Common Cooking Mistakes to Avoid

By Gulshan - Reviewed Sep 30, 2025. Original Mar 19, 2023.

Some of us love cooking. But even experienced cooks may make these common cooking mistakes.

I learned to cook many years ago purely from frustration that my English diet was too limited. Subsequently, I am comfortable trying my hand at any dish. However, setting foot in my kitchen during this process needs to come with a health warning - if the loud rock music doesn't startle you, the hyper-focused chef might.

My wife never had to cook at home, so she doesn't share my enthusiasm for culinary arts. However, she is happy to let me feed the family and does have the enthusiasm to critique my hazardous kitchen conduct.

There was some discourse online recently about people's pet peeves when watching others in the kitchen. So here are some kitchen habits that may be familiar to other horrified onlookers or home chefs.

1. Non-Stick Pan Pirates

Cooking enthusiasts despair at the dreaded sound of stainless steel on Teflon. Nothing is worse than an innocent novice scraping your most used cooking pan, leaving a streak of shame on the once silky-smooth surface.

2. Too Many Pots and Pans

My wife is the beneficiary of my kitchen prowess and is still yet to appreciate the nuances involved in hi-fi gastronomy. If the food tastes good, a messy kitchen is mere collateral damage en route to dining perfection. Otherwise, it is just a messy cook.

3. Too High or Too Low Heat

Those of us who learned how to cook well understand that a sauce won't thicken on low heat. However, following close behind is cooking everything on 11 - using an old pan that smokes so much one must air out the entire house.

4. Knife Selection

Chopping is an art form if mastered and painful to watch if not. The discussion group agrees, saying that poor knife selection is a source of annoyance. A beleaguered witness also explains how their husband uses a plate for slicing. "We have like seven chopping boards!" she says. I am with you, sister.

5. Crowding the Plate

I think this debate is driven by primarily kitchen-savvy people who struggle when watching those less enthusiastic about culinary arts. I am one of them, and I agree that family members who mob the kitchen at a critical moment in the process need to be outlawed - this goes for pets too!

6. Hygiene

If you harbor ambitions of being a professional chef, you will not last long if you leave a messy prep station. Countless stories (including one by Jamie Oliver) involve kitchen rookies losing their jobs because of not wiping down.

7. Poor Slicing Game

Nothing screams bad chef more than a poor slicing game. My Italian grandmother always told me that when making a red sauce, the onions should be so razor-thin that they melt into the sauce. I am looking at you, wide onion slice people!

8. Kitchen Cats

Cat lovers and kitchens can be a controversial mix, considering cats' brazen disregard for food preparation surfaces. One chat contributor claims their partner lets "cats on the counter." While this sounds like a good picture book title, it should never be a reality.

9. Unwanted Guests

This isn't a cooking beef (no pun intended). Have you ever thrown a dinner party and despaired of the kitchen visitor who feels the chef needs some company? You are not alone. Seriously, people, your host has spent hours working towards this delicate moment. Just give us a minute, will you?

10. Being Slow

Watching a person prep their ingredients with the urgency of a snail can be painful at times. One story of watching a mother-in-law slice an onion into rounds," then rocking it over with a mezzaluna…fingers flat," stands out here.

This thread inspired this post.

By Gulshan, published Mar 19, 2023 on Tia Clara