Every new cook gets told to taste as they go, and I think that advice is half wrong

Quinn Davis · 2026-10-29T13:35:04.169057+00:00

I ran the saute station at a 90 seat bistro in Portland for 6 years, and the worst habit I picked up early was tasting my sauce straight out of the pot with a spoon. A chef named Rosa finally snapped at me about it: "You're tasting it hot and alone, so you fix it for a plate that doesn't exist yet." The move is to pull a small bit onto a plate, let it cool 20 seconds, and taste it with the starch or protein it's actually going on, because salt and acid read way different next to a bite of rice or a piece of fish. How do you all handle seasoning when you're cooking a component that gets finished somewhere else on the line?

Vivisector

Loading…

Every new cook gets told to taste as they go, and I think that advice is half wrong | Chefs - Vivisector