Lessons from Samin Nosrat

Renowned chef and author Samin Nosrat has transformed the way many approach cooking through her celebrated book and Netflix series, "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat." Her philosophy emphasizes understanding the four basic elements of good cooking to empower home cooks to be more intuitive and confident in the kitchen.

The Four Elements of Good Cooking: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

This section focuses on Nosrat's foundational principles that give her book and show their titles.

"Play to each element's strengths: use Salt to enhance, Fat to carry, and Acid to balance flavor." [1]
"Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient. Learn to use it well, and food will taste good." [2][3]
"Fat is flavor. Fat is texture. Fat adds its own unique flavor to a dish and it can amplify the other flavors in a recipe. Simply put, fat makes food delicious." [4]
"Of the four, acid is the one the average home cook might not be thinking about." [5] Acid is crucial for balancing dishes.
"Heat is what cooks food." [5] Understanding how to control it is fundamental.
"The three basic decisions involving salt are: When? How much? In what form?" [1][6]
"Season food with the proper amount of salt at the proper moment; choose the optimal medium of fat to convey the flavor of your ingredients." [6]
"Just four basic elements can make or break a dish: salt, fat, acid, and heat. Commit to mastering them and you can become not only a good cook, but a great one.” [4]
"Salt's relationship to flavor is multidimensional: It has its own particular taste, and it both balances and enhances the flavor of other ingredients." [2]
"When you can, use the same kind of acid for cooking and garnishing." [1]

On the Craft of Cooking

Nosrat's advice for those learning to cook extends beyond her four elements, focusing on practice, intuition, and sensory engagement.

"No one's born a good cook. You have to learn and practice." [7]
"Cook every single day. Taste everything thoughtfully. Go to the farmers' market and familiarize yourself with each season's produce." [1][8]
"Recipes lead us to believe that cooking is a linear process, while most good food results from a circular one; like a spiderweb, touch one part and the entire thing will quiver." [6]
"I hate recipes." [7] Nosrat encourages cooks to move beyond rigid instructions. [5]
"When aspiring chefs ask me for career advice... Skip culinary school; spend a fraction of the cost of tuition traveling the world instead.” [1][6]
"Grilling used to make me nervous, but then I learned to view the fire as just another source of heat, no different from a stove or an oven." [7][9]
"Above all, Samin is trying to teach us how to improvise, freed from the rigid bounds of recipes... But to improvise requires constant tasting." [10]
"When I left restaurants, I had to learn to be a home cook." [7]
"The temperatures required for caramelization and browning almost always far exceed the boiling point of water. So the presence of water on the surface of a food, or on the bottom of a pan, is a signal that browning can't yet occur." [7]
"Food is also more likely to stick to a cold pan—another reason to preheat. But exceptions to the preheating rule exist: butter and garlic. Both will burn if the pan is too hot, so you must heat them gently." [1][6]

On Ingredients

A deep respect for ingredients and understanding their properties is central to Nosrat's cooking.

"No Persian meal is complete without an abundance of herbs." [7][9]
"Keep two kinds of salt on hand: an inexpensive one such as bulk-bin sea salt or kosher salt for everyday cooking, and a special salt with a pleasant texture, such as Maldon salt or fleur de sel, for garnishing food at the last moment." [1]
"In order to preserve the texture of mushrooms, wait to add salt until they've just begun to brown in the pan." [1][6]
"In order to flavor dried beans from within, add salt when you soak them or when you begin to cook them, whichever comes first.” [1]
"Acid dulls vibrant greens, so wait until the last possible moment to dress salads, mix vinegar into herb salsas, and squeeze lemon over cooked green vegetables such as spinach." [1]
"Though we typically turn to sugar to balance out bitter flavors in a sauce or soup, it turns out that salt masks bitterness much more effectively than sugar." [1][6]
"I love mayonnaise. It's one of the first lessons I teach my cooking students. Turning eggs and oil into an emulsion – that creamy, satisfying third thing – feels like magic." [2][7]
"Use starchy, older potatoes and rinse them of excess starches after slicing until the water runs clear. Only then will your fried potatoes emerge from the hot oil of the fry pot crisp but not burnt." [6]
"The higher a flour's protein content, the more structure and elasticity it will lend a dough." [2]
"As a student of Alice Waters, the patron saint of salad, I'm no stranger to the art of lettuce washing." [7][11]

On Food and Life

For Nosrat, food is inextricably linked to community, joy, and the human experience.

"I always turn to Wendell Berry for inspiration on food, community, agriculture, and, well, just being a human." [9][11]
"I'll eat anything, even foods I've always shunned, when a friend cooks it." [7]
"Persian cuisine is, above all, about balance – of tastes and flavors, textures and temperatures." [7]
"When I'm able to and often when I most need to get out of my head cooking is a way I can get out of my head and into my body." [12]
"I definitely feel the best when I make the effort to not eat by myself." [12]
"For almost five years now I've had a recurring weekly meal with a group of friends that sort of happened by accident. but we all say now it's become our church." [12]
"I love the look of delight on my guests' faces when I serve them a bowl of olive-oil aioli alongside roasted potatoes or a grand Nicoise salad." [11]
"My mum is a great cook. She was obsessed with health food... in large part because those organic vegetables tasted the closest to what she remembered in Iran." [13]
"I wanted the takeaway from my show to be that you go and cook the thing." [9]
"My grandmother said Persian food was invented to keep women in the kitchen." [13]

Personal Reflections

These quotes offer a glimpse into Nosrat's personal journey, her vulnerabilities, and her growth as a chef and individual.

"My decision to become an omnivore was fraught, not because it was a religious transgression but because it was my first act of self-assertion as a young adult." [2][9]
"I can only be me!" [7]
"I have always been a really gut-led person, intuitive person, and especially in my career... Any time I've regretted doing something... it's often because I ignored that gut feeling, that gut voice." [14]
"I'm getting better. One small way in which I'm getting better at being nicer to myself is letting go of mistakes." [14]
"I rose to all of the highest heights and achieved all the things... and then. I um still felt really lonely and empty and sad." [12]
"I've spent my whole life... trying to make them happy... my parents... and that I now see was a fool's errand." [15]
"My whole childhood. I was trying to fit in in a very white world... and then at home... maybe I'll fit in here because I never fit in i kind of just didn't fit in anywhere." [15]
"Hello, my name is Samin, and I'm an artisanal-bread hoarder." [7]
"I get an especially acute case of agita at the thought of a mortar and pestle." [7][11]
"It's easy to discount water's importance in the kitchen." [11]

Learn more:

Lessons from Samin Nosrat

The Four Elements of Good Cooking: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

On the Craft of Cooking

On Ingredients

On Food and Life

Personal Reflections

Written by Antoine Buteau

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