Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The most important element of cooking to me is the development of
flavor(s). People tend to always go home to mama and pick comfortable flavors and common ingredients. When you are putting together a meal deciding what to serve with what is a huge adventure. The point being all elements should have flavor. When I see a recipe with flavor(s) I have never tried, I get excited. New ground to cover and more additions of
flavor(s) to add to my repertoire.

The most important element of cooking? Taste. I always taste as I go . . . that, more than any recipe's ingredient list, will tell you how the final product's quality (though I wouldn't recommend tasting raw meat or eggs).

Seasoning! You can have the best steak in the world on your plate, but if it hasn't been properly seasoned it's going to taste like cardboard.

Just one? I suppose effort, so many people don't cook, because they either don't go into the kitchen or won't abandon the Sandra Lee approach. Effort is a big part of the game

I think the most important element of cooking is balance- too much sweet, salty, herby, or spicy is never a good thing.

A basic important element is using fresh ingredients - no amount of seasoning or technique can compensate for ingredients that are past their prime.

The most important element of cooking has to be the ingredients--the food--itself. One cannot be a serious cook or make serious eats without the ability of knowing where to find quality ingredients, how to select them, and how to not hide their flavor and bury their best qualities in a hodgepodge of spices and sauces. The best ingredients speak for themselves and the cook must learn when to let them talk.

The most important element in my mind would be a sense of perspective. And this can mean perspective in terms of your flavors and balance, in terms of how the way you cook fits into your lifestyle and schedule, of how different dishes work together in a meal, to having the courage to try new things or to improvise, visual perspective (does depth perception help?!), etc. It's also a useful coping mechanism when something goes wrong!

Seasoning.

The most important element to cooking? It's love.

If you don't love what you are cooking, if you aren't absolutely gaga over what you are doing then you should get out of the kitchen.

creativity

This may seem weird, but I like the methodical-ness of it. I just enjoy being in the kitchen working and creating something, whether its something I've made a thousand times or doing it for the first time. Good times, all of it.

Development: of flavors of course, but also of skills and techniques over time. It takes time and patience to become creative and responsive to the food and situation you find yourself dealing with.

Having the freshest-possible ingredients. You can't have a nice ending without the right beginning.

Salt is your friend.

The most important element for me is the people I'm cooking for. I mean I love to eat but I *really* love to feed people. Remembering what my friends like and don't like, surprising people with something that they mentioned once, crafting the elements of a meal to satisfy and entertain everyone, thinking and planning for weeks in advance, and then sitting back to watch people feel cared for, loved, and treasured... that's what makes me want to cook.

these are all awesome responses--fascinating. is salt more important than love?!

Passion.

If you don't want to create an excellent (or "just" good) meal, you can't, no matter how fresh the ingredients, how much knowledge you have, or how the dish is seasoned.

My Dad. Which would then mean - teachers.

Passing knowledge on, sharing the skills and growth so that another person, and then another person, can cook, that is the beginning of all.

And actually, isn't that just what Ruhlman doing with this book? (And I mean that in a good way!)

Salt.

Simplicity. If you already have great ingredients, they should be the stars of the plate.

learning to trust your own judgment rather than referring to the recipe 500 times.

trusting yourself in the kitchen will give you the confidence you need to try new dishes, ingredients, methods, tools, and seasonings, in other words, to really start developing as a cook

I believe that the most important element is the ability to use your brain. Most cooking is common sense...does it need salt? Then salt it. Does it need to cook longer? Then cook it longer...etc...never underestimate the ability of the food to let you know what it needs...

The most important ingredient in any recipe is passion. You can tell when it's part of even the most simple of dishes, and you can tell when it's missing from the most complex.

I say timing. I've seen plenty of lovely ingredients lost to bad timing.

Care and respect for the food you are cooking.

Heat!

What type, how much, and how long.

In that order, for any dish.

