Alex Marlow

I've cooked in just about every kind of kitchen: banqueting halls, Rosette-rated restaurants, ski chalets and more agency shifts than I can count. Here's what actually works.

What I write here

Every issue of The Pass: one restaurant technique at a time, written for home cooks, with the temperatures, times and quantities that make it work. If something in an issue is wrong, tell me and the archived issue gets corrected.

Recent issues

• Watch the Butter, Not the Clock
• Salt It Tonight, Roast It Tomorrow
• Give Your Roast Veg Some Room
• Sweat, Don't Fry: The Onion Base Under Every Good Sauce
• Velvet It: The Cornstarch Trick That Makes Home Stir-Fry Meat Taste Like the Restaurant's
• Blanch, Shock, Hold: The Sunday Par-Cook That Turns Weeknight Vegetables Into a 90-Second Pickup
• Read It Backward: Building a Two-Burner Timeline So It All Lands Hot
• Pull It Early: The $15 Instant-Read Thermometer and the Carryover Cooking Pros Count On

Every issue →

Reference

Quick-look charts and calculators: blanching times, carryover pull temperatures, a dry-brine salt calculator and the kitchen calls.

Also by Alex Marlow

The @offthepass YouTube channel, and the kitchen costing guides on PrepSheet.