Sous chef at my first real kitchen job told me to stop washing mushrooms

I was at a busy Italian spot in Portland back in 2017. The sous chef saw me rinsing creminis under the tap and told me to just brush them off instead. I ignored him for a month because it felt wrong. Then I noticed my risotto was coming out watery and bland. He was right, I was soaking mushrooms like an idiot. Anyone else get a basic prep tip that made you feel dumb after?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantmartinez27d ago

The real question is how many pounds of soggy mushrooms you ruined before you figured it out lol. I'm pretty sure waterlogged mushrooms are why my first kitchen went through so much butter.

emmag2227d ago

Wait, are you telling me you were using extra butter just to make up for waterlogged mushrooms? That's wild. I've never heard of anyone doing that before. I bet your pans were basically swimming in butter to get any color on those things.

viola_ward17d ago

That "wasting butter to fix bad technique" happens in a lot of things, not just cooking.