Knowledge Base > Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Eric Wynkoop - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, April 08, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Eric Wynkoop in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to