It does not take very many tries to start cooking better than a restaurant. And the best part is you can make sure that only your favorite ingredients get in there.
After like maybe half a year of cooking for myself a couple times a week (instead of frozen food or like canned food) it’s seriously started to astound me how bad some restaurant food is.
I know take out is mostly for convenience, but if the problem is taste you’re in luck because the bar to clear for tastier food than take out is really really low.
I can cook some reasonably decent chow, but most people are deluding themselves if they think their cooking is better than any restaurant that isn’t totally terrible.
Restaurant-style cooking is very equipment intensive. A proper Chinese style stir fry needs a gas jet burner and a big wok. A proper pizza needs an oven hotter than home ovens can do. Proper rotisserie meats like gyros or kebab need, well, a rotisserie. You can try to emulate these at home with varying degrees of success, but typically you do more work for what is objectively an inferior product. Many restaurant dishes also require the kind of prep work that doesn’t make sense unless you’re making them at scale.
With home cooking you have to play to your strengths and accept the fact that a lot of restaurant dishes are not worth making. There’s lots of great home cooked dishes you can make, and oftentimes making them yourself at home does make them feel better than at a restaurant, but let’s be honest the overwhelming majority of us are not cooking tastier food than a restaurant.
What makes you think we don’t have any special kind of equipment? Home pizza ovens are quite cheap and effective these days. Rotisseries can be bought as well.
but typically you do more work for what is objectively an inferior product.
No, that is a dubious claim. There is nothing objective about that statement.
If I’m making home shawarma I don’t have the meat kebab spinner, but that’s okay. I can swap in roast chicken and as long as I’ve got good garlic sauce and pickled veg, and a good pita it can still taste amazing. Is just not a proper shawarma.
Home cooking is better for stuff like a cheap steak house or a mid tier chain restaurant or whatever.
I’m not a Michelin star chef, the high quality restaurants are doing things I never would, and they’re amazing for that. But I don’t go to them often, and I’d rather spend money on that level of food than the common mid quality restaurant.
I disagree. I’m no expert, but I can make a better steak than any adorable restaurant. I can make pastas better, and my wife makes much better soups than I’ve had at restaurants. Many things we regularly make at home we can do better than restaurants. But you’re right, I can make okay Asian food, but not better than a restaurant. But my Hmong friend makes better Chinese than anything I’ve had at a restaurant. I think it really depends what you make a lot of and get good at.
Home cooked food is also going to taste a bit poorer because restaurants design their recipes to be appealing, not good for you. Full fat butter and too much sodium in everything.
You can, however, absolutely make better food at home. And it can be delicious if you know what youre doing and have a good grocery. But you’ve gotta put time and effort in.
For most things, I can make it as good or better than a restaurant because I can get better quality ingredients. The one thing I can’t seem to get to be similar is a burger to fast food burgers. I’ve used super high quality beef, I’ve used even lower quality beef, tried various seasoning combos, etc. I can make a damn good burger, but it’s nothing like the insanely addicting flavor of fast food burgers. IDK what they are doing, but it’s not just the quality of the ingredients you can see. The only place that seemingly just makes homemade burgers is In-n-Out. I can replicate that taste all day.
They put a drug in it to make you crave it fortnightly!
Probably a combination of sugar and msg in different parts.
I find fast food burgers to be pretty boring - the flavor is kind of flat, simple.
My homemade ones are great because I use a spice mix for burgers (a copy of one Williams Sonoma used to sell, that has things like Worcestersher powder, garlic, onion, thyme, mustard powder, etc).
I have heard, tho I don’t know if its true, that McDonald’s injects the beef patties with beef broth to make it taste meatier. I will say, working there, the pickles smell extra pickle-y and have a much stronger flavor than any store brand I’ve ever had (never made my own so can’t compare there). And they are also super bright green. Like almost neon. Their food also makes me feel full off a smaller portion of food than anywhere else, which I’ve questioned numerous times.
If anyone is doing weird shit with their food chemically, it’s McDonald’s.
