The spoon is often an under-appreciated utensil. Playing second fiddle to its pronged sidekick and parodied by the invention of the spork.

But a spoon should be a cook’s ultimate tool, a weapon even. It should be your guide to kitchen dominance… Your culinary Sherpa.

A spoon… For real?

Well consider this. Some pro cooks will carve their names in their spoons… They claim them. You do not touch another cook’s spoons. This is because their spoon is their guide to quality control. It tells a pro everything that they need to know. Besides the tasting part, it can also be used for general measurement, as a meat flipper, a baster, or to flip frozen peas at co-workers. It is truly invaluable.

A spoon can easily become more important than any knife. Sure, a pro cook will probably not let you touch their knife either, but that’s because they’ve probably spent a day’s pay on it.

So, if you are a home cook reading this, splurge on a good spoon as we’ve suggested on our recipe mantra page. Let the spoon teach you how to train your palate by tasting as you cook. New ingredient gets added, taste, proceed. This is a good way to break free from relying on a step-by-step recipe. Learn to taste and the rest of your senses will follow.

Picking up the small quirks of a pro could be the first step to cooking like one. Just for fun, carve your name in your new tasting spoon and verbally assault anyone who looks at it funny. You will be cooking like a pro in no time.

Thank you for reading. And because you didn’t ask for it… People doing the spoon on the nose trick.