TINY LITTLE FISH

Using salty little fishes will impart flavor without making food taste fishy. It’s something we do often—and it’s an easy way to amp up umami flavor and make any simple dish more complex. You can accomplish this in many ways: Use anchovies, fish sauce, dried bonito flakes, Worcestershire sauce, dried shrimp, etc. Throw some anchovies in a creamy dressing. Toss pasta with some lemon, butter, garlic, Parmesan and minced anchovies. Use a few drops of fish sauce in your tomato sauce, and so on.
—Matthew Brown, Butterhead Food Truck & Sandwich Co., South County

LOCAL FOODS & SPICES

Let food speak for itself! When using high-quality vegetables and proteins, the flavors are already there. Source locally, add your favorite mixture of spices and, most importantly, keep it simple.
—Deanna Marandola and Tracy DeFusco, Amaryllis, Providence

OVEN-ROASTED TOMATOES

Oven-roasted tomatoes are a versatile, underrated ingredient staple that we always have in the Duck Press kitchen. With their umami flavor, you can add them to almost anything. Simply cut out the stems and slice an X into the opposite end of plum tomatoes. Blanch in salted boiling water until the skin starts to come off. Immediately remove and put into an ice bath. When cooled, peel skin, cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds. Toss withextra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh thyme leaves, thinly shaved garlic and minced shallots. Lay out on a lined sheet pan so they are flat and not touching. Bake at 275°F for 30 minutes; then 200°F for 2 more hours. Chopped up, these can be used in sauces for pasta, fish, vinaigrettes, salads, soups or on a toasted baguette with ricotta or mozzarella.
—Mark Bryson, Duck Press, Wakefield

BRINING 

I love what brining does to meat and even veggies. Most people brine once a year, for their Thanksgiving bird. Not me. I truly believe it’s one of the most special things we do at the restaurant. We brine all of our chicken and turkey but we also brine steak tips, cauliflower for roasting and have experimented with pretty much any ingredient we feel would be elevated by a nice, flavorful bath. The result? Moist, tasty ingredients, from the inside out, that already have a layer of built-in flavor before any cooking method is introduced. Brining is a head start on building flavor.
—Angie Armenise, Blackie’s Bulldog Tavern, Smithfield 

GARLIC

You’ll find plenty of garlic, salt and acid, most commonly lemon, in Lebanese cuisine. Raw garlic is often used but goes largely undetected in Lebanese recipes. It’s all about the process. I learned from my grandmother the best way is to pound the garlic with a good amount of coarse salt with a mortar and pestle. This is still my preferred method but I have come to find that using a Microplane grater is acceptable and can be more efficient. The trick is to release the oils in the garlic to really bring out the fresh flavor and balance the astringency of the bulbous allium. The result is velvety pungency.
—Matthew Brown, Butterhead Food Truck & Sandwich Co., South County

CUMIN

We swear by cumin. It’s earthy, warm, and complements other spices well. We use it in all of our spice blends and many of our recipes. To bring out its best flavor, we toast the seeds and then crush them with a mortar and pestle. 
—Deanna Marandola and Tracy DeFusco, Amaryllis, Providence

PEPPER

Always use fresh-cracked pepper from a pepper mill. I use a separate mill for whole fennel seeds and coriander seeds. The ground seeds are tasty with poultry, pork and fish.
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

FLAVOR BUILDERS

My favorite tip in cooking is to use “flavor builders”: fresh herbs, scallions, shallots, fresh bay leaves and diced celery. Added at the last minute of a long braise or a quick sauté they make everything taste much deeper and brighter. Celery adds a wonderful crunch and bitter note to anything. 
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

MARINADES

When grilling, marinades can work magic with meats: They help caramelize the surface, tenderize and add a depth of flavor during a shorter cooking time. A simple marinade is lime juice, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and honey. When creating your own marinades, think acid + sweetness + salt + herbs.
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

HOMEMADE CHICKEN STOCK

Make homemade chicken stock and freeze it. Adding quality chicken stock to soups, braises, sauces and even pastas can elevate any dish into something special. Make it from the carcass of a roast chicken dinner. Freeze any bones or scraps from two, three or even four chickens and make a big batch of stock on a rainy or snowy Saturday. 
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