It’s impossible to get better at cooking than eating in a restaurant. Already the fact that someone else is making that food is enough to make it better than any food i have and will ever cook and I’ve been cooking since teenage years, nearly 20 years. Every single day. Fuck. Eating, cooking, planning, balancing, considering others, basically everything involving it is a rather annoying chore and it has to be done whole life.
No I’m not bad at cooking, average, I’ve just grown to resent this activity.
I await the day we invent a food pill or at least one in all superfood or i can at least start eating current foods that claim to be all in one foods for every meal. Wife already looks at me weird when i eat my breakfast slop multiple times a day.
Yeah, I find that putting effort into a rote chore makes it feel terrible. Like the laundry. Making an exciting new meal, it can taste great. But once it becomes a chore, the taste is worse because of the memory of the work.
Yeah this is what I don’t get. Of course the first 2-3 times you try, it might be bad, but use your senses! Use ingredients you like, try adding a little something, look, taste, put more if you like, stop if you don’t. If the texture seems weird, try to correct it (add a liquid if it’s to dense, let cook if it’s too liquid). Get that feedback loop running!
I meal prep for the week on sunday and make food for the week. Every week what I make is as good or better than the restaurant version. This week is Kenji Lopez’s cochinita pibíl with which I make tacos. It is very good and took me like 3hrs to cook over the weekend.
It does not take very many tries to start cooking better than a restaurant.
Goddam it must be some lousy restaurants in your area.
My wife cooks really good food, and I love her food. But a proper restaurant with a proper chef, they are better than good, they are professionals and also professionals at picking fresh produce and good cuts to use.
But I agree, it’s pretty easy to learn to cook a decent meal.
And the best part is you can make sure that only your favorite ingredients get in there.
It also means the food will have less variation. To appreciate good cooking properly, you need variation.
![Home Cooked Meal [Teddy]](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/6c568f33-16a6-43f9-a043-8c760c83421b.webp){kind=link}
It does not take very many tries to start cooking better than a restaurant. And the best part is you can make sure that only your favorite ingredients get in there.
After like maybe half a year of cooking for myself a couple times a week (instead of frozen food or like canned food) it’s seriously started to astound me how bad some restaurant food is.
I know take out is mostly for convenience, but if the problem is taste you’re in luck because the bar to clear for tastier food than take out is really really low.
I can cook some reasonably decent chow, but most people are deluding themselves if they think their cooking is better than any restaurant that isn’t totally terrible.
Restaurant-style cooking is very equipment intensive. A proper Chinese style stir fry needs a gas jet burner and a big wok. A proper pizza needs an oven hotter than home ovens can do. Proper rotisserie meats like gyros or kebab need, well, a rotisserie. You can try to emulate these at home with varying degrees of success, but typically you do more work for what is objectively an inferior product. Many restaurant dishes also require the kind of prep work that doesn’t make sense unless you’re making them at scale.
With home cooking you have to play to your strengths and accept the fact that a lot of restaurant dishes are not worth making. There’s lots of great home cooked dishes you can make, and oftentimes making them yourself at home does make them feel better than at a restaurant, but let’s be honest the overwhelming majority of us are not cooking tastier food than a restaurant.
What makes you think we don’t have any special kind of equipment? Home pizza ovens are quite cheap and effective these days. Rotisseries can be bought as well.
No, that is a dubious claim. There is nothing objective about that statement.
I agree and disagree
If I’m making home shawarma I don’t have the meat kebab spinner, but that’s okay. I can swap in roast chicken and as long as I’ve got good garlic sauce and pickled veg, and a good pita it can still taste amazing. Is just not a proper shawarma.
Home cooking is better for stuff like a cheap steak house or a mid tier chain restaurant or whatever.
I’m not a Michelin star chef, the high quality restaurants are doing things I never would, and they’re amazing for that. But I don’t go to them often, and I’d rather spend money on that level of food than the common mid quality restaurant.
I think food tastes worse if I put effort into it.
