Some tips for garde manger cooks out there tasked with making family meal salad every day. Learn to think outside of recipes for vinaigrettes and creamy salad dressings. 

Mastering Salad Dressings

Making an aïoli is something every cook should be able to do without a recipe. I’d even go so far as to argue that aïoli is a mother sauce of the modern restaurant kitchen. 

There’s no recipe required for Mayonnaise

Culinary school can teach you so much about cooking, but it's a mighty questionable value proposition. Is it worth it? 

Should I go to Culinary School?

Michael Cecchi-Azzolina’s Your Table Is Ready, Tales of a New York City Maître D’ is here.

The Next Big Industry Read Has Arrived

The very essence of cooking lies in learning to make use of the mealy bits - the bones, the vegetable trim, the parsley stems. The good news is that making stock is way less complicated than the culinary Gods want you to believe.

Stock is a necessary touchpoint on the road to culinary enlightenment

The story behind the genesis of usefirst.com. How a New York City line cook used his down time during Covid to try and change the industry for the better.

Why I Built Use First

Tips on how to show up for that big first restaurant job interview. First appearances are everything. Make sure you’re not ice-capading around the kitchen in a hairnet in front of your future comrades and other lifesaving tips.

What tools should you take on a restaurant trail?

Ever wonder how professional line cooks make use of cake testers to hit the pass with perfectly cooked proteins every time? Here's everything you need to know to become a ringer on grill.

How To Use A Cake Tester

VIP is short for very important person. It is a common line note below an ordered item on a ticket or dupe received by the kitchen from the front of house. It indicates that the individual, or the entire table, for one reason or another is a very important person, and great care should be taken with the preparation of their food. It is an alternate, and probably preferred way of saying soigné, French for "cared for".

If a ticket is marked VIP, it does not mean that the chef wants you to give them extra protein or truffles or anything out of ordinary for that particular pick up. It does mean that you should care for the plating - spend a few extra seconds making sure that it's tight. That it's cooked to be best of your abilities, that your garnishes are positioned correctly, and that your flavors are perfectly balanced, and that your plate is hot or cold as it should be. 

VIP is short for very important person. It is a common line note below an ordered item on a ticket or dupe received by the kitchen from the front of house. It indicates that the individual, or the entire table, for one reason or another is a very important person, and great care should be taken with the preparation of their food.