10 Professional Cooking Hacks with Spencer Westcott

We’ve all been there: you drag yourself exhaustedly home from work during the week and crumble onto the sofa, ready to binge-watch your favourite show or enjoy a *large* glass of wine. But then you remember that you have to get up and cook dinner. After spending so much time in the house lately, we’re all running out of recipe ideas, resorting to the same old pasta bake or even the occasional (gasp) ready meal. This is where The Artisan Food Company’s flawless cooking hacks come in.

Working with talented chef Spencer Westcott, whose impressive portfolio includes the kitchen of The Ritz, our range of Date Night Hampers are here to make mealtimes easier, more enjoyable, and more delicious. The best part? You don’t have to be a professional chef to follow our simple, step-by-step recipes.

But if you’re lacking confidence in the kitchen, you’re not alone: with only 42.6% of Brits cooking at home every day, many people feel they are out of practice, and don’t know where to start. We at The Artisan Food Company wanted to share our secrets and cooking hacks to take the stress out of family dinners, leaving you time to enjoy the company of the people you love.

From reducing food waste to creating the perfect sauce in minutes, these 10 cooking hacks from esteemed chef Spencer Westcott will revolutionise the way you cook. Read on for more.

1. Save bones and vegetable scraps in the freezer

Keep chicken or beef bones, along with onion tops, carrot peel and mushroom stems, in a freezer-safe bag and store them. When you have a free moment, place them in a large pot and cover them with water, adding a few peppercorns and bay leaves if you have them. Simmer away for a few hours, and you have created a simple, homemade stock!

2. Secure your chopping board with a damp kitchen towel

Put a clean but moist dishcloth or kitchen towel underneath your chopping board to keep it in place as you chop and cut. It will make it a lot safer, and save you chasing the board around your worktop.

3. Make roux in advance

Save time when making gravy and thickened sauces by making your roux beforehand. This classical base is used to thicken everything from soups to sauces. You can store pre-made roux in airtight containers in the refrigerator, or freeze it to make sure you always have some on-hand.

4. Always weigh your ingredients when baking

Unlike savoury cooking, where measurements can be flexible, baking is a science, and measurements should be precise. Pastry chefs will weigh their baking ingredients, and you should, too. An extra ounce here or there really can mean the difference between perfect and pathetic when it comes to your cakes!

5. Season as you go

This cooking hack will level-up the flavours of your food. If you wait until the end of your cooking to add salt, your food will taste salty instead of seasoned. Instead, add salt as you go. When you’re sweating onions, add a small pinch of salt. Season your meat, vegetables, soups and sauces. Everything!

6. Don’t overcrowd the pan

As food cooks it releases water. When your ingredients are packed too closely together, they steam instead of caramelising. So give them a little space to breathe – even if that means frying in batches or using multiple pans at the same time.

7. You can clean your grill with an onion

This cooking hack may be hard to believe, but stick with us! For a natural way to clean and season your BBQ or grill, rub a cut onion on the bars, before using cleaning product. The enzymes in the onion do a great job at loosening up baked-on grime and grit.

8. Deglaze every pan

When you cook meat and vegetables in a hot pan, little bits stick to the bottom. These are quite often the secret to the foundation of a great sauce! Deglazing your pan with wine, broth, juice, brandy or plain water is an easy way to impart extra flavour into all your dishes.

9. Finish cooked sauces with a touch of butter

In classical French cooking, this technique is called ‘monte au beurre’. It’s a way of enriching and improving the flavour of your sauces, and also gives a nice shine to your finished sauce.

10. To make chopping onions easier, keep the root end intact as you cut it

This cooking hack will ensure you have something to hold when chopping finely and will stop the onion from falling apart.