Small Touches That Elevate A Meal To Restaurant Quality

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A lot of people are missing their favorite restaurants right now. While many are turning to takeout or delivery, the food is just never quite the same by the time it travels in your car –or the delivery driver’s car — and makes it to your table.

Even when you put plenty of effort into your own cooking, sometimes it seems like there’s just a little magic about a restaurant meal that it’s hard to get at home. It’s tough to put one’s finger on exactly what restaurants do to make their dishes just a cut above the rest. Why are they so special? Why do they feel different than home-cooked meals? At this point in the pandemic, everyone can probably use some ways to get excited about their own cooking. You may be fresh out of ideas and dreading rather than looking forward to mealtime. As is the secret to surviving many elements of the pandemic, it’s important to find those little tricks that make life at home feel like it’s taking place somewhere else. Like turning your backyard into a drive-in movie theater. Or turning your balcony into a Tikki bar. Or, using these tips to elevate your meal to restaurant quality.

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Get those garnishes

When you get Pho, noodles, or curry, you find those garnishes that make all the difference, like chopped green onions or toasted sesame seeds. A tostada salad has tortillas strips and cilantro. A great creamy pasta dish has a handful of fresh parsley, tossed on at the end. You may find thinly sliced radishes over enchilada plates. Think of those little something extras that restaurants put on your favorite dishes. You can absolutely buy them at the store, and keep them on hand for your food.

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Plant your own herb garden

If you want to take your garnish game to the next level, consider planting your own herb garden. Even if you don’t have a full outdoor space, you can keep a few potted herbs on a windowsill. Basil, rosemary, and chives will go a long way. Fresh herbs have a much fuller-bodied flavor than the dry stuff, and instantly add color to a plate.

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Add color

Speaking of adding color to a plate, when creating dishes, think of having a range of colors, and ones that complement each other. It’s so easy to make these small changes. Like when adding bell pepper to a salad, use red or yellow, as a green one won’t stand out against the already green lettuce. If you have a chicken noodle dish, just add some freshly sliced jalapenos for instant color.

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Serve on something special

Pay attention to what your food is served on at a restaurant. It’s not all simple dinner plates. You may get your food on small wooden planks, or miniature skillets. French fries might come in small wire baskets. An earthy salad may come in a bamboo bowl. Great restaurants match to the medium to the message, meaning they pick out interesting serving dishes that complement their contents.

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Treat yourself to the good stuff

There are some ingredients for which you just need to get the good stuff. Invest in quality extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil to drizzle on salads or appetizers. Get the good cheese to crumble on top of salads – the slightly pricier but oh-so-flavorful one. Opt for higher-end hand-cut pasta. Restaurants go high-end on the ingredients that can pack a punch.

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Learn to sear

If you pay attention to the next chicken breast, fish, steak, or pork chop you order at a restaurant, you’ll notice some nice brown lines on the outside and a little texture. They seared it. What many restaurants do is put a piece of meat on high heat for just a minute on each side, in a pan, to get that nice sear. Then they transfer the meat to the oven so the inside can cook. The sear keeps the juices inside.

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Wait to cut your meat

On the topic of keeping the juices inside of your meat, don’t cut into your meat the second it’s ready. That’s how you wind up with a small puddle of juice on your plate, smothering your other food. Let your meat sit for a few minutes once it’s done cooking, so the juices can disperse within it, and it can remain moist when you eat it.

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Use seasonal veggies

The best restaurants plan their menus around what’s in season now. That’s why you may not see too many tomatoes or zucchini or eggplant once fall and winter comes, as these are sun produce that thrives in the summer. During the fall, you’ll see more root vegetables like potatoes and parsnips and carrots. Follow the seasons, and you’ll have the tastiest produce. Shopping at the Farmer’s Market is an easy way to do this.

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Make your own stock

Restaurants tend to make their own stock. It’s just so much more flavorful than the store-bought boxed variety. You can make one big batch of stock – whether that’s vegetable, chicken, or beef – at the beginning of the week, store it in the refrigerator, and use it for all sorts of recipes throughout the week. For best safety practices, only keep meat-based stocks for about five days.

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Visit the seafood market

Seafood markets actually have a pandemic-friendly feature going for them; they’re usually outside! In fact, they’re usually by a wharf, or somehow near the ocean. Restaurant owners and head chefs visit seafood markets for their seafood. That’s where they can get the freshest stuff, that’s never pre-frozen, and came out of the ocean that day.

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Plate to perfection
Plating is almost everything. The way you perceive your food can actually affect the way it tastes. Don’t you just get excited looking at a beautiful plate of food? Restaurants use big plates, so the food isn’t crowded. Each item has a chance to shine on a big plate. They use simple white plates – colors and patterns take away from the food. They place things with intention, like alternating pieces of tomatoes and mozzarella in a caprese salad.

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Shallots everywhere

Don’t overlook the shallot. This little onion-looking ingredient packs a ton of flavor, more than any onion or garlic possibly could. A little goes a long way, and restaurants love the stuff. Many restaurants go through pounds of shallots every day. If you’re trying to eat less sodium without losing flavor, do yourself a favor and buy shallots.

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Butter it up

It may not be the healthiest trick in the book, but if we’re being honest about how restaurants make their food so good, they use butter! They cook their vegetables and meats in butter. It has a much higher smoking point than olive oil, so you can use it at higher heats (something restaurants also like to do, to lock in flavor).

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Transfer food into serving dishes

If you are serving food family-style, then transfer your big batches of pasta and salads and sides to beautiful serving dishes, with proper serving utensils. Don’t just have everyone serve themselves from the pots and pans on the stove, that the food was made in. Besides, putting everything in serving dishes, on the table, keeps people at the table, talking and relaxing.

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Put sauces in corianders

If you have sauces, like hollandaise for steak, ranch dressing or ketchup for fries, or au jus sauce for a French dip sandwich, put these in small corianders. Don’t just dump them on the plate to go all over the place. Give yourself the chance to decide when to use the sauces, and experience them individually.