Think You're a Top Chef? Let's See What You Really Know

Flavoring and tenderizing

There's science behind marinating meat. Through osmosis, the marinade is drawn into the meat, imparting a wealth of flavor. Oil helps the marinade thicken and stick to the meat. With the addition of an acid, such as lemon or lime juice, apple cider vinegar, or even pineapple juice, the meat fibers begin to break down, allowing the meat to become tender and juicy. Flavorings such as herbs, maple, or citrus will have your guests licking their fingers.

To cut into short, thin, matchstick shapes

To julienne something — usually a vegetable, but any firm food will do — is to cut it uniformly in thin, matchstick shapes, generally no more than a couple of inches long. These julienned vegetables can be used in a salad, caramelized and added to soups, or implemented in any number of other ways. A handful of julienned bread can be thrown into a soup, for example, where it will absorb the liquid and break down, thickening the soup.

Adding salt, pepper, spices and herbs

Seasoning your food almost always begins with simple salt and pepper to bring out the dish's flavor and its savory qualities. Then, depending on the food, specific herbs and spices can be added to enhance and complement the food and its accompaniments.

Blanch

Blanching is the standout here. While slicing, dicing, and shredding are all styles by which food can be cut, to blanch is to submerge something in boiling water for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and then lift it out and move it quickly to an ice bath to stop the cooking process, thereby preserving its color and nutrients. This is useful for peeling tomatoes or peaches, for instance, or for preparing foods such as snow peas or corn on the cob for stir-frying or freezer storage.

Heat comes from above in broiling and below in grilling

A broiler radiates controllable and intense heat inside an electric or gas oven, causing foods underneath to cook quickly and gain a brown, crusty top. Grilling is also intensely hot, but the heat comes from below — either from briquettes, a gas flame, or a wood fire — and its temperature isn't as easy to control. Grilled food will frequently feature tell-tale "grill marks" and a smoky or woody flavor. Both methods require turning the food for equal cooking.

Adding a bit of liquid to the bottom of a hot pan to release the stuck-on brown bits

When you pan fry or roast foods, particularly meats, the bottom of the pan may become coated with little brown bits and even a dark film of dehydrated juices. To deglaze the pan, remove the meat, then add a bit of acidic liquid, such as wine or apple cider (but broth or even water will work) to the still-hot pan. The liquid will release the brown bits (called fond) and caramelization, creating a concentrated sauce to drizzle back over the meat or accompanying vegetables.

Zucchini, tomatoes, and eggplant

Ratatouille is a French dish that can be cooked in a pot like a stew or carefully layered in a casserole dish and baked for a fancier presentation. The main ingredients include zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and summer squash. For a heartier dish, potatoes are sometimes added. This colorful mix is seasoned with salt, pepper, and a generous helping of herbs. It is actually a vegan dish, which may account for its rising popularity.

Mint

Traditionally, mutton (a.k.a. old sheep) was roasted, braised, or grilled and paired with mint jelly. The color may be a show-stopper, but the mild mint flavor cuts through the fattiness of the meat and disguises the gamey flavor somewhat.

Elvis Presley

Only someone as famous as Elvis Presley could entice people to eat a sandwich as unusual as this one. With peanut butter spread on one slice of toasted bread, sliced or mashed banana on the other, and a generous helping of crispy bacon in the middle, you're off to a great start with this sammie — but you are not finished until you fry it, grilled cheese style, in hot bacon fat. Honestly, we're kind of surprised The King made it to the ripe old age of 42.

Convection

A convection oven incorporates a fan that circulates the heat more intensely and cooks anything you bake about 25 percent faster than a traditional radiant heat oven would. It also caramelizes surfaces better so you get superior browning and crispier foods. For these reasons, you may not want to use the convection feature every time.

