Top Chef Techniques for the Home Chef

To make things a little bit more simple, just in case you want to go back and see the technique yourself, I have collected a list of tips and tricks from Season 5. If these prove to be helpful, I'll post techniques from other past seasons! Enjoy!

1.There are only a few circumstances in life when you would want to be face to face with an eel; cooking them is one. As displayed by Hosea in Episode 11: Le Bernardin, deboning an eel can be one messy deal. That is why home cooks should learn a thing or two from Stefan who peeled, sliced, and deboned his eel with smoothness and suave only a European man can deliver. First, take out your toolbox, grab your hammer and nail the eel's head onto your wooden chopping board. While the nail holds the eel firmly in place, grip the eel's skin just as firmly and peel it off its body in one solid pull. Cut the sides of the eel, slice it in half, and debone.

2.Episode 3: Foo Fighters shows it plain and simple: microwaves and toaster ovens can do wonders. As Fabio put it, there is now no excuse for a family not to have a good Thanksgiving dinner anywhere in America. Ariane's turkey was a hit, and you can have the same scrumptious and juicy turkey on your table using her recipe - and a toaster oven.

3.Another cool technique from Stefan from Episode 4: Today Show is the use of an egg shell cutter (some call it egg topper, I believe) to turn something as mundane as an egg into a classy and interesting container for an amous bouche. There are several ones you can buy online.

4.A chef has to know how to handle meat, period. In Episode 8: Down on the Farm, we learn a couple of techniques not by seeing the top chef contestants do it, but by witnessing them falter, foregoing these techniques completely. First, Ariane tragically butchers baby lamb meat by tenderizing it. As Tom and the owner of the farm point out at the Judges' Table, baby lamb meat is naturally tender. The first technique to learn here is to leave the baby lamb meat alone. Second, although she was called into the task unexpectedly and with so little time left, Leah unevenly tied the lamb that Ariane butchered. This resulted in the uneven cooking of the meat. Needless to say, take your time in tying your meat; it is crucial.

5.Lastly, remember that creativity can salvage your dish. In Restaurant Wars, Carla experiences some trouble with freezing her dessert and consequently ends up serving a melted "frozen" yogurt. As lead judge Tom Collichio suggested, she should just have had the dessert's name changed to yogurt "soup" instead. When something goes array minutes before your dinner party, sometimes the ultimate technique is renaming the dish! Another way creativity saved the day for dessert in the same episode is when Stefan, faced with a malfunctioning freezer as well, fills up a bucket with ice and "freezes" his dessert there. Improvisation is key!