Though the coronavirus pandemic is all but over, and the UK are more or less relinquished from their homes, habits cultivated by lockdown measures are not showing any signs of leaving – and home cookery is one such habit. A YouGov survey discovered that 91% of respondents planned to cook at home as much as, or more than, they did under lockdown. Nonetheless, many are still concerned that their cooking ability doesn’t quite match up to where they would like to be; so how can you improve your home cooking?

Just Start Cooking

One of the simplest ways to get better at cooking is to simply do more of it! You might be tempted to avoid cooking until you’ve found the right recipe, or read the right book – but you won’t improve if you aren’t cooking all the while. Even if you’re simply getting better at something simple like ingredient preparation – faster at chopping vegetables, or better at creating your mise en place – this is valuable progress which will help you further down the line.

Try New Recipes

You might find that you’ve gotten pretty good at making one or two dishes – but this does not mean your cooking has improved; it only means your ability to cook those dishes has improved. As such, broaden your horizons. Pick new recipes from different continents, with different ingredients, spices and cooking processes. As you become familiar with cooking styles from around the world, you may find yourself making connections between techniques, or understanding processes better – and you’ll be finding brand new tasty dishes all the while.

Upgrade Your Kitchen Equipment

There is only so much you can improve using rusty cookware and an old filament hob. With a small amount of investment in your kitchen, you can give yourself a much more reliable cooking set up, and eliminate variables like uneven heating from your cooking journey. Switching to an induction hob, and investing in a new set of induction cookware, can ensure even cooking and the elimination of burn risk on the hob itself, making cooking a far easier process for you. You should also invest in at least one good knife – ideally a 5-inch chef’s knife. This knife will serve you extremely well if looked after and sharpened regularly.

Follow Video Tutorials

If recipes and ingredients lists aren’t quite doing it for you, and you still find yourself struggling – whether for motivation or inspiration, try a different tack: cooking along with a professional chef. YouTube is a fantastic resource for this, with cook-along tutorials from professional chefs, amateur chefs, stay-at-home chefs and famous restaurateurs alike. Simply pick a recipe you like the sound of, gather the ingredients and follow the chef in your own kitchen. This can not only give you the motivation to finish a dish, but also teach you valuable skills along the way – such as how to dice garlic correctly.

Improvise!

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you should trust yourself. You can only get so far following in the footsteps of other chefs, no matter how well accoladed they are. By experimenting with your own dishes, trying new things and trying again if they don’t work, you’ll build your own picture of what works and what doesn’t – and soon, you’ll be on your way to inventing your own dishes entirely.