The Easiest Way To Enhance A Dish, According To Giada De Laurentiis

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Without a classical culinary education or experience in professional kitchens, it can sometimes be difficult for home cooks to fine-tune their techniques in the kitchen. Properly seasoning food is a culinary school basic, but it's knowing when and how to enhance your food with small tweaks isn't always common knowledge. Thankfully, there are plenty of talented chefs sharing their best tips online, like chef Giada De Laurentiis. In an interview with The Kitchn, De Laurentiis says that "salt and lemon are the best flavor enhancers." 

Sometimes food that tastes bland or underwhelming is simply underseasoned and lacking salt. A favorite of many professional chefs is Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, as it is less concentrated (less salty, per se) than regular table salt, and you can be a bit more heavy-handed with less fear of oversalting your food. Salt helps to enhance flavor by making existing flavors more pronounced, but it can also highlight contrasts in food, especially a sweet and salty combination, like salted caramel. The saltiness helps to bring out and exaggerate the sweet notes of the caramel. Salt also aids in balancing bitterness. A common example of this is adding a bit of salt to an espresso to tame its sharp notes, and some mixologists or home bartenders will even add salt water to cocktails for balance.

For those afraid of using too much salt, the key is to add a small amount, stir to combine, and then wait a moment or two before tasting, as sometimes the salt needs to dissolve into the food. From there, you can repeat this process by adding a bit of salt and tasting until you're satisfied with the flavor. Giada De Laurentiis also mentions that a key part of cooking is tasting as you go, which many home cooks can forget to do.

Acid is a key part of seasoning food that many home cooks can overlook. You should always include an acidic component in your food, even if it's just a squeeze of lemon juice, like De Laurentiis recommends. Along with lemon juice, the Italian-American chef loves a punchy ingredient, and acid is no exception. Don't overlook the zest of a lemon, too, as the fine shreds of the lemon's rind add a lovely brightness to food. 

If you find yourself without fresh lemons on hand, a different type of acid will still do wonders, and you can choose the acid based on the flavor profiles of your dish. Vinegars are a great option, as well as other citrus, like lime or grapefruit. If you have citric acid on hand, sprinkle a tiny bit of it on your dish at a time; it's a nice option to use if you don't want to incorporate any additional liquid into your dish.