the entire cook — there's no low-and-slow phase. You're managing doneness in real-time across a 2–4 minute window where the difference between perfect and overcooked is roughly 30 seconds of internal temperature change. Master the visual and tactile cues and you'll never serve rubbery shrimp again.

Cooking butter past the melting point until the milk solids toast to a golden brown, releasing a warm, nutty aroma that elevates everything from pasta to pastries.

Blooming spices means briefly heating ground dry spices in hot fat before adding any liquid. The heat dissolves fat-soluble aromatic compounds into the oil, making them 3–5× more bioavailable and aromatic than when added cold to a simmering liquid. It is the opening step of most professional curry and sauce preparations worldwide.

Blooming tomato paste means cooking it in fat over direct heat before adding any liquid. The paste goes from bright red and raw-tasting to dark brick-red with roasted sweetness. This Maillard reaction eliminates the metallic sharpness of raw paste and is the step that separates professional sauces from home-kitchen versions.

Building a layered sauce means adding ingredients in a deliberate sequence so each component undergoes the optimal amount of heat processing. This is the fundamental difference between a professional sauce and a dump-everything-in-and-simmer approach. A 15-minute layered sauce tastes more complex than a 45-minute all-at-once version — because cooking time is irrelevant if each component doesn't get the right amount.

A simple dough of flour and eggs that, with proper technique, produces silky sheets of pasta for cutting or filling — the basis of countless Italian dishes.

A finely chopped mushroom mixture cooked down to an intensely flavoured paste — the secret weapon for ravioli fillings, Wellington, and enriching sauces.

Hot oil blooming is the inverse of the Western sauté — instead of aromatics going into the oil, the oil goes onto the aromatics. The result is a layered flavour profile that no other method can replicate: sharp raw notes, mellow cooked notes, and toasty caramelised notes, all in the same bite.

The difference between oily noodles and silky noodles is entirely about emulsion stability. This technique combines nut paste, hot oil, and starchy cooking water into a glossy, clinging sauce that coats every strand — using the same physics as Italian pasta water, but with a much heavier fat load.