STOP DROWNING YOUR FOOD IN BOOZE

Listen up, kids. This is a kitchen, not a bar.
Adding alcohol doesn’t make your food fancier. It doesn’t make it “complex.” It doesn’t make it taste like a Michelin dish. If you’re not thinking it through, all you’re doing is giving bitterness a front-row seat and telling balance to go fuck itself.

Let’s break this down.

1. Alcohol is a tool, not a flavor.

Bourbon, wine, brandy, vermouth—these are ingredients, not shortcuts.
Used wrong, they add:

• Harsh bitterness

• Weird metallic notes

• Astringency

• Flat, burned sugar flavors with no backbone

If you want to use alcohol, ask:
What are you using it for? Deglazing? Caramel notes? Floral lift? Acidity? Answer that before you even reach for the bottle.

2. You must cook it off. FULL STOP.

You can’t dump wine into a sauce, swirl it once, and plate.
Alcohol needs time and heat to reduce—not just volume, but raw edge. That means:

• Deglaze early

• Reduce slowly

• Layer other flavors in after it mellows

And no, flambé isn’t a flex. It's for TV and trashy Instagram reels.

3. Balance or don’t bother.

If you add a bitter note (which alcohol is), you need to balance:

• Sweetness (shallot, honey, apple cider)

• Acidity (vinegar, citrus, tomato)

• Fat (butter, cream, yolk, marrow)

• Salt (not more sodium—smart salting)

• Aromatic counterpoints (thyme, bay, garlic, spice)

A good red wine reduction has all of those. A bad one tastes like licking a Merlot bottle in the parking lot.

4. You don’t even need booze.

Most of you throw it in because you don’t know how to build flavor.

• Deglaze with stock instead. Or vinegar. Or soy.

• You can get sweetness from root veg.

• Depth from char or umami.

• Acidity from fermentation or fruit.

If your dish is falling flat without alcohol, your foundations are broken—not your liquor cabinet.

5. Taste it. Every. Damn. Stage.

Don’t assume it’s “good” because you saw some guy with a neck tattoo drizzle whiskey into a demi on YouTube.
Taste it:

• Before the booze

• After it hits

• After reduction

• After balance

• Before it hits the plate

Train your palate, not your ego.

Final word: If it still smells like the bottle, you didn’t finish the dish.

Alcohol should disappear into the food—not sit on top of it.
If your sauce still tastes like a shot, congrats: you’ve made everyone’s dinner taste like Sunday morning regret.

Grow up. Cook with purpose. Use booze with discipline.
That’s the difference between a line cook and a chef.

You want to stand out? Learn restraint. That’s real firepower.