4 Habits That Will Make You a Better Cook

Becoming a better cook isn’t about collecting recipes or chasing complexity. It’s about building habits that sharpen your instincts over time.

The cooks who grow the most treat cooking as a practice, one that rewards repetition, curiosity, and attention. These four habits do exactly that in my opinion from my experience.

1. Recreate Restaurant Dishes You Love

Grilled peaches with burrata and smoked salmon

When a dish stays with you, it’s teaching you something.

Recreating restaurant dishes isn’t about perfect replication (but I am somewhat of a perfectionist, there are a few restaurant dishes that definitely show me no mercy when I try to recreate them). It’s about understanding balance which includes fat, acid, salt, texture, temperature. As The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen A. Page reinforces, great cooking is less about ingredients in isolation and more about how they interact.

By breaking a dish down, you begin to recognize:

• What carries flavor

• What provides contrast

• What could be removed without losing the point

Restaurants become reference points, not benchmarks. (I should be telling myself this).

2. Cook Something New Every Week

Seared Octopus with pomegranate chimichurri & chimichurri pasta

Routine builds comfort. Novelty builds range.

Cooking something new each week keeps your palate going and your confidence honest. It doesn’t need to be complicated, just unfamiliar. A new cuisine, a new technique, a new cut.

Growth happens when curiosity outweighs certainty.

3. Host Dinners, Even If They’re Simple (something I love doing)

Linguine with mussels, clams, and shrimp with yuzu citrus sauce

Cooking changes the moment it’s shared.

Hosting even casually forces clarity. Timing matters. Balance matters. As The Flavor Bible suggests, flavor is experienced in context, not isolation. When food is shared, you learn what hits, what stays, and what disappears.

Food finds its meaning at the table, especially when shared with community.

4. Cook Seasonally, Even When It’s Inconvenient (I love a seasonal meal, especially summer meals)

Peach and yellow tomato gazpacho with crab meat and basil oil

Seasonality teaches restraint.

Cooking with what’s available now sharpens decision-making and improves flavor naturally. Ingredients at their peak need less intervention. As emphasized in The Flavor Bible, seasonality often dictates pairings that make the most sense.

You don’t need more options.
You need better ones.

Closing

Better cooking isn’t louder.
It’s more attentive.

These habits grew out of a longer shift in how I think about creative practice. These habits won’t make you perfect. They’ll make you consistent and disciplined. And being consistent over time is where confidence, intuition, and care take root.

That’s the work.
That’s the practice.
That’s The Pass.