9 Brilliant Ways To Save Time In The Kitchen, According To Chefs

I always try to keep my eyes peeled for tips, tricks, and hacks that can save me time and effort in the kitchen. Because while I take pride in making nourishing meals for my family, I don’t necessarily have unlimited time to do it!

Which is kind of funny when you think about it, because restaurant chefs don’t either! Even though they are literally cooking all day long, they need to get food out quickly to their hungry diners, and they have all sorts of time-saving kitchen hacks that help them do it.

So I thought I’d take a page out of their book by rustling up some restaurant kitchen hacks to share with you! So without further ado, here are 9 time-saving kitchen hacks from restaurants that you can start using at home.

9 Restaurant Kitchen Hacks That Will Save You Time At Home

1. Peel Several Eggs At Once

Peeling hard boiled eggs individually can be painstaking work, especially if you need to peel several of them at once! To make potato salad or egg salad easier, here’s a helpful hack for peeling them all at once.

Place up to 6 hard boiled eggs in a shallow plastic container, then fill the container about halfway full of water. Put the lid on tightly, then shake the container about 30 times to shatter the shells and knock them loose.

Then open the container, use the water to help remove any remaining bits of shell from the eggs, and voila! You’ll have perfectly peeled eggs in less time than ever. :-)

2. Hot Pepper Protection

Most restaurant chefs slip on a pair of disposable gloves to protect their hands when handling hot peppers like habaneros. But if you don’t have disposable gloves or want a waste-free option, try using a little olive oil instead!

Before you start slicing and dicing your hot peppers, pour a teaspoon or so of olive oil into your hand. Rub your hands together like you’re washing them, and make sure to get some of that oil under your fingernails too.

Once you’re oiled up, go ahead and cut your peppers. The thick olive oil will act as a barrier between your skin and the natural oils of the pepper, and once you’re done, just wash your hands thoroughly to wash away both the pepper oils and the olive oil!

3. Peel Garlic Effortlessly

Planning to make a batch of pesto, or some other recipe that requires a lot of fresh garlic? Make it easier for yourself by placing the unpeeled cloves of garlic in a container of water overnight.

After a night of soaking, you’ll be able to push the skins right off the cloves with little to no effort. Even soaking garlic cloves in water for a few minutes will make them easier to peel, though overnight will yield the best results.

4. Chill Your Plastic Wrap

I’m sure we’ve all had enough rage-inducing plastic wrap encounters to understand how frustrating it can be to handle! But you can make it much easier to deal with by storing it in your fridge rather than at room temperature.

Chilled plastic wrap is a bit more rigid and less prone to folding over on itself. This simple storage swap is sure to save you plenty of time and frustration!

5. Slicing Soft Cheeses

Soft cheese like goat cheese can be tricky to slice neatly without smashing them in the process. So set your kitchen knife aside and grab some sewing thread instead!

A long piece of thread (or dental floss) is a great tool for cutting soft cheeses. It makes a clean cut and requires less force, so you can get clean slices without smashing your cheese.

6. Rapidly Ripen Avocados

Need ripe avocados fast, but you can only find ones that are still rock hard? Bury it in flour. Like other tactics, the flour amplifies the avocado’s ethylene emissions. It also has the added effect of absorbing excess moisture, producing an avocado that’s perfectly ripe, green, and creamy rather than one that’s brown and squishy.

7. Roll Your Bacon

Due to the compression happening in the package, it can be tricky to separate strips of bacon without pieces ripping apart or clumping together. But you can make your bacon easier to separate later by rolling the package lengthwise and securing it with a rubber band before storing it in your fridge.

8. Grating Soft Cheeses

Grating soft cheeses (or any cheese that’s a bit warm, for that matter) can turn into a smeary mess! Before grating your cheese, place it in your freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help it firm up enough to make grating easier!

9. Skim Fat From Soups

Quickly skim fat from soups and stews with the help of an ice cube! Drop an ice cube into your pot of soup or stew, and as it melts, the fat will condense and congeal on the surface, making it easy to skim off!

Do you have any favorite kitchen hacks that save you time or effort?