A Beginner’s Guide to Cooking Different Cuisines at Home
Cooking food from different parts of the world sounds intimidating until you realize most cuisines are built on the same handful of techniques. Learn to sear, simmer, braise and build a simple sauce, and you can cook a surprising amount of the world from your own stove. Here’s how we’d get started, with recipes from our own collection to practice on.
Start with a flexible pantry
You don’t need a specialty store to cook globally. A few shelf-stable staples unlock dozens of dishes:
- Italian: good olive oil, canned San Marzano tomatoes, dried pasta, Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Mexican and Latin: cumin, chili powder, dried oregano, limes, canned or dried black beans
- Asian: soy sauce or tamari, sesame oil, rice vinegar, fresh ginger and garlic, gochujang
- French and Spanish: Dijon mustard, shallots, dry red and white wine, smoked Spanish paprika
Buy one cuisine’s staples at a time and cook two or three dishes with them before moving on. The ingredients get used up and the flavors start to make sense together.
Learn one technique per cuisine
Each of these recipes teaches a skill you’ll use again and again:
- Fettuccine Alfredo teaches you to build a silky sauce with butter, cream, cheese and a splash of starchy pasta water.
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas show how a hot broiler can char peppers and onions without a grill.
- Vegetable Chow Mein is a lesson in balancing sweet, salty and savory with soy, tamari and miso.
- Steak with Red Wine Dijon Pan Sauce covers the French pan sauce: sear, deglaze, reduce and finish.
- Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki shows how a lemon, vinegar and oregano marinade does the heavy lifting.
Taste as you go
The biggest difference between a flat dish and a great one is usually salt, acid or heat added at the end. Before you serve anything, taste it. Too heavy? Add lemon, lime or vinegar. Flat? A pinch of salt. Missing something? Try a little heat, like red pepper flakes or a spoonful of chipotle cream sauce.
Build confidence with sauces
Sauces are the fastest way to change the personality of a simple piece of chicken or steak. Try homemade teriyaki one night, smoky Spanish bravas sauce the next, and Argentine-style chimichurri after that. Same protein, three completely different meals.
Where to go next
When you’re ready to explore further, our trip around the world from our kitchen groups our recipes by region, and you can browse everything by cuisine from the recipe index.
