Why are a restaurant's vegetables so much better than homemade ones?

Today, I show you why roasted vegetables at a restaurant are so good and how you can replicate them at home.

Inspired from @internetshaquille ‘s vid ➡️

📃 RECIPE Link(s):

📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:

USEFUL KITCHEN GEAR

⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:28 Restaurant vs Home Cook
1:32 1. Salt is the seasoning, not herbs or spices
4:40 2. Use fats, thoughtfully
6:56 3. Embrace high heat (+ convection)
8:12 4. Give the vegetables space and time
9:21 5. Try parboiling
10:30 6. Frozen vegetables are your friend
11:41 7. Add flavor enhancers after roasting

MISC. DETAILS
Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
Voice recorded on Shure MV7
Edited in: Premiere Pro

Affiliate Disclosure:

[alwayslookingatself]

There is a famous clip of Anthony Bourdain making "Carrots Vichy", he adds 2 lbs of butter & 1.5 cups of sugar to a pan of chopped carrots. He looks at the camera and says "Now you know why restaurant vegetables taste so good."

[ElijsDima]

Preconceived notion I started before watching the vid: Butter. It's butter, isn't it?

[lollsazz]

I remember cooking for my husband's mom, and her being "how does the rice taste so good???", and eating a couple of portions of just rice. I told her I had added salt and a small amount of olive oil, and she got offended, as she doesn't want to eat a lot of salt, and oil is high in calories (but it's healthy though, so IDK why she avoids oil). I explained there wasn't much in there. Usually she cooks without salt and oil, and then eats a whole bag of potato chips in one sitting. No salt craving after the rice though. So, if you have to choose between yummy food and tasteless food followed by junk, consider making your regular food tasty

Steamed sweet potatoes are really yummy IMO :)

[abrotherinchrist]

I worked at a high end steak and seafood restaurant and we steamed our brussel sprouts and asparagus about half way before shock cooling with ice. Then we tossed the asparagus on the grill for 2 minutes basting once with some butter, and tossed the sprouts in the deep fryer just before serving. Salted at the end. The sprouts were tossed in balsamic vinegar and topped with parmesan.

[CHEFPKR]

As someone who has worked in a lot of restaurants: seasoned blanching, butter/fat

[EliteGi]

One method I use for root vegetables, instead of parboiling for 6-8 mins simply season and oil as normal and cover the tin with foil for the first 15 mins. This steams them as the moisture cooks out of the vegetable within the pan, softening them up and then when you take the foil off they go and brown just as nicely! Easier than parboiling and saves a lot of energy and water too

[PFDarkside]

As referenced multiple times in the video, reading “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” and “Food Lab” did more to improve my cooking than anything else.

[richardn]

This reminds me of watching Good Eats with Alton Brown back when it first aired. It's not just a recipe. It's an explanation why it's done that way. Parboiling, soaking in brine, sitting in oil. All really good preparation techniques.

[japphan]

I like how you talk about the different goals between home and restaurant cooking.

This distinction is also good for everyday vs. festivities. When you make whatever is the most important meal of the year, whether that be Christmas, Eid-al-fitr, New year's, or whatever is most important to you, don't be afraid of fat.
You buy all these great (and often expensive) ingredients for a feast. Make them taste as good as you can. It's once a year, treat yourself and your loved ones.

[Weehapaa]

Another note on frozen produce: they're often picked, processed, and flash frozen at peak ripeness or readiness. So if they are out of season where you are sometimes depending on the food item frozen can be better than fresh at the supermarket

[Fireprincess]

salt is like some magic cure for bland cooking. My partner told me I need to add 'salt, vinegar, and either sugar, sweet chilly, or honey to sweeten'. It's seriously improved my cooking. Everything pops.

[gamebuster]

This is one of the best cooking channels i've ever seen. YT randomly recommended this and I'm hooked. Great visuals, great teaching, good sound, and actual units (grams) instead of arbitrary or weird units.

[setherrrrs___]

Great video! I’m a line cook at a high end hotel. I’ve gotten that question before. Why is this or that better in restaurants? My number one answer is fat and salt. Acidity is also a big one. Sometimes that missing component of a sauce is a great red wine vinegar or some lemon juice. You could spend the time building a great sauce and not taste any of the components without the right amount of salt. It’s amazing tasting a sauce over and over again trying to figure out what it needs when in reality it just needs more salt.

[maxwellnewsome]

I just tried the parboiled technique with potatoes we picked from our garden. Life changing. My wife literally said “dude this is even better then restaurant potatoes.” The time and space tip helped too. Normally I would have roasted in one real full pan but this time I did two. I think that really helped.

[baba-smfm]

Being from Italy I always wonder when I eat at an American restaurant, the food is always overdressed with salads coated with overly sweet dressings, the veggies are oily etc. For many veggies the key is in sauteing them with garlic (not garlic powder), or roasting them with the addition of garlic or onion, this will add flavor, a simple drizzle of extra virgin olive oil a sprinkle of sea salt and some oregano over veggies such as tomatoes, peppers, green beans, but not on all veggies. Less is more.

[gobbletegook]

Parboiling does work for a lot of veggies! It gets them up to cooking temperature faster than the oven will...because the over is drying them out before they cook. And a teaspoon of salt AND SUGAR gives them flavor and caramelizes them when they hit a HOT pan. Just slightly drain them for a second before, and a light spray of cooking oil helps.

[BeesAndSunshine]

I knew most of this, especially the importance of salt and oil, but I NEVER thought of parboiling anything other than potatoes before roasting them but that seems like an amazing idea because it will help the salt work its way deep into the veg and make it so that when you roast you can do an extremely high heat and focus purely on crispiness not needing to worry about overall doneness.

[viggosimonsen]

The blanching of root vegetables before roasting is definitely a good idea. It also helps to prevent them from drying out which can easily happen when roasting in the oven. Thus, they become juicy inside, and crisp on the outside

[ralphnelson-tucker]

Thanks for making this so accessible to people. As a chef I get all this but you have made it so easy for the home cook to adopt our practises successfully. Bravo!

[LilLaurasaurus]

I actually discovered the last tip on accident myself 😅 I was making baked salmon in the oven and had some leftover lemon, so I roasted some asparagus with salt, pepper and oil then squeezed on some lemon at the end. It was the best asparagus I ever had cus it was all crispy and zingy. So now its the only way I make roasted green veggies.