Whether you’re a seasoned home chef or just starting your culinary journey, bringing restaurant-quality dinner to your home can be an amazing experience. 

With a bit of creativity, the right tools, and a few insider tips, you can prepare a feast that rivals your favorite fine-dining establishments. For fans of gastronomic exploration and anyone seeking to level up their home-cooking game, our tips could be helpful.

So let’s get into this article and learn some tips and tricks on how to create restaurant-quality dinner at the comfort of your own home.

What is the importance of high-quality ingredients

Choosing high-quality, fresh ingredients is the first step towards recreating restaurant-quality dinner at home. Just like the world’s top chefs, you should pay attention to the freshness and origin of your ingredients.

Local farmers’ markets are great places to source fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. The produce is often fresher than that found in supermarkets and you’re also supporting local businesses. 

For certain dishes, you may want to invest in higher-end ingredients such as a good quality olive oil or aged cheese.

Make sure to master the art of preparation

A key aspect that separates restaurant dishes from home cooking is meticulous preparation. Chefs often spend a considerable amount of time on mise en place – a French culinary phrase that means “everything in its place.”

Preparing your ingredients before you start cooking can save time and reduce stress during the cooking process. This involves chopping vegetables, marinating meat, and measuring spices ahead of time. 

A good set of kitchen knives and a spacious cutting board can make this process more efficient.

TEFAL optigrill is your secret weapon

Having the right kitchen appliances can make a world of difference in achieving restaurant-quality dishes. One such appliance that deserves a place in your kitchen is the TEFAL Optigrill.

The TEFAL Optigrill brings precision to your grilling tasks. Its automatic sensor adapts the cooking time to the thickness of the ingredients, ensuring perfectly grilled food every time. Whether it’s steak, fish, or vegetables, the TEFAL Optigrill can help you achieve that professional finish.

Remember that presentation is key

The visual appeal of a dish is as important as its taste. Restaurants invest a lot of time and effort into presenting their dishes in a way that delights the eyes as well as the palate.

To mimic this at home, invest in some quality dishware and think about the color and texture contrast in your dishes. To create real restaurant-quality dinner, make sure to garnish your meals with fresh herbs or a splash of sauce. 

Also, remember to serve your dishes at the right temperature. Hot dishes should be served hot and cold dishes should be served cold.

Choosing the right recipes

Selecting the right recipes is a crucial part of creating restaurant-quality meals at home. Experimenting with dishes from different cuisines can bring variety and excitement to your dinner table.

To make restaurant-quality dinners, start with dishes that you’ve enjoyed in restaurants before. Research the recipes and try to recreate them at home. You might not get it perfect the first time, but with practice, you’ll get there. 

So, for example, websites like Epicurious, Allrecipes, and Bon Appétit can be a great resource for finding tried and tested recipes.

The great importance of pairing

Just like restaurants, pairing your food with the right beverage can elevate the whole dining experience. A good wine, beer, or even a cocktail can complement and enhance the flavors of your dishes.

Educate yourself on basic pairing rules, like red wine for red meat and white wine for white meat and seafood. But remember, these rules aren’t set in stone and experimenting is part of the fun.

In conclusion, creating restaurant-quality dinner at home is an enjoyable and rewarding experience. It allows you to expand your culinary skills, explore different cuisines, and enjoy high-quality food from the comfort of your home. 

We hope you liked this article! We love writing about food and recipes, so check out more:

• How to make the perfect cheese board
• Tips and tricks for boiling pasta 
• How to make your water taste better

With some planning, the right tools like the TEFAL Optigrill, and a bit of creativity, you’re well on your way to becoming your own favorite chef. 

Bon appétit!

Cheese boards look beautiful and taste amazing, which makes them the perfect snack for guests coming over. There is no wonder cheese and charcuterie boards have become a social media sensation. Seeing so many magnificent premium cheese plates, platters, and boards in our feeds will undoubtedly motivate us to make our own cheese boards at home.

When seeing all of those beautiful photos, surely you might think to yourself – it must be difficult to create a cheese board. They are actually rather simple to make – all you need is some friendly advice. And with cheese lovers like us, you’re in safe hands!

In this article let’s go through all of the main steps on how to make the perfect cheese board – from picking cheese all the way to wine pairings.

Pick the cheese of your liking

To give your guests a unique dining experience, choose two to three cheeses with distinct flavor profiles and textures, maybe even premium cheese. Your choice could be cheeses such as a mild cheddar, a creamy goat’s cheese, and an intense, crumbly Gorgonzola. 

