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.
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.
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.
Very much depends, not an absolutely true. Other commenter’s example is good: I can absolutely cook better steaks than all but one restaurant in a 30km radius. Pizza, sushi, most non-fish seafood? Not so.
But truly the biggest win here is that you can choose what ingredients you use, and that usually results in “better” food than the restaurant simply because it’s cooked and spiced perfectly the way you like it.
I think you are deluding yourself in terms of quality you get at restaurants. It’s almost always a bit stale because they have to buy in bulk and move inventory. People that I know that work in kitchens never recommended to me eating out.
Maybe this is a matter of where you live. I can imagine the average American chain restaurant (like Olive Garden which was mentioned elsewhere in this thread) being pretty terrible. Where I’m from, most restaurants aren’t chains, and while there certainly are terrible restaurants the average is very good.
Yeah if you don’t go to a lot of restaurants and realize the food is mid, you just aren’t good at cooking yet.
High quality restaurants that can beat my cooking exist, and are in every town. I’m not just comparing myself to a Michelin star. Another thing restaurants have over me are deep fryers and other superior cooking equipment, which make food I just can’t make myself.
And I would never deny, the way I make my home cooking taste better than a restaurant is by taking an hour or two to cook the food and being able to buy fresh, small quantity ingredients the day of.
But I mean come on. To your point, people who work in kitchens can make a better meal for themselves at the end of their shift than what they generally serve in a day. Restaurant food is designed for quantity and consistency, that’s about it.
You’re talking past each other, using “better” in different ways. Correct, my cooking is technically inferior to restaurant cooking for exactly the reasons you described. However, the recipes themselves are designed by an individual with preferences. Even if my cooking is technically inferior, it will be ‘better’ simply because I am cooking for my own palate and preferences. Same word, completely different meaning.
Fair, but there is also the matter of effort. A lot of restaurant classics are just not worth making at home except as a special treat because it’s so much effort at home whereas a restaurant just does it at scale.
Ramen, for example (and yeah many westerners may consider it upscale but it is, in fact, street food) takes a really eclectic mix of ingredients and only a small amount of each ingredient ends up in each bowl. Perfect for restaurants, because they just batch prepare the ingredients and put a little bit of the batch in the bowl, but a ton of work to make at home.
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.
A restaurant specializing in something is going to have all the specialized equipment for their purpose. To match all restaurants you, a home chef, need more equipment than almost any restaurant.
No, that is a dubious claim. There is nothing objective about that statement.
No it’s not, and yes there is. Since you didn’t elaborate I also won’t.
![Home Cooked Meal [Teddy]](https://lemmy.runesmite.com/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fslrpnk.net%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2F6c568f33-16a6-43f9-a043-8c760c83421b.webp){kind=link}
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.
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.
i only order food i can’t/am not willing to make at home
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 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.
Absolutely true.
Very much depends, not an absolutely true. Other commenter’s example is good: I can absolutely cook better steaks than all but one restaurant in a 30km radius. Pizza, sushi, most non-fish seafood? Not so.
But truly the biggest win here is that you can choose what ingredients you use, and that usually results in “better” food than the restaurant simply because it’s cooked and spiced perfectly the way you like it.
I think food tastes worse if I put effort into it.
Step out of the kitchen for a few mins before eating, a lot of flavour is the smell and acclimatise to it as you cook.
I’m the exact opposite, if I put a decent amount of effort into it I’m more likely to enjoy it
I think you are deluding yourself in terms of quality you get at restaurants. It’s almost always a bit stale because they have to buy in bulk and move inventory. People that I know that work in kitchens never recommended to me eating out.
Maybe this is a matter of where you live. I can imagine the average American chain restaurant (like Olive Garden which was mentioned elsewhere in this thread) being pretty terrible. Where I’m from, most restaurants aren’t chains, and while there certainly are terrible restaurants the average is very good.
Yeah if you don’t go to a lot of restaurants and realize the food is mid, you just aren’t good at cooking yet.
High quality restaurants that can beat my cooking exist, and are in every town. I’m not just comparing myself to a Michelin star. Another thing restaurants have over me are deep fryers and other superior cooking equipment, which make food I just can’t make myself.
And I would never deny, the way I make my home cooking taste better than a restaurant is by taking an hour or two to cook the food and being able to buy fresh, small quantity ingredients the day of.
But I mean come on. To your point, people who work in kitchens can make a better meal for themselves at the end of their shift than what they generally serve in a day. Restaurant food is designed for quantity and consistency, that’s about it.
You’re talking past each other, using “better” in different ways. Correct, my cooking is technically inferior to restaurant cooking for exactly the reasons you described. However, the recipes themselves are designed by an individual with preferences. Even if my cooking is technically inferior, it will be ‘better’ simply because I am cooking for my own palate and preferences. Same word, completely different meaning.
Fair, but there is also the matter of effort. A lot of restaurant classics are just not worth making at home except as a special treat because it’s so much effort at home whereas a restaurant just does it at scale.
Ramen, for example (and yeah many westerners may consider it upscale but it is, in fact, street food) takes a really eclectic mix of ingredients and only a small amount of each ingredient ends up in each bowl. Perfect for restaurants, because they just batch prepare the ingredients and put a little bit of the batch in the bowl, but a ton of work to make at home.
At home one-pot dishes are king.
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.
A restaurant specializing in something is going to have all the specialized equipment for their purpose. To match all restaurants you, a home chef, need more equipment than almost any restaurant.
No it’s not, and yes there is. Since you didn’t elaborate I also won’t.