Friday, May 9, 2008

Secret Restaurant Recipes 101


If you enjoy eating out at restaurants quite regularly then you will undoubtedly have your own favorite restaurants and favorite dishes you always order when you go there. Eating out at restaurants all the item can become costly after a while, sure it's great to get out, but if you are doing it 3 times a week or more it can add up quickly.

A solution is to enjoy your favorite meals at home by using restaurant copycat recipes. A copycat restaurant recipe is a specially researched and reverse engineered recipe created by experts through trial and error in order to capture the taste of a popular restaurant recipe that would otherwise be kept secret. Big chain restaurants and even smaller restaurants will jealously guard their recipe secrets so as to not lose business.

You have probably sat there trying to work out just what has gone into the dish, what sort of ingredients are they using.. Maybe you have even cheekily tried to ask the waiter or the chef for the recipe it was so good! Chances are they didn't give you the recipe, and probably for good reason, if they did give it away to every person who asked for it, they would soon be out of business.

Recreating Famous Dishes

Step 1:
You are going to have to do some research and track down some information or recipes for your favorite dish. This will mean maybe getting friendly with a chef who works at you favorite restaurant and then try and coax out some hints as to what the dish ingredients are and how its prepared. This is probably the hardest method depending on how persuasive you are.

Your other option here is to track down a copycat restaurant recipe book which will eliminate the need to friendly up to the restaurant staff.

Step 2:
It is important to wherever possible use the exact ingredients described to you. If the recipe calls for white pepper for example, don't use coarse black pepper just because it is the only thing you have on hand. It's a simple tip, but if you are trying to faithfully recreate famous dishes you will need to stay true to the originals and avoid improvising too much with the ingredients. The same goes for quantities of the ingredients, if the copycat recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of Tabasco, you should probably use only 1 teaspoon.

Step 3:
Always follow the original cooking methods. This is particularly true for recipes that rely on a certain cooking technique to impart the original flavor. It is no use pan-frying a beef patty if you are trying to copy the Burger King flame grilled whopper taste. You would be better using a BBQ for this task, if you are not set up at home with a flame griller.

These are simple suggestions but important factors to consider if you want to attain accurate facsimiles of restaurant recipes at home. Following other peoples copycat recipes will take out all the guesswork from cooking your favorite dishes at home. Stay true to the recipe instructions and you won't and up wasting your time with trial and error trying to find the exact method to recapture a classic meal.

Are you tired of cooking the same old food day after day? Is your freezer stocked with the usual items of hamburger, chicken, and roast? Do the kids clamor to eat out rather than enjoy one of your home-cooked meals? If so, you may be searching for new recipes that will tempt their palates and make cooking for you more of a hobby and less of a chore. But you don't have to invest in expensive cookbooks or dig out old family favorites. Just visit a few reader-friendly Internet sites to find delicious dishes you can prepare for family and friends.

Cooking websites come in a variety of flavors nowadays. You can find coupons, shopping tips, food preservation and preparation guidelines, and toll-free telephone numbers for helpful information like turkey cooking times or food poisoning prevention. There are even cooking demonstration videos accompanied by print instructions to guide you through the process of making a delicious new eatable. Those with health concerns or shoppers looking for certain ingredients can find ready help at some of these cooking sites, including food for diabetics, overweight persons, and pregnant or nursing women or the elderly.


Put away your recipe cards and turn on your computer for an eye-popping look at what's happening in the cyber kitchen! Stop fretting over tonight's dinner or the weekend neighborhood barbecue since you now have a world of recipes and expert advice from world-renowned chefs. Let your fingers do the walking before they start the cooking!



Suggested Resources:

Secret Restaurant Recipes

Copycat Recipes Cookbook: See All Your Favorite Restaurants

500 + Healthy Chinese Recipes

Irresistible Offer: 20 Cookbooks For $20