Emeril Lagasse

Massachusetts-born Emeril Lagasse is a popular television chef, as well as the chef/owner of his own restaurants. His eccentric, yet charming manner has won him fans from all over the world. He is famously known for yelling "Bam!" with hands in the air as he throws in a dash of this or a pinch of that. When he changes up a recipe to add a bit of heat, he says "Let's kick it up a notch!" He has a secret spice called "Essence of Emeril," and he named his television show after it.

To heat slowly, allowing the natural sugars to sweeten and brown

Caramelization takes place when a food is allowed to cook slowly in a pan, allowing the naturally occurring sugars to convert to a sweet, caramel-colored substance. Caramelized onions, for example, will first be sweated and sprinkled lightly with salt. The sugars in the juices and in the onions themselves slowly brown and form a caramelly, sweet substance on the onions. They can then be used as an ingredient, such as a topping for steaks or pizza.

It is a tree made of stacked pastries with a caramel drizzle.

Croquembouche is a French term that literally means "crunch in the mouth." Small profiterole pastries are filled with whipped cream or pastry cream and stacked several layers high to resemble a tree, The croquembouche is then drizzled with a web of caramelized sugar that hardens and becomes brittle; it's typically decorated with fruit or flowers. It is then served by cracking the caramel shell and removing one pastry. It is commonly served at extravagant weddings.

Tapioca

Fregola is a toasted pasta from Sardinia with a nutty flavor. Orzo looks very much like rice and is popular in salads or in risotto-style dishes. Acini di Pepe is a tiny, round pasta that is most often found in the sweet Frog's Eye salad popular at family reunions and church socials. Tapioca, on the other hand, is a starch made from the South American cassava root and is used to thicken puddings or make bubble teas.

Gently simmering in liquid at low temperatures on the stovetop

Poaching means to bring a pan of liquid to a simmer on the stovetop and gently place foods in the liquid to cook them. In some cases, this imparts flavor, too. An egg poached in water and a bit of vinegar, for instance, is tender, has no brown or crusty edges, holds its shape, and has a partially runny interior. A whole fish is likely to be poached in some type of vegetable broth with an acid such as wine until just done and its skin loosens. Poaching is used when gently cooking with no browning is desired.

Pushing cooked vegetables through a tool that creates small bits

A ricer is a small tool that you load with soft-cooked vegetables — most often cauliflower — and then turn the crank or press the veggies through to produce rice-sized bits. This is especially useful for those that enjoy rice dishes but want to cut the carbohydrates. Putting potatoes through a ricer is a great way to have uniform texture in mashed potatoes. It is also an effective way of removing skins from cooked potatoes, tomatoes, or apples.

Epsom salts

Kala namak is not a fictitious name from a sci-fi series, but a rich, dark salt from Nepal that has been mixed with herbs, bark, and seeds and furnace-fired for 24 hours. It is great on eggs. Fleur de sel is harvested from tide pools along the coast of France and is great on salted caramels. Hawaiian black lava is a salt harvested from the island's volcanic shores and mixed with charcoal. It is a delicious complement to pork. Epsom salt, on the other hand, is too high in magnesium to be safely ingested. It is, however, used for many medicinal and cosmetic applications.

Alton Brown

Primo was the name of the chef in the movie 'Big Night'; Harry Papadopoulos is the chef in the movie 'Papadopoulos and Sons', and Carl Casper was the chef in... 'Chef'. The only real foodie on the list is Alton Brown, a Los Angeles-born cinematographer, film producer, and television personality. Brown is no fake, though; he is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and has a true understanding not only of the art of cooking but also the science. He has produced or been featured in countless informational and entertaining food programs.

Cooking something slowly at a low temperature, submerged in liquid to tenderize it

Stewing is the tenderizing process of slow-simmering tough cuts of meat on the stovetop, covered in liquid, until the connective tissue breaks down and they are fall-apart tender. Diced vegetables such as carrots, onions, or celery may be added at first to give flavor, while additional chunks of vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, or carrots, may be added in the last half-hour or so of cooking. It is served in a bowl with the cooking liquid. Stewing can also be used for a single food, such as tomatoes or dried fruits.