Provide space for crackers, jams, and breadsticks to meander about your cheeses as you arrange them around your main dish. Cut or crumble a portion of each cheese to start, keeping a knife handy to allow for slicing and savoring as you go. 

One of our favorite places to get premium cheese that not many have heard of, is Serene Dairy. It is a small manufacturer from Europe that offers cheeses like Akkawi, Halloumi and Kashkaval – some of our favorite picks. 

Do not forget about nibbly bits and chunks, as well as slices, give texture and character to a balanced board. And a good thing to remember is to always serve food at room temperature.

Add on something crunchy

Once your favorite cheeses are picked, it is time for something crunchy to be added. As delicious crunchies for a cheese plate as breadsticks, cream crackers, and crostini, options such as pretzels, melba toast, pitta chips, cheese twists, crunchy corn tortillas, and bagel thins are also amazing.

We think great cheese deserves fantastic carbs to go with it, even though it’s not strictly essential. And it doesn’t have to be particularly fancy. All you have to do is slice up a fresh baguette or artisan loaf that you bring home, or dig through your cabinet for your preferred crackers. 

Widely compatible cheese boards are ones that go for various styles and allow the cheese to take center stage. And the right variation for us is one with loads of crunch and delicate flavor.

Complementary fruit are always a good idea

Consider the accompaniments as tasty snacks that people can have in between cheese samples. To put it another way – palate cleanser. Maybe after eating a salty type of cheese, it’s something sweet that’s needed. For example, fruits.

For cheese boards, any fruit will do, from juicy grapes and raspberries to cooling clementines, fragrant fresh figs, and crisp apples. 

Choose ones that go well with the cheeses you have chosen. For example, apples and aged cheddar go along deliciously, while peaches and creamy burrata are excellent with fresh pears. For crunch, cherry tomatoes are fantastic for color, and radishes are excellent for cold pepperiness.

The color scheme of cheese can get very boring. A potential for an orange or red pop found in the fruits can be very fun. 

Other tasty additions to your cheese board

An amazing addition to any cheese board is olives and pickles. That salty acidity will counteract the creamy, velvety cheese. Pick out some tiny cornichons or strong garlic dills, salty kalamata olives, grassy Castelvetranos, or a variety of Spanish olives.

Honey is another addition to your cheese board. Since we nearly always have these pantry essentials on hand and because their flavor characteristics perfectly complement cheese, we adore incorporating them into our recipes. Nearly every cheese pairs beautifully with sweet, flowery honeys. 

Craft chocolate of a high quality is always welcomed. Rich, salty blues and creamy cheeses, gentle bloomy rinds go especially well with dark chocolate.

Nuts, seeds and dried fruit is another amazing option. Add candied pecans, toasted almonds, or crunchy hazelnuts to offer textural contrast and bring out the nutty tastes of older cheeses like Alpines and Goudas. Brightening dried fruits like apricots, cherries, and cranberries as well as dates and figs draw attention to the caramel-like characteristics of aged cheeses. 

Wine pairings are important too

What will you be drinking in addition to all of these treats, last but not least? While wine is the traditional beverage to pair with cheese, other options include beer, cider, spirits, cocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages including fine teas, kombucha, lemonade, and even artisan sodas.

When it comes to cheese boards with a variety of flavor profiles and textures, we like to keep in mind a few types of presentation that go well with most cheeses, from lemony chevres to strong blues.

Here are our top wine pairings:

• White wine – adaptable white wines that go well with cheese include Gewürtztraminer, Grüner Veltliner, dry Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc.
• Red wine – wines like Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Syrah go well with a variety of wedges.
• Rosé – when paired with cheese, it’s preferable to stick with drier varieties.
• Bubbly wine – bubbles are your best friend if your cheese selection leans more toward the creamier, denser side. 

Your palette however will be cleansed by the carbonation in Champagne, prosecco, lambrusco, and other sparkling wines, making it ready for another slice of decadent cheese.

Now that you know the basic rules on how to make the perfect cheese board, it’s time to do so!

Let us know how it turned out!

Meanwhile see our other food related articles such as Tips and tricks for boiling pasta and How to make your water taste better. 

Enjoy!

On work day evenings, especially if it’s hot outside, it would be a sin to stay in the kitchen for too long of a time, preparing dinner. So a good and fast solution for a yummy dinner is a pasta salad.

Pasta is a pretty universal food when it comes to making something tasty and on a low time schedule. Since it requires only a few minutes to boil, your dinner can be served in less than 20 minutes. Warm foods can cause a bit more stress since they have to be eaten warm. Pasta is great because if it’s cold – you just make it into a salad. Therefore you can still take it everywhere with you and enjoy it cold.

