You're Doing It All Wrong

You're Doing It All Wrong episodes:

• 10.22.2010

  How to Make Thanksgiving Stuffing with Roxanne Webber

  CHOW Associate Editor Roxanne Webber demonstrates the wrongs and rights of Thanksgiving stuffing. The biggest wrong? Sticking with the gluey mess that comes out of a box. You’re not saving yourself much time or money with that stuff.

  
• 10.13.2010

  How to Make a Flaky Thanksgiving Pie Crust with Roxanne Webber

  CHOW Associate Editor Roxanne Webber makes her pie crust for the CHOW Thanksgiving pumpkin pie the right way, by using cold butter, not overworking the dough, and defying the temptation to add a lot of water.

  
• 10.08.2010

  How to Make Pumpkin Pie with Boris Portnoy

  Pastry chef Boris Portnoy gives new life to a Thanksgiving cliche. Generic, canned pumpkin pie mix plus freezer-burned pie crust equals fake smiles on the faces of your friends and families. Real smiles come from choosing your own pumpkin—there are...

  
• 09.29.2010

  How to Make Matzoh Balls with Joyce Goldstein

  Chef, author, and consultant Joyce Goldstein is a culinary hero, and she has heroic ways with matzoh balls. She suggests babying the dough, using schmaltz for chicken-y flavor, and boiling the matzoh balls for a good, long time. Try out...

  
• 06.16.2010

  How to Make Mashed Potatoes with Margo True

  Sunset magazine food editor Margo True has learned the rights and wrongs of mashed potatoes from a reliable source-- her mother. Here, she demonstrates the wrong way (undercooking waxy potatoes, skimping on the cream, or, horror of all horrors, employing...

  
• 06.09.2010

  How to Muddle for a Cocktail with Michael Cecconi

  Once upon a time, all you needed for cocktail-making was liquor, ice, and a glass. Now, a cocktail isn't complete without freshly muddled fruit and herbs. Michael Cecconi, mixologist at New York's Back Forty who also works at the Savoy...

  
• 06.03.2010

  How to Pour Sparkling Wine with Loïc Le Calvez

  Loïc Le Calvez, senior winemaker of Taltarni Vineyards, has experienced all of the wrong ways that people open and pour sparkling wine: shaking the bottle, popping the cork, leaving the glass on the table while pouring too vigorously. Here's the...

  
• 05.27.2010

  How to Serve and Cut Cheese with Laura Werlin

  Laura Werlin, author of Laura Werlin's Cheese Essentials and noted cheese expert, knows cheese rights from cheese wrongs. She's got pointers ranging from the serving to the cutting of cheese, with a little bit of rind etiquette along the way.

  
• 05.20.2010

  How to Make Latkes with Leslie Jonath

  Leslie Jonath, writer-editor at Chronicle Books and annual latke-party-thrower, has learned all she knows from her mother and grandmother. She shares some Jonath family secrets (controversy alert: food processor! wringing water!). Her latke recipe is adapted from Marlene Sorosky's version...

  
• 05.13.2010

  How to Steep Tea with David Wong

  David Wong, director of tea culture and education at Tillerman Tea, has seen all of the wrong ways that people brew tea. He's here to show you the right way. There are three "hows" of steeping: how hot the...

  
• 05.06.2010

  How to Frost a Cake with Meg Ray

  A hot cake plus cold frosting means cake death: soggy and ugly. Meg Ray, founder and owner of San Francisco's Miette patisserie and confiserie, explains what you're doing wrong when you're frosting a cake. Plus, more important, what you should...

  
• 04.29.2010

  How to Cook Bacon with Scott Vermeire

  Fatty, soggy, and burnt are words you never want to hear applied to your bacon. Scott Vermeire of Prather Ranch Meat Co. offers a quick and easy primer on bacon perfection. He also addresses the very important question of flipping:...