Sense of self and experience.....knowing when to stick to strict adher. of a recipe or don't take yourself so seriously by knowing when to make fudge sauce out of unset fudge....let your love pour into everthing you do, but know when you've reached your limits and turn to the expienced ones to guide you through uncharted waters, or just turn the funky music loud and throw all caution to the wind, toss the cookbooks, and just have fun experimenting in the kitchen creating with taste, textures and moods. Have fun and love in everything you do. It will come out in the finished product, weither it be food, family or life!!!! Live boldly, love abandoly, learn when to hold back, and most importantly, just trust your inner self!!!!

Having quality ingredients as well as a judicious sense of proportion between those ingredients.

The most important part of knowing how to cook is loving food. Without a passion for the sensory delights of nourishment, one is left with zero desire to do anything but put fuel in their body.

Have fun, put love and care into your cooking!

Creativity and a respect for your ingredients. Unless you are baking, there is not reason not to be expressive in your cooking. Don't be a slave to recipes. Consider them as life rafts to get you through a rough patch, but abandon them once you establish your own footing. The ingredients you use have their own color and character and you have to work with them, not destroy them or sublimate them. It ultimately is a collaboration.

A sense of humour and adventure. Adventure to try new things and sense of humour for those times when it doesn't work.

Oh, and spices. Learning to cook with spices, especially if you like Indian food, is very important.

Confidance. Whenever I approach a recipe or a lab protocol in a tentative way things tend to go awry.

The thought process from the conception of the dish through the preparation and execution. You need to go into the kitchen with the final vision formed. Sometimes inspiration will alter that vision, but you need that vision to start with.

As others have noted, I think there is something within the person doing the cooking that can make or break whatever they're making. Call it passion or just a serious interest or attention, but I do believe that there is something we can't necessarily name that goes in to good food. For proof, I offer those people who follow recipes to the letter and still can't cook. There's one of those who married in to my family, in fact. She doesn't like to cook, does it out of sheer necessity, and despite following recipes and using every pot/pan/ingredient in the place, her food rarely tastes like anything. Not being critical--just telling it like it is. So I guess you need to add some LOVE (along with salt, of course...)!

Depends on what category of elements -- there are the physical elements, such as ingredients (including salt) and tools (knives, pots, a stove), and then there are intangible elements, such as comfort with the tools, a good sense of smell & taste, and good people to share it with.

For the physical -- it has to be ingredients. I can cut a good chicken with a less than ideal knife but a bad chicken will always be bad.

For the intangible -- for me, it's to remember that cooking is supposed to bring pleasure as well as nutrition, for me, for my family, for my guests. Have fun, it's just food! One of the best meals I ever made was (homemade) gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce. But the group of friends who helped with making and eating that meal made it a very special night that lives on in memory.

I would have to say seasoning as well. Even the best quality ingredients need seasoning to boost their flavors. We've seen several Next Iron Chef contenders go because of poor (or lack of) seasoning, so this element is obviously crucial among even the best of the best.

It's gotta be seasoning. It can literally transform food from dull to sublime. Poor seasoning can kill a dish that's techiquely perfect in every other way.

Tasting. If you don't taste as you go, you won't know if you've completely messed up!

Wanting to do it

I know it's been mentioned before, but mise en place was the thing that turned my cooking around (THANKS ALTON!)

It reduces the "running around like a napalmed chicken" factor dramatically and lets you focus on more important details. Take it away and everything else suffers.

Knowledge. Whether it is an awareness of how new tastes will blend, or a box full of old, reliable recipes to fall back on, the depth of a cook's knowledge will always affect their final product.

Love. Love of food, love of the people you are cooking for, love of the process of cooking.

i think one of the most important elements of cooking is well prepared sauces (or condiments) which can completely make or break any dish, and are not always as easy as they seem

@slloyd Oh yea! I am stealing that whole dissertation.

The most important element of cooking for me is being prepared. Being prepared by having a stocked pantry for last minute meals, being prepared when you start cooking and having everything set before you begin and if using a recipe reading it over and over until you got it down....ohh and you gotta have company in the kitchen!!

quality ingredients.

I don't want to win this book.

I'll just buy it and voice my opinion about it somewhere else.

My answer is nothing like the rest.

An open mind and being willing to risk failure.