Submerging vacuum-sealed food under hot water

Sous vide literally translates to "under vacuum" and is done by vacuum-sealing foods in heat-safe bags and submerging them in water. A sous vide device is then placed in the container, and the food is gently and evenly raised to an exact temperature. This is very popular for expensive steak cuts which, once done, are left to rest and then given a very quick sear in a hot iron skillet.

Egg whites

A soufflé is generally a base — such as pastry creme, fruit puree, or béchamel — that has been lightened by folding several whipped and stiffened egg whites into it. The heat expands the air trapped inside while at the same time tightening the proteins in the egg white, causing it to rise upward, sometimes several inches. Fruit, cheese, or even chocolate can be added before folding in the egg whites for a delicate and delicious treat.

Egg cream

Of these fountain favorites from a bygone era, the chocolate malted, root beer float, and banana split are pretty much self-explanatory — not so for our friend the egg cream. Concocted of carbonated water, milk, and either chocolate or vanilla syrup, you will find neither eggs nor cream in the recipe. There are dozens of explanations as to why, but the most popular is that this is a cheaper, war-time copycat of a drink made with real eggs and cream before the war.

A béchamel is a sauce; a roux is used to thicken sauces.

While the ingredients are virtually identical — butter, warm milk, and flour — the two have very different purposes. A roux is created to thicken a béchamel sauce or one of many other sauces. Starting with melted butter, you stir in flour a bit at a time and continue stirring while the flour cooks. Don't allow it to brown; that's a whole other recipe. Add the milk slowly until there are no lumps and it is very thick. That is your roux. Now continue adding milk and stirring until you reach a sauce consistency. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and a dash of nutmeg, and you have a béchamel.

If the food starts as a solid, it is roasting; if it starts as a liquid and turns to a solid, it is baking.

In order to roast something, you will start out with an already-solid structure, such as a chicken, potatoes or carrots. It is a "low and slow" process and, usually, some caramelization takes place at the bottom of the pan. Baking, on the other hand, begins with food in a liquid or semi-liquid state, such as a batter or a dough, that takes its solid form during the baking process, such as cookies, bread, or muffins.

Guy Fieri

Fieri got his start as a contestant on 'The Next Food Network Star', and then followed through by hosting 'Guy's Big Bite', 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives', and many more food shows.

It is covered in bread crumbs or cheese and browned in the oven

Smothering a casserole of any kind with a thick layer of buttered breadcrumbs or shredded cheese —  be it scalloped potatoes, a vegetable tian, or even humble macaroni and cheese — and popping it into a hot oven to get toasty crisp and bubbling brown is called a gratin. Scalloped potatoes are just that until you add the gratin; then the dish is called scalloped potatoes au gratin.

Rice noodles

Used in many movies because of their dramatic effect, Chinese rice stick noodles can be boiled in a broth for a delicious and light flavor that is popular in Chinese and Thai dishes. Or — here comes the fun part — they can be placed in hot peanut or vegetable oil in a very deep stew pot, and they will immediately puff up into a large, crispy mass that can then be broken up and used in salads or under a stir-fry dish.

It's had hot spices and condiments added to it.

While some deviled foods are also mashed, and we certainly wouldn't be surprised to find some of these foods at a Halloween party, the true definition is to add hot spices, such as mustard or cayenne, or spicy condiments, such as tabasco, to a food to bring a bit of heat to the meal. Deviled eggs, deviled ham, and deviled shrimp all adhere to this term coined back in the 1700s. Devil's food cake? That's another story.

Egg Yolk

Hollandaise is one of the five "mother sauces" of French cuisine and is made with egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice.

Torta del Casar

Out of these four kinds of cheese, the Torta del Casar is the stink-fest winner by far. This sheep's milk cheese is coagulated with thistle flower rennet and allowed to age for 60 days. It is amazing something so lovely to look at smells bad enough to chase away most would-be tasters.