  
• 04.22.2010

  How to Sauce Pasta with Andrew Carmellini

  Andrew Carmellini, the former chef at A Voce, is also the author of a new book, Urban Italian, with his wife, Gwen. Here he demonstrates the proper way to sauce pasta; starch and fat are crucial.

  
• 04.16.2010

  How to Make Gnocchi with Christian Hermsdorf

  Successful gnocchi-making requires some attention to detail. And successful gnocchi-maker Christian Hermsdorf, chef de cuisine at Bar Bambino, wants to share some of the details. First, the don'ts: Don't peel the potatoes, don't use too much flour, and don't overcook....

  
• 04.08.2010

  How to Tap a Keg with JD Beebe

  A keg is a cheap solution to satisfy a group of drinkers-- like at a Super Bowl party --and tapping it isn't difficult if you follow a few simple steps. Your first task is to find a great local liquor...

  
• 04.01.2010

  How to Make Deviled Eggs with Jamie Lauren

  Top Chef Season 5 contestant Jamie Lauren doesn't think people know how to treat their eggs properly. After setting down the ground rules for getting your hard-boiled eggs smooth and creamy, she updates the flavors of this ’70s house-party appetizer,...

  
• 03.25.2010

  How to Make a Mai Tai with Martin Cate

  Martin Cate, owner of the tiki bar Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco, believes that the mai tai has been disgraced in bars and tropical destinations for far too long, and that the cocktail needs to return to its roots: the...

  
• 03.18.2010

  How to Roast Vegetables with Lisa Jervis

  Lisa Jervis, cofounder of Bitch magazine and author of Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, has a particular bias against mushy, flavorless vegetables that are more steamed than roasted. To get that roasty, toasty flavor and texture,...

  
• 03.11.2010

  How to Make Nachos with Molly Watson

  Food writer Molly Watson dispels any illusions people might have about making nachos. For the record, using cheese sauce and a microwave are fatal errors. Her method only takes a few minutes, and you get crunchy nachos with flavor in...

  
• 04.10.2009

  How to Grill with Todd Eng

  Todd Eng, grillmaster and restaurateur-in-progress (he's opening an izakaya later this year), encourages you to rethink your use of lighter fluid and consider investing in a chimney starter. While you're at it, you might pick up some lump charcoal and...

  
• 04.10.2009

  How to Make a Burger with Hubert Keller

  Hubert Keller, chef-owner of San Francisco and Las Vegas based Fleur de Lys and a television mainstay (Secrets of a Chef, Top Chef, Top Chef Masters), is obsessed with hamburgers, as any self-respecting Frenchman should be. He generously shares some...

  
• 04.07.2009

  How to Cook and Top Oatmeal with Jeremy Oldfield

  Jeremy Oldfield is an oatmeal painter of light. He takes the blank canvas (a canvas of whole-oat groats lovingly ground and soaked overnight) and breathes life into it; the kind of life that lives in tahini and miso paste, or...

  
• 03.05.2009

  How to Remove Meat from a Crab with Brian Leitner

  Brian Leitner, co-owner of Nettie's Crab Shack, shares the right and wrong ways to eat Dungeness crab. Leitner sees hundreds of crabs eaten at this time of year (it's currently Dungeness Crab Week in San Francisco), and he's watched customers...

  
• 02.24.2009

  How to Pour Beer with Dave McLean

  Magnolia Pub & Brewery owner Dave McLean handcrafts beers using carefully sourced ingredients. He also pours a beautiful pint. Employ his simple tips, and you'll get the perfect head every time.

  
• 02.23.2009

  How to Make Drip Coffee with Arno Holschuh

  Clean, hot water; freshly ground beans; and a proper drip filter (we like the porcelain ones from Sweet Maria's, but many types are available): Good drip coffee is an attainable goal.

  
• 02.02.2009

  How to Chop an Onion with Kate Ramos

  Your onion deserves better. And even, parallel slices are the way to clean onion geometry.