I’m the exact opposite, if I put a decent amount of effort into it I’m more likely to enjoy it
I disagree. I’m no expert, but I can make a better steak than any adorable restaurant. I can make pastas better, and my wife makes much better soups than I’ve had at restaurants. Many things we regularly make at home we can do better than restaurants. But you’re right, I can make okay Asian food, but not better than a restaurant. But my Hmong friend makes better Chinese than anything I’ve had at a restaurant. I think it really depends what you make a lot of and get good at.
Home cooked food is also going to taste a bit poorer because restaurants design their recipes to be appealing, not good for you. Full fat butter and too much sodium in everything.
You can, however, absolutely make better food at home. And it can be delicious if you know what youre doing and have a good grocery. But you’ve gotta put time and effort in.
Absolutely true.
I think this has more to do with what kind of restaurants you go to
For most things, I can make it as good or better than a restaurant because I can get better quality ingredients. The one thing I can’t seem to get to be similar is a burger to fast food burgers. I’ve used super high quality beef, I’ve used even lower quality beef, tried various seasoning combos, etc. I can make a damn good burger, but it’s nothing like the insanely addicting flavor of fast food burgers. IDK what they are doing, but it’s not just the quality of the ingredients you can see. The only place that seemingly just makes homemade burgers is In-n-Out. I can replicate that taste all day.
They put a drug in it to make you crave it fortnightly!
Probably a combination of sugar and msg in different parts.
I find fast food burgers to be pretty boring - the flavor is kind of flat, simple.
My homemade ones are great because I use a spice mix for burgers (a copy of one Williams Sonoma used to sell, that has things like Worcestersher powder, garlic, onion, thyme, mustard powder, etc).
I have heard, tho I don’t know if its true, that McDonald’s injects the beef patties with beef broth to make it taste meatier. I will say, working there, the pickles smell extra pickle-y and have a much stronger flavor than any store brand I’ve ever had (never made my own so can’t compare there). And they are also super bright green. Like almost neon. Their food also makes me feel full off a smaller portion of food than anywhere else, which I’ve questioned numerous times.
If anyone is doing weird shit with their food chemically, it’s McDonald’s.
Isn’t there something like 17 ingredients in their french fries?
Man, now I want a really juicy double smash cheeseburger.
It’s impossible to get better at cooking than eating in a restaurant. Already the fact that someone else is making that food is enough to make it better than any food i have and will ever cook and I’ve been cooking since teenage years, nearly 20 years. Every single day. Fuck. Eating, cooking, planning, balancing, considering others, basically everything involving it is a rather annoying chore and it has to be done whole life.
No I’m not bad at cooking, average, I’ve just grown to resent this activity.
I await the day we invent a food pill or at least one in all superfood or i can at least start eating current foods that claim to be all in one foods for every meal. Wife already looks at me weird when i eat my breakfast slop multiple times a day.
Yeah, I find that putting effort into a rote chore makes it feel terrible. Like the laundry. Making an exciting new meal, it can taste great. But once it becomes a chore, the taste is worse because of the memory of the work.
Yeah this is what I don’t get. Of course the first 2-3 times you try, it might be bad, but use your senses! Use ingredients you like, try adding a little something, look, taste, put more if you like, stop if you don’t. If the texture seems weird, try to correct it (add a liquid if it’s to dense, let cook if it’s too liquid). Get that feedback loop running!
I meal prep for the week on sunday and make food for the week. Every week what I make is as good or better than the restaurant version. This week is Kenji Lopez’s cochinita pibíl with which I make tacos. It is very good and took me like 3hrs to cook over the weekend.
Ive refused to ever eat at an olive garden for goodness, goin on 20 years now because anything on their menu, I can make better
Goddam it must be some lousy restaurants in your area.
My wife cooks really good food, and I love her food. But a proper restaurant with a proper chef, they are better than good, they are professionals and also professionals at picking fresh produce and good cuts to use.
But I agree, it’s pretty easy to learn to cook a decent meal.
It also means the food will have less variation. To appreciate good cooking properly, you need variation.