011: How to Flip Food in a Pan Like a Chef!

Hello! This is Chef John from foodwishes.com with How to Flip Stuff in the Pan like a Chef! That's right. This has to be one of the most popular non-recipe food wishes of all time.

So I'm going to show you my secret training method and we're not going to use real food! We're going to use cheese balls. And the reason I like the cheese balls for this in addition to they're kind of tasty and go good with beer, the reason I like the cheese balls is because they're very light which means they're going to fly out of the pan if you don't do this right. But if they do fly out of the pan, they're not going to do any damage or make a big mess. So I think they work really well for this.

So I'm going to pour those in the pan. Looks like I've got a couple extra. Let me take care of those. So here we go. The secret here is not to try to throw the food up and catch it. That's why people have a problem with this. They think you're supposed to throw the food up and then somehow catch it with the pan. That's not what you're trying to do. It's not an up and down motion. It's a back and forth motion. That's the key. And to help you remember that, there's an old saying, and by old, I mean I just made this up, but it goes like this: Up and down is very lame, back and forth shows your game. Okay? So remember that.

So I don't want your pan coming off that cutting board. I want you to press against the cutting board, I want you to push it forward, and give it a quick pull back. Alright, so push forward, pull back, push forward, pull back. And as long as you don't lift the pan off the cutting board, and you keep experimenting with that back and forth motion, you will eventually get it.

And here it is in slow motion so you can really see what's happening. You're pushing everything forward and then you're giving it a quick pull back. And when you pull that pan back, you'll see it will hit that curved edge of the pan and flip up over itself. And that's the whole move. There's really not much to it.

Now some of you are saying here, “John, show me more of the up and down motion.” No! I just went over that. It's not up and down. It's back and forth. But anyway, practice that motion and you will be a pan flipping fool just like your favorite celebrity chef on TV!

So I hope you give this a try. Head over to Foodwishes.com for new ingredients. But I will write a little something so check it out. And as always, enjoy!