Thanks Chef John! I've worked on this for a couple of days. My family is convinced I'm insane. That's ok, I really love this skill, and the dog enjoyed my mistakes.
avawas themorning lmao!!..i originally read what he said normally, but then (after seeing your post) i reread it with chef johns rhythm...and i can absolutely see what you meant!! its funny that in interviews, chef john speaks very casually without his normal flow of infections...and is almost like when a super hero takes off his mask- he seemed like a completely different person!!!
my mother taught my how to do this when I was younger like 12-13 years old and now my children and their friends are in awe that I can do it so easily (without even thinking about it) so now I am teaching them. Most certainly a skill to have.
Thank you so much for this! I love your sense of humor. I was making some fried cubed potatoes the other day and trying to pan flip, but I kept losing a couple! I just wanna fry all the sides of my cubes evenly lol. Time to get practicing with the cheese balls
Another great tutorial Chef John! However, a closer look at the slo-mo reveals a slight upward tilt on the leading edge of the pan just before the sharp backward pull. This was omitted in the narration. Probably something you do from muscle memory without realizing it. Perhaps?
Congrats Chef John, looks like they showcased your video over at Lifehacker on October 5th. Title of the article was "Properly Flip Food in a Frying Pan with a Back-and-Forth Motion."
I was taught by my brother (and have taught dozens of new cooks) to flip a square slice of bread. To flip an egg you must keep the slice of bread touching the pan but flipping it soft. I guess this video is more for a saute flip, but i thought id share my egg flipping technique for training.
Flipping this way creates almost like a wave splashing on the beach if you look at the slow motion section towards th ... oh, OK here: 1:20 Even if it sounds counter intuitive when you know how to do this you can flip large amounts of vegetables and say shredded beef to mix it and have the stuff that's been on the bottom come out on top in a way that's almost impossible with spatulas and spoons. So it's not for show ... only! :D
Chef John I noticed in a ton of your videos that you use Le Creuset French Oven. What sized would you recommend for a first purchase? Those are the best right?
Hello! This is Chef John from foodwishes.com with How to Flip Stuff in the Pan like a Chef! That’s right. This has to be one of the most popular non-recipe food wishes of all time. So I’m going to show you my secret training method and we’re not going to use real food! We’re going to use cheese balls. And the reason I like the cheese balls for this in addition to they’re kind of tasty and go good with beer, the reason I like the cheese balls is because they’re very light which means they’re going to fly out of the pan if you don’t do this right. But if they do fly out of the pan, they’re not going to do any damage or make a big mess. So I think they work really well for this. So I’m going to pour those in the pan. Looks like I’ve got a couple extra. Let me take care of those. So here we go. The secret here is not to try to throw the food up and catch it. That’s why people have a problem with this. They think you’re supposed to throw the food up and then somehow catch it with the pan. That’s not what you’re trying to do. It’s not an up and down motion. It’s a back and forth motion. That’s the key. And to help you remember that, there’s an old saying, and by old, I mean I just made this up, but it goes like this: Up and down is very lame, back and forth shows your game. Okay? So remember that. So I don’t want your pan coming off that cutting board. I want you to press against the cutting board, I want you to push it forward, and give it a quick pull back. Alright, so push forward, pull back, push forward, pull back. And as long as you don’t lift the pan off the cutting board, and you keep experimenting with that back and forth motion, you will eventually get it. And here it is in slow motion so you can really see what’s happening. You’re pushing everything forward and then you’re giving it a quick pull back. And when you pull that pan back, you’ll see it will hit that curved edge of the pan and flip up over itself. And that’s the whole move. There’s really not much to it. Now some of you are saying here, “John, show me more of the up and down motion.” No! I just went over that. It’s not up and down. It’s back and forth. But anyway, practice that motion and you will be a pan flipping fool just like your favorite celebrity chef on TV! So I hope you give this a try. Head over to Foodwishes.com for new ingredients. But I will write a little something so check it out. And as always, enjoy!
