Don't Cut Corners and Other Cooking Tips from Grandma

For Lake Minnetonka Magazine’s senior living edition, I thought of one of my most amazing mentors in the kitchen: my grandma. I want to share her tips with you.

1. Don’t cut corners. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from cooking with my grandma, it’s that the biggest culinary crime is cutting corners. Everything she makes is cooked without taking shortcuts. I have always admired her methodical attention to every step and try to apply that to my own cooking.
2. Keep it simple. It is so easy to overload with spices and ingredients in a dish. Instead, my grandma taught me to let the ingredients shine and focus on perfectly preparing everything. Many times, the best dishes aren’t the ones with the most components; instead they are dishes with a few that are carefully executed.
3. Cook with love. It is so cliché, but it is so true. Everything my grandma cooks is a complete reflection of not only her love of cooking but her love for the people she is cooking for. And you can taste it.

Ariana Feygin is a 14-year-old chef and Minnesota’s first contestant on Fox’s MasterChef Junior.