Exceptional quality in ingredients, organization while in the kitchen and diligence in your preparation of your food. All three are important but the last one is probably the most!

Purpose

cooking is kinda like raising children, the most important thing you need is love, the other is plain damn common sense. love is by far the most important when it comes to children or cooking, if you hate cooking or hate being a parent, the results will be horrid. yeah, some folks will get lucky but without those two traits most will fail miserably. you simply do the best with the ingredients you have.

Good quality, fresh ingredients and the right equipment.

It's been said, but for me it is patience and passion. Patience to hold out for the best ingredients, to not cut corners in methods, patience to not try and rush the dish, Patience to let something cook for as long as it needs to, patience to let the meat rest (you get the picture).
Passion is needed to really feel each and every ingredient, passion for cooking benefits those who are eating what you have created...how many times have we heard that to be a great chef you have to have heart and soul into it? Who can remember eating a dish that was created by someone who hates cooking? Not very many I imagine...No passion or patience makes for very average cooking!

I think that cooking is about love; love for food, love for the people that will be eating the food, and love for the process. Creativity in the kitchen is such an important part in so many of our lives. Whether we use recipes or not, the process marries inherent creativity with something that is a necessity for life. It's like nothing else. We don't have creative breathing and we can also survive without music or literature (though I'm not sure I'd want to). It's about elevating something that is so primal (like breathing) to something that is full of creative possibility; the joy being that it can be as simple or complex as we want (like Mozart and Shakespeare, or like Kelly Clarkson and Dave Berry).

That being said, to me the most important element of the actual cooking process for me is heat. You can be endlessly creative, but you're never going to get anywhere if you can't manage heat. Imagine searing meat with a pan that isn't hot enough, or burning a dish, or letting something milk based boil so that it separates. Without control of heat, cooking is always hit or miss, even if the ingredients are fresh and well prepared.

Did I mention I love food?

I'm gonna go with seasoning. Adding the right herb or spice, or even salt, can take a dish from ho hum to yum.

Passion. And good ingredients.

To me, the creation of high quality and tasty stocks are the most important element of cooking. I believe they are the base from which most good recipes become great meals.

Definitely the seasoning, especially salt.

My dad would say respect I think. He loves cooking and every time he makes something, it's done "with respect".
For me though, and partly as a baker, it's gotta be patience. Just let them yeast do their thing.

Without a doubt, using good ingredients. The most often repetead phrase on top chef was 'if it's good going in, it'll be good coming out'!

I know it has been said already, but I agree that the most important cooking element is Love. If you enjoy cooking and are making food for people you love, that is the best.

To cite a cookbook title, "The Perfect Taste" is key, whether a bite of an unadulterated Brandywine tomato at the peak of its ripeness or Thomas Keller's "oysters and pearls". In my book, a salad of buffala mozz, tomato, chiffonaded basil and fleur de sel that anyone with a knife can pull together or a rack of lamb with salt and pepper cooked just to medium rate are just as grand as any elaborate dish that it takes a full kitchen staff and a working day to make.

Trust. If one trusts the quality of their ingredients, their talent and technique then the food has a chance to be as good as it can.

Bravery. You have to be brave to try new things and only in trying new things can we grow as chefs and as humans.

The most important element of cooking is heart. You have to have heart as soon as you put your pan on the stove. You have to have heart as soon as you prepare your ingredients and knowing what you're about to prepare. If you don't put your heart into your dish, that dish isn't going to be the dish the people that you're serving it to will enjoy and remember.

seasoning

the most essential element of cooking is love.

Consistency is the most important element. You may be able to pull off a dish to perfection one time, but not being able to reproduce it effectively makes or breaks the success of a cook whether it be at home or in a restaurant.

Not sure how to put this - I think the best word is "enjoyment"...you need to be able to enjoy how the food looks, smells, how it tastes, the texture on your tongue. A good cook has almost an intuitive understanding of how to make food enjoyable to all five senses.