OLIVE OIL

Understanding olive oil will change your cooking. At Vanda we use two different types of olive oil. For finishing dishes we use a high-quality, extra-virgin Sicilian finishing oil that gives dishes added brightness just before serving. For cooking we choose an olive oil (not extra-virgin) from the Puglia region that has a milder, less bitter taste. 
—Gina Pezza, Vanda Cucina, Warwick 

KNIVES

My favorite kitchen tool is definitely the knife. It’s the workhorse of any prep job. Knives should always be sharp and you really only need three: a paring knife, an 8-inch chef ‘s knife and a 6- to 7-inch serrated knife. Don’t spend a lot of money on the paring knife or the serrated knife; they will wear out and they can be difficult to sharpen. However, you should spend at least $125 to $200 on a quality chef ‘s knife; Japanese or Western, depending on your preference. It will last for decades if you care for it properly. (Left to right: Henckels, Forge to Table, Pallarès, Forge to Table)
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

CLEAN TERRY CLOTH TOWELS & TONGS

In a professional kitchen, a medium thickness, basic terry cloth towel is gold to any chef. They’re used as potholders, as trivets underneath hot pots, dampened and placed under a cutting board to keep it in place, and obviously for cleanup. Tongs are an extension of your hands and perfect for flipping things over in a pan, rotating meat on a grill, grabbing a pan out of the oven or reaching something high in a cabinet above you. I choose a short version because it gives me more control and concise movement. My staff know they better not touch Chef ‘s tongs … otherwise trouble!
—Angie Armenise, Blackie’s Bulldog Tavern, Smithfield

MANDOLINES

A mandoline is the one tool that definitely saves us the most time. You can slice and julienne in a fraction of the time. Despite occasional flesh wounds (be very careful when using—and use the safety tool!), we continue to put our mandolines to use daily.
—Matthew Brown, Butterhead Food Truck & Sandwich Co., South County

CAST-IRON PANS

A good cast-iron pan or skillet can go a long way for any home cook. We use ours for everything from toasting nuts to charring vegetables and searing meats. Take care when seasoning and cleaning your cast-iron pan and it will take care of you for years to come.
—Deanna Marandola and Tracy DeFusco, Amaryllis, Providence

KITCHEN SCALES, BENCH SCRAPERS & ROOM TEMPERATURE INGREDIENTS

Room-temperature ingredients make your batters super cohesive and very happy. Nothing comes together like a cake batter with room-temperature butter, eggs, milk and more. Invest in a small kitchen scale. Weighing your ingredients promises a consistent product, better results and an easier way to double and triple recipes if needed! Also, bench scrapers are such an underrated tool in the kitchen. Clearing kitchen stations, counter tops, makeshift spatulas and cake smoothers ... we can never have enough bench scrapers. Find one that’s comfy in your grip and you’ll hold onto that baby like nothing else matters.
—Morgan Gray, Whisk Me Away, Pawtucket

IMMERSION BLENDERS AND FOOD PROCESSORS

I’m not really into too many gadgets but an immersion blender is very helpful when making sauces and a food processor makes the effort of small chopping work (like finely minced onions, carrots, etc.) a breeze. 
—Phyllis Arffa, Blaze Smith Hill, Providence

PARING KNIVES

I cannot live without my paring knife. Making sure that knives are sharp is essential for knife safety as well as for efficiency. The paring knife is such a great multi-work tool, you can use it to slice small vegetables while being delicate as well. I love to use it to supreme citrus fruits (this is the process that gets rid of the membranes between the wedges and the bitter white pith) or to clean fat off different protein cuts, just to name some examples. It’s something I always have in my knife kit.
—Mariana Gonzalez-Trasvina, Bar ’Cino, Newport

General Kitchen Wisdom 

COOKBOOKS

Don’t give up on cookbooks in favor of the internet! I read many different types of cookbooks—from celebrity chefs to shared family favorites. I really love old cookbook recipes that have been used for generations. Sometimes I leave recipes as-is; other times I might add my own modern twist. It might sound simple, but for American recipes I like Better Homes magazine, too—it was always on my mother’s kitchen counter. 
—Phyllis Arffa, Blaze Smith Hill, Providence