More on pasta recipes check out our article Types of pasta sauce.

What kind of pasta to choose?

The best pasta for salads is the shorter one. You definitely don’t want any long noodles in your salad since it won’t mix that good with other ingredients. As long as the pasta is short, dish will be a success! Of course it is not the end of the world if the pasta you have at home is not too short.

Whatever kind of pasta is found at home, they’ll all fit for salad, even the big snail shapes in which you can fill the finer sliced vegetables. 

There are many kinds of pasta. You can see for yourself in our article Types of pasta noodles.

Pick your ingredients

Those 10 minutes while pasta boils, get right to the process of preparing the other ingredients. Those can be chosen completely to your own taste.

Chop the chicken fillet, cut into finer pieces the ham, chop off the canned tuna or toss in some yummy mushrooms of your choice. Don’t forgetto add some fresh vegetables to give your meal some nutritions. It can be some tomatoes, cucumbers, paprika, corn etc. Anything you want really!

If you want something more interesting, there is also an option to mix in fruit for pasta salad, such as melon or pineapple, especially if it is planned to add chicken.

In addition to make the meal more tasty think about the choice of cheese. Both mozzarella cheese and soft cheese balls will suit well here, and the blue or bran pieces will taste very sweet. When it comes to salad sauces, use what is available to you at home. Or allow your imagination do the trick – mix some oil with herbs, add yogurt with fresh greens or cover the salad generously with pesto.

Some additional tips for preparing pasta

Here are some more tips on how to make sure you know exactly what to do when it comes to cooking pasta. Enjoy!

How to know pasta is cooked?

One of the best ways to check if the pasta is prepared – with a fork to remove some pasta from the pot and taste it. The Italians even recommend putting it in their hands for it to cool down more quickly.

One of the old methods of testing if the pasta is done is throwing it against the wall. If the buttered pasta sticks to the wall, it’s ready. If the pasta falls on the floor, it’s not ready yet.

Use a lot of water and make it salty

A lot of water is used to boil pasta. On 450 grams of pasta, nearly five liters of water and a 10-liter saucepan are needed. The pasta, like the tango dancers, needs room for free movement. If the pot is not large enough, it is necessary to boil the pasta two seperate times.

Salt water matters a lot – not only to amplify pasta but also to help it soak up added flavor. Two teaspoons of salt will be enough for five liters of water.

Do not rinse your pasta

Pasta is not washed in cold water! They are simply punctuated, so that the starch in the pasta is not lost and they retain their taste.

Boil one type of pasta at a time

In one saucepan don’t boil two different forms of pasta! Each has its own cooking duration, so if you don’t want half the pasta dissolved, and the other half “al dente,” stick to one shape.

The ideal portion for one person is simple. If pasta is intended as an additive, 60 grams of pasta (weight before boiling) will be sufficient for one person. But if pasta is a basic dish, then double that number.

If French cuisine has five basic sauces, which every chef must be able to prepare, then it is only significant that the Italians have their own. And it wouldn’t be Italy if the main task of the sauces was not to complement the delicious pasta meals.

So in this article I’ve collected the 5 best recipes for pasta sauces that everyone should know.

In my other article we’ve found out about all the Types of pasta noodles. Now it’s time to finally get prepared for the whole pasta dish.

Let’s get started with TOP 5 pasta sauces:

• Alfredo sauce – makes pasta especially creamy
• Marinara sauce – classic Italian pasta sauce
• Basil pesto – the taste of summer
• Primavera sauce 
• Puttanesca sauce – filled with anchovies

Alfredo sauce – makes pasta especially creamy

Italian cuisine has traditionally made pasta with cheese and butter sauces for a long time, but “Fettuccine Alfredo” became a popular dish thanks to an Italian chef only in the early 20th century. The principle for this meal is quite simple – egg noodles are mixed with butter and Parmesan cheese.

Needed ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter;
• 200 ml sour cream;
• Salt and pepper to taste;
• Two handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

First, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat – it should be sunny yellow. Then add the cream kept at room temperature to the butter, add salt and pepper, and stir everything. Allow the cream and butter to begin to bubble slightly. Then allow the sauce to thicken. It usually takes about 3-5 minutes.

When the sauce base is prepared, remove the pan from the stove. While the ingredients are still hot, mix the grated Parmesan cheese into the cream. Vigorous bags of sauce with a wooden spoon so that the cheese melts evenly and does not lump.

Sauce is done and ready to be enjoyed!