There are many great answers posted here but let's face facts: cooking is work, no matter how much we may enjoy it. Without PASSION, there would be no reason for the chefs and line cooks that I work with to rock through weekend rushes (I am a server, so I only have to observe) or for me to prepare dinner for my family after spending 5 hours a day in a culinary arts school cooking lab 4 days a week. Most of these other things are merely tools, albeit important ones.

Tasting and seasoning. Willingness to taste ingredients and a feeling for what it goes with goes a long way. Seasoning is part of that as far as I am concerned.

A willingness to learn. You'll never be a good chef or even an enthusiastic amateur if you're not willing to put yourself out there and learn new ways to do things, new flavors to try, etc.

For me the most important element of cooking is the person doing the cooking. Practically anyone can follow a recipe, but not everyone can put something of themselves into what they are making.

concentration,focus, and the most freshest ingredients available on earth.

Timing.

Quality ingredients.

I would have to say that not being afraid of salt is the most basic element of cooking. If the food isn't seasoned properly, nothing can save it from mediocrity, at best.

The ability to eat well. Just eating well won't make you a good cook. But you can't be a good cook unless you know how to taste, appreciate, and enjoy good food. Oh, and to know when something is just bad.

hunger.

Proper seasoning of fresh, quality ingredients. Without either, you are lost.

There are a lot of great answers here. I think passion, love and patience are all way up on the list, but my own answer is safety.

And by that I mean preparing food in a manner that is sanitary, correct and unlikely to have your diners spending the rest of the evening either on or in front of the porcelain god. Or yourself in the ER having either a finger reattached or a skin graft on your burn.

First and foremost you must cook cleanly and safely.

Many have said it before me, but knowing how to use salt is an integral part of exceptional cooking.

For me, the most important element of cooking is having a good time in the kitchen. If I'm having fun, the food tastes that much better.

passion...you have to want to make good food, even when the cupboard is bare. Even when you have nothing more than a dorm room hot pot. Even when the only salt you have is from a packet you nicked from the diner last night. passion is the one trait that will make you WANT to create something from nothing. It is the one thing that will make you appreciate that prosciutto fat, when all you had was canola.

Simplicity! Simple ingredients, good seasonings to bring out the flavor, and you're all set.

Balance

It has to be confidence, as someone already mentioned above. I would say confidence at such a level that borders arrogance, but still willing to be flexible, able to take constructive criticism and change and grow at whatever level you are at.

Organization/planning, then proper salting.

The most important element in cooking is timing. Being a minute off on your cooking time can render a delectable treat into an inedible mess.

Sodium (on the periodic table: Na, atomic number 11).

Mise en place, fresh ingredients, seasoning, and tasting your food before you serve it.

Love. You have to love the food, love the method of cooking, and love (or at least tolerate) the people you're serving. Everything else comes after that.

Willingness to try new things. I've made some of the worst food this world has ever known, but if you won't try new combinations and new ingredients, you will never eat anything good.

Courage. Being unafraid to try new ingredients, flavors, and techniques, even at the risk of turning out something you don't like. It's amazingly easy to stick to what is tried and true and sometimes miss out discovery.

The most important element of cooking is eating.

That may seem glib, but I'm serious. Why does anybody voluntarily enter the kitchen except that they've experienced a wonderful meal and want to try to recreate it? Do you remember the first time you had a really outstanding risotto? Or a perfect piece of fried chicken? Or your first taste of pho, or guacamole, or foie gras, or tom kha kai? If you're serious about cooking, if it's not just about putting subsistence-level starch and protein on the table, then you remember your outstanding meals, and you cook because you want people to eat the way you ate. If you don't know what it's like to eat, to really taste, if pork and salmon and ostrich are all just meat to you, nothing more than fuel, then you'll never be able to cook. Bottom line, prerequisite number one, you cannot cook unless you can eat, really eat.

And this is how I keep myself motivated and organized, and why I'm able to set up a plan and structure a meal and keep ten different balls in the air no matter how complicated the menu: I'm always thinking of the eating that will happen at the end of all the work. Cooking, ultimately, is not about knowing how to butterfly a bird, or getting the temperature of the custard just right by sight and feel. Cooking is about watching the bite go into someone's mouth and seeing that person's eyes roll back and then close as a small involuntary sound of pleasure escapes.

