Great cooks taste constantly. The recipe gets you close; tasting gets you there.
Key idea
Taste with a clean spoon each time (never double-dip). Taste at each stage, and at the temperature it will be served. To fix: flat or dull → salt, then acid; too salty → more of the unsalted base, or serve with something unsalted; too sour → a little sweetness or fat; too sweet → acid or salt; too bitter → salt, fat or sweetness; too spicy → fat (dairy) or more base.
- Keep a cup of clean tasting spoons at your station and a second cup for used ones.
- Taste the components separately and then together on the plate.
- Adjust in small steps; you can always add, not take away.
- Cold food needs a little more seasoning than hot.
Why it works
Taste is relative. A pinch of salt can make a sauce taste less bitter; a squeeze of lemon can make a soup taste saltier without more salt. Small changes, tasted each time, teach you how ingredients talk to each other.
Worked example: Fix it
A cream sauce tastes heavy and flat, but salty enough.
- Salt is fine; it needs brightness to cut richness.
Answer: Add a little acid (lemon juice or wine).
Common mistake
Trying to fix too much salt with sugar. Sugar masks a little but doesn't remove salt; dilute with more unsalted base instead.
Practice at home
- Ask someone to make a soup too salty, too sour, or too flat on purpose, without telling you which. Taste, name the problem, and fix it.