Marinara sauce – classic Italian pasta sauce

The classic tomato sauce, richly served with pasta dishes, originated in Naples, Italy. However, the most interesting thing is that we know the marinara sauce itself thanks to the American Italians, who introduced it in traditional Italian cuisine. This sauce is quite rich in flavors for many pasta dishes, which is why it is worth preparing at home.

Needed ingredients:

• 60 ml of olive oil;
• 1 onion;
• 7 cloves of garlic;
• 800 g peeled or preserved tomatoes;
• 1 bay leaf;
• a pinch of salt;
• a handful of fresh basil (separated and chopped leaves);
• olives.
  

The principle is quite simple – boil tomato sauce at home in a large pan or pot. First place the tomatoes in a bowl and squeezed by hand, adding very little water to release the tomato juice. The squeezed tomatoes are set aside to stand.

Then heat the oil in a pot (do not use a deep one) over medium heat. Fry the crushed garlic cloves and onion in it. As soon as the garlic squeaks in oil and is still in its usual color, add the tomatoes with all the juice. Add bay leaf and fresh basil, as well as salt to taste and chopped olives. The sauce is soaked for 15-20 minutes, it should be orange, thickened and the oil should flow over it.

Before the sauce is almost ready, check how it tastes – if necessary add more salt, basil and oregano to enhance the taste. Then continue to simmer for the same amount of time. The finished sauce can be cooled and transferred to storage jars. Then you can use it for up to two weeks.

Basil pesto – the taste of summer

The easiest way to get the tempting green pesto sauce is to toss all the ingredients in the blender and blend. However this approach will not be the right one either, because the metal blades change the taste of the basil and in the end only a porridge, not a dark sauce, will be made. 

When preparing pesto with a pestle, the ingredients should be mixed step by step.

Ingredients

Lovers of classic values who want to make an authentic basil pesto must provide it with the basil  of Genoa, which has the pronounced aroma and taste that is recognized as the most suitable for pesto sauce. 

In addition to the real basil, it is important to procure garlic, high quality olive oil (extra virgin), hard cheese, a pinch of salt and, of course, cedar or pine nuts.

Step by step recipe

First, take basil leaves with a pinch of salt (if the cheese is not very salty) and rub the leaves with a stamp. You will not be able to assemble all the leaves at once, so chop them into parts until all the desired amount of basil is used.

When done, add the cleaned and halved garlic cloves and strain. Then there is a layer of nuts – pour into a pestle and chop together with the green porridge. 

The nuts are followed by chopping the cheese – add the sauce and stamp in smaller pieces. Only when all these ingredients are mixed can you slowly pour in the olive oil and squeeze the sauce to the desired thickness.

When using the pestle, be careful not to bother too much, but also keep larger nutcrackers if you want. Also, do not overdo it with the addition of olive oil. Better less than too much, otherwise in the end your pesto will look like oil with greens. Pesto should be thick, dark with noticeable pieces of nuts and a pronounced basil flavor, while also feeling the salty cheese.

Primavera sauce 

According to the Italians themselves – pasta without sauce is not edible. It is not for nothing that we serve them in a variety of flavors with some of the classic sauces, such as pesto, “marinara”, “Alfredo” and others. One of them, created especially for pasta, is a “primavera” sauce, which is not native to Italy, but to Canada.

Over time, however, the recipe has changed and now there is almost a different version in each cookbook. “Primavera” is difficult to call a sauce, because it is mostly butter-soaked vegetables, but this does not mean that it is not worth learning.

Needed ingredients:

• 450 g asparagus;
• 1 handful of frozen peas;
• 1 tbsp butter;
• 1 tbsp olive oil;
• 120 g Crushed ham;
• 2 small leeks;
• 360 ml sour cream;
• 1 handful of grated Parmesan cheese;
• salt;
• pepper.

First trim the asparagus and cut into small pieces. Ham is also cut into cubes, but the leeks are chopped. 

Boil water with salt in a small saucepan, as it is recommended to cook the asparagus pieces in it for at least three minutes. Once the asparagus has been cooked, remove them with a foam spoon and cook the peas in the same water for about 5-6 minutes. After cooking, it is also removed from the field and stored with the asparagus.

Then melt the butter in a large pan with the olive oil over medium heat. Then in a pan saber ham pieces and brown. When done, add the leeks and bake for about 4 minutes. The soft leeks are then poured with sour cream and puff for at least 8 minutes. 

At the end of the sauce add peas and asparagus, then stir in the cheese and add salt and pepper. Once the cheese has melted, pour the sauce over the pasta – it will suit “penne”, “rotini”, “fettuccine” and spaghetti.