TASTE

Taste, taste and taste again! It’s so important to taste your food in all the stages of cooking. As you complete each step of a recipe you are building layers of flavor; that is the key to the success of a dish. When you taste ingredients together your brain sort of develops a “muscle memory” and you’ll build a reference for what flavors taste like when combined. Like you are building a taste manual for yourself. Soon enough you will know what flavors work well together, and which ones don’t. 
—Angie Armenise, Blackie’s Bulldog Tavern, Smithfield 

TIME 

My best kitchen tip seems basic but it’s important: Give yourself enough time! When I started baking out on my own, time management was not my strong suit. Nothing is worse than rushing through something because you didn’t leave yourself enough time to enjoy the process—that’s how you burn yourself out. If your cake or specialty cookies need a couple of days to properly bake and decorate, make sure you plan ahead. Cooking and baking are so much more enjoyable when you do.
—Morgan Gray, Whisk Me Away, Pawtucket

CLEAN 

My tried-and-true tip is to clean up as you go. This is one of the most important things to learn when cooking and preparing meals for family and friends. It helps to keep things in order, and—more importantly—it leaves you with a lot less to clean up at the end.
—Bree Smith, The Afro-Indigenous Vegan, Providence

THE OVEN

Cook with the oven at 400°F for savory foods unless you are baking something delicate.
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

Make-Your-Own Recipe Ideas

BRAISING 

Braising is one of my favorite cooking methods. It’s the perfect way to take a tough cut and transform it into the star of the show. To braise: Season and sear meat, then submerge by two thirds in a flavorful liquid. Think about all the freedom! Season your braising liquid well, but use restraint in salting or adding salty foods like bacon. The liquid will reduce while cooking and heighten the flavors. At the end of several hours, low and slow, the liquid can double as the sauce for your dish. You will be delighted with your efforts!
—Angie Armenise, Blackie’s Bulldog Tavern, Smithfield

FRESH PASTA

For better fresh pasta, when following a recipe or ratio, remember that the type and freshness of flour, along with the humidity in the air, will have an effect on the stickiness/wetness of your dough. Kneading the dough develops gluten, which helps with “the bite” and mouthfeel. Knead it longer than you think; don’t be afraid to over knead it. The dough should bounce back when you stick your thumb into it. Let it rest before rolling it out, which gives the gluten time to relax, which will make it easier to roll. Air dry, or use a small fan to slightly dry out your fresh pasta before boiling.
—Gina Pezza, Vanda Cucina, Warwick 

NOODLE BOWLS

For an easy meal you can always rely on noodle bowls made with any vegetable or protein in your fridge. Remember rice noodles are cooked differently than pasta. Instead of boiling, soak the noodles in hot water to hydrate them. Add some fresh greens and a mixture of your favorite herbs like mint and cilantro. Try a soft-boiled egg, dry-roasted nuts or some chili flakes. Anything with a little spice and crunch goes a long way. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun.
—Deanna Marandola and Tracy DeFusco, Amaryllis, Providence

EGG ROLLS

I love making egg rolls but it’s hard to get the perfect texture. Bring the wrappers to room temperature before wrapping the filling then put them in the fridge to cool before cooking them. Make sure the oil is good and hot before cooking or the egg rolls will absorb too much oil. Drain them on paper towels before serving. 
—Bree Smith, The Afro-Indigenous Vegan, Providence

GRILLING

When you grill outside, add some extra meats so you have them ready to go for the week. They make great snacks, quick protein-packed lunches and are even tasty for breakfast.
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence

SEARING

Try searing scallops with clarified butter over high heat. Once they caramelize, pour off the used-up clarified butter and add whole butter to baste the scallops (or other fish). The whole butter will froth and caramelize to season the scallops ever so slightly. You don’t need to serve in that butter, but it adds depth of flavor. Throw in a skin-on garlic clove, some fresh thyme and a squeeze of lemon and you have a perfect basting medium!
—Champe Speidel, Persimmon, Providence