And by knowing how to eat, you know the eating experience that is the objective of your cooking; and by knowing that, you can keep all the components in order, and your cooking properly organized and prioritized. The pasta has to be hot, slippery, firm in the mouth; it gets cooked at the last minute. The short ribs must be tender, flavorful, falling off the one; they get cooked for hours ahead of time, with enough acid to break up the muscle structure. If you want the guests to enjoy the slightly peppery fruity qualilty of the olive oil the same way you did, you don't kill it by burying it with other flavors; keep it simple. You want the dish to pop on the plate, to make the eater drool before he even picks up his fork? You organize your ingredients as you cook them so you can assemble them the way you want.

And what better way for a cook to learn and grow than to eat? Hey, there's a new Ethiopian place in town, let's go eat there and see if we learn something new we can apply in our own kitchen. Oh, sweetbreads, I've heard they're good, I really ought to try some from a chef who knows what she's doing. I'm traveling to Cambodia, I must make time to wander through one of the street markets and grab some finger food more or less at random, deciding entirely by smell. Eat. Eat. Eat. And then you can cook. And then? Eat some more.

Always, always, always, in cooking, you must be thinking about the eating. If you aren't thinking about the eating, or if (God pity you) you don't know how to eat, you might as well not be cooking.

Love, Knowledge, Adventure, Humour.

The most inportant element of cooking in my house is family involvement. On my mother's side of the family everyone cooks, all of her brothers, her mother and father. Meals are something that are prepared and shared together. My kids love to get up early to go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings. They each get to pick an ingredient that we integrate in to our Saturday dinner...and that gets them to eat things they never would have considered otherwise. It also lets me spend time with them, I work and go to school both full time and my husband works the night shift so dinner time is our only family time together each day!

Seasoning! No matter how amazing the quality of the product is, you need to season it properly to make it taste good.

Attention to intuitive congruence

I'm in the "seasoning" camp as to what the most important element of cooking. You can have the most pristine ingredients and preparation, but if you season them poorly, the dish will never be great.

It's all about taste (seasoning), great presentation helps, but it's gotta taste good.

The most important element of cooking is using the finest ingredients. Take for example a steak. If you get the best cut of steak - dry aged. A simple seasoning of salt and pepper beats lesser cuts of meat that has been marinated with a glut of spices.

Laughter! This is one of the most important elements of cooking on a couple of levels.

First, laughter lends itself to looseness, which I believe is key in the kitchen. Of course, it's important to be as prepared and organized as possible, but not at the expense of being uptight and inflexible. In my earlier cooking days, I'd get frustrated if something I was preparing wasn't coming out as I liked. Eventually, I learned to laugh it off... to step back for a moment and figure out what was necessary to get the recipe back on track. (Usually that's fish sauce, another important element of cooking, but let's stay on track here!) I'm always in awe of the power of ingredients to transform into a dish that's something special, but not so awestruck as to be immobilized in making that happen myself.

Laughter also lends itself to learning. A lighthearted approach in the kitchen leads to whimsy and innovation - a willingness to try something new. I like heat, so years before reading recipes that said the same, I was putting wasabi in mashed potatoes and homemade ice cream, and chile in chocolate pecan pie. And if these creations pushed my guests too much... more laughter and learning what works and doesn't work for other people!

Laughter de-stresses what can be a stressful situation in the kitchen. It's a great reaction in moments of triumph in culinary creation, and a healthy reaction to failure - which is, after all, just another learning experience.

Not being afraid to make a mistake or try new things.

Love of cooking, the love of family and friends and good company, and the love of eating great food.

The most important element of cooking is respect of ingredient and it's balance with technique. You can make great food with poor ingredients with extrodinary skill, but with great ingredients and mediocre skills, you can still pull off a decent dish. If you have poor quality ingredients and barely competent skills, then you will never have a great (never mind good) dish. A cook also needs to taste what they are cooking before they are finished to know where they are going and when it will be finished.

Superior ingredients.

PASSION!