Puttanesca sauce – filled with anchovies

“Puttanesca”, although considered a relative newcomer to the world of sauces, is a very special sauce. As it is rich in anchovies, its aroma and taste should not be confused with any other. 

Even if mostly the sauce is added to spaghetti or some other type of pasta, by skillfully learning how to prepare it, the sauce can even be spread on pizza.

Since “puttanesca” is served with spaghetti or some other type of pasta, it is recommended to cook the sauce a little faster – a moment before the pasta is almost ready. This is necessary so that the pasta does not serve, because they will need to be neatly mixed into the sauce.

Needed ingredients:

• 1 onion;
• a small can of anchovies;
• a pinch of chili flakes;
• salt;
• pepper;
• olive oil;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• 1 can of canned plum tomatoes with whole juice;
• 2tbsp capers;
• a handful of chopped olives;
• oregano;
• parsley;
• grated Parmesan cheese.

The sauce itself begins with frying the chopped onions in olive oil. Then also add anchovy pieces, chili flakes, salt and pepper to taste. Olive oil must be generously applied so that the onion absorbs it beautifully, but the anchovies mix with the other ingredients. 

When the anchovies have softened, cut them into smaller pieces in a pan with a spoon. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Then add the canned tomatoes with all the juice to the sauce. Cut tomatoes into smaller pieces right in the pan when they have become softer and hot. Then add the capers and olives, reduce the flame slightly and heat the sauce for 8-10 minutes to allow the excess liquid to evaporate.

Stir in a handful of grated Parmesan cheese. And the sauce is ready to be served!

That’s about all you need to know on how to make TOP 5 pasta sauces!

Bon appetit!

Drinking enough water isn’t always the easiest task. I personally struggle with it for a very interesting reason – water simply isn’t fun enough for me to drink. I know and I fully acknowledge that it is the healthy thing to do yet I would rather choose something with a good taste instead of water.

So to fix my problem I’ve come up with a solution – infused water. Berries, fruits and even some veggies are great to put in water. After a while the water gets some taste from these added ingredients. And then it tastes great and is still healthy which is important.

So to help you out, if you’re struggling with the same problem, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite recipes. 

Enjoy!

Raspberries + lemon

Raspberries are one of my favorite berries so of course I had to use them in these recipes. A great way to make your water taste better is by adding some berries to it of your own choice. I prefer raspberries but you can also use strawberries, blackberries etc. 

I usually don’t measure much but I make a huge batch of water of around 2 litres. For that measurement I usually use around a whole cup of berries. 

To make this infused water taste even better, I add some lemon slices. That Can vary for everybody’s taste. Just keep in mind that lemon slices will make your water taste more fresh but also savory. The more lemon you will add, the more savory your drink will be. Healthwise – I love lemon, especially in the mornings. It helps me to wake up and start off my day great!

Apple + cinnamon

Apple and cinnamon is the combination you didn’t know you needed. It’s an amazing way to make your water taste like fall. Cinnamon has a way to make your whole house smell like Christmas. For people who love this holiday (like me), this drink will be a great reminder.

As I’ve mentioned before, I very much eyeball all the measurements but I do make around 2 litres of water. Everybody has their own amount of water to drink. To read more about that, read my article How much water should I drink a day.

Speaking of this recipe, I cut about a whole apple in slices and used 1 cinnamon stick. Cinnamon is the tricky part because you don’t want to overdo it. When it comes to choosing your apple – I suggest getting a very sweet one. That way the taste will transport to your water and you will get a yummy infused water!

Grapes + mint

Grapes are another set of berries I love to snack on during the day. So I experimented with adding some of those to my daily water. At first not much happened, but probably because I didn’t leave the water to get infused for too long. It’s best to do so overnight or for a whole 24 hours even.

Then I looked up some recipes and many suggested adding mint to your grapes. Once I did that, there was no going back. Mint is such a great way to make your drink taste more fresh, cold and overall just better!

Pineapple + mint

So as you’ve noticed so far, mint is my new obsession when it comes to infusing water. To be honest with you, I do wonder how my first 2 recipes would taste with added mint. That is to be experimented with later!

For this recipe use some pineapple, I used about a fourth of a normal sized pineapple. Sliced it, added a few mint leaves and left the water overnight in the fridge. The end result tastes almost like a cocktail, only except the sticky and too sweet taste that is often found in drinks with pineapple.

This tastes like an exotic and healthy version of those cocktails.

For more tips check out my article Tips to remind myself to drink water.

I hope you will try these water recipes and find one that you love!