How to make restaurant-quality food at home?

I use a variety of salts (usually kosher salt for cooking, different salt for finishing dependent upon the dish. Oh, and that big fancy flaky salt is called Maldon sea salt and will impress guests).

 

Assuming Anthony's Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential is true (see chapter called "How to Cook Like the Pros"), how to make your home cooking seem more like restaurant cooking:

 

- Use a a single good chef's knife as large as is comfortable for your hand, non-German brands like do just fine. Bourdain says a Global vanadium knife will certainly do. You don't need a full set. Read Pepin's La Technique on how to use it properly.

 

- Use home tools like blenders and such for creating vegetable purees and fancy oils to drizzle later on.

 

- Plastic squeeze bottle for artfully drizzling sauces and fancy oils on the plate. Fill a plate with two contrasting sauces in concentric circles and then draw a line using a toothpink (personally I think if you can do latte art you can do the same here).

 

- Plate the food to be tall using a thin metal ring or cut down PVC pipe. Stack accordingly, add fresh herb garnishes, remove ring.

 

- Use a pastry bag to pipe in purees and mashed potatoes in impressive shapes or designs.

 

- Get a mandolin to slice thinly. Perfectly julienned vegetables and waffle cuts are possible using the machine and look very professional.

 

- Get the neighborhood deli guy to slice your sausage or meat for you, to make it look beautifully thin, as home meat slicers are inferior.

 

- Get thick-bottomed, heavy pots and pans from restaurant close-out sales. It needs to be heavy enough to hurt someone if you hit them over the head. For non-stick pans, never wash them, just wipe them down, and protect the non-stick surface with non-metallic utensils.

 

- Shallots for sauces, dressings, etc.

 

- Butter. Sautee in a mixture of butter and oil. Every fancy sauce is finished with butter.

 

- Roasted garlic (turns sweet if roasted whole). Not old, burnt, smashed, or cut long ago. Sliver it for pasta. Smash it with a knife blade (the flat), not a press. Avoid burnt or rancid garlic.

 

- Chiffonaded parsley. Slice it by hand, as thinly as possible.

 

- Stock. Restaurants make it by hand using roasted bones and roasted vegetables on a regular basis. Make a big batch. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Strain. Freeze in small containers for later use.

 

- Demiglace. Make your own. Bourdain recommends using your homemade stock, red wine, shallots, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns. Freeze in ice cube trays for later use.

 

- Chervil. Basil tops. Chive sticks. Mint tops. Fresh thyme, rosemary. Elevate ordinary plates using garnishes. Throw your dried herbs and spice rack away. Use fresh herbs.