When a chef or a cook has the passion to submerse themselves into food, the outcome is usually successful. Whether it's constantly researching new flavors and ingredients or just perfecting an age old family recipe. The passion and commitment to make others happy will show in the food.

Don't Clean your Non-Stick Pans or Use Soap on Cast Iron - You can't do more then simply wipe out the non stick pans, and for the love of god, PLEASE don't wash away and soap up the lovely seasoning of our cast iron.

Engaging all 5 senses is the most important element of cooking. Food, much like eroticism, begins with they EYES. Both entice us through appearance, inviting us to indulge. TASTE and SMELL follow right behind, inseparably. The perfume of exquisite cooking can not only make us salivate, but it can also stir our desires. Then, of course, there is what we HEAR. It may be as simple as the sound of a champagne cork being popped, and the gurgle of the bubbles hitting the glass. In the same moment, we can take notice of both the clink of silverware on a plate, and the soft murmur and tones of idle conversation carried over those very plates. Lastly there is TOUCH: the sensation of kneading bread with the entire weight of your body, the curve of an egg coddled in the cup of your hand, or a juicy, fibrous mango that dribbles its juices down your chin all induce a deep pleasure that commences in the core of our being. Forgetting to entice one of the senses can still result in a great meal, but not a perfect one.

Good, fresh quality ingredients.

the most important element of cooking for me is time, timing, and patience -- let the thing brown, and don't try to poke it or move it before it's done!

having fun trying things - you can always order pizza if you fail.

Have fun in the kitchen and infuse your food with love.

Sensuality. It pervades everything else i thought of to say--time, good ingredients, audience/eaters, and just losing yourself in a simple task done.

I doubt it's all that unusual, but I find one of the most important elements of cooking to be the seasoning, particularly salt. Too little and the food can be bland; too much and the food is a wasteland.

My one element I use everytime would have to be my senses. OK, technically if you broke it down that would be 6 (yes 6), but used together I count them as one. Without your senses, you loose the passion and invitation/temptation of the food. It doesn't matter if you are making comfort food or fancy food, with a recipe or improvising, calling back memories or creating a new one, using your senses makes your meal delicious before you even take a bite.

Everyone chef knows that HEAT is the most importatant element in cooking, without heat it's just raw.

I have two requirements: love and an open flame.

Enthusiasm for the charms of different ingredients, and a sense of adventure to find out how they play. Particular skills can be learned, but you gotta bring your own gumption.

definitely proper seasoning.

Control the heat

TASTE, by far, is the most important element of cooking. How will you know if it will be good to anyone else if you don't taste it first? (I never understand people (chefs or amateur cooks) who don't taste their own food before sending it out to the table----only way to see if the seasoning, texture, etc. is right!)

Consistency is the soul of cuisine. It means nothing to make a great dish if you can't make it consistently.

The most important element? ENJOYING IT! If you aren't having fun and expressing yourself through your food...you shouldn't be cooking. That's not to say there aren't bad days/nights/shifts/ingredients/bosses/customers/co-workers...but you should still enjoy it because if you don't...it will come through in the food.

cheers!

It's about balance, contrast and composition within each dish, and of the dishes in an entire meal.

A balance and contrast of:
1) taste - sweet, sour, savory, spicy, etc;
2) cooking techniques - sauteed, poached, broiled, fried
3) texture - crispy, tender, chewy
4) rich/light
5) temperature - cold, room, hot

Love & Caramelization.

I feel the most important element, other than that quality of the food you purchase, is your attitude towards it. If you love food and love to cook, it shows. If you are having a bad day and you are frustrated, that frustration will turn up in your finished dish.

Techniques mean nothing if there is no love.

The single most important ingredient is shopping -- or sourcing. Finding really great quality... or unusual ... spices or condiments or whatever you want to put together. Eventually. So for me, I have a pantry of exotica... that I use to augment the freshest basic ingredients I can find.
You can't improvise if there are no ingredients to improvise from. And if the ingredients are second rate, the results show up on the plate.
You can have great technique, but if a box of instant oatmeal is all that's in your pantry, you're not making anything much more exotic or interesting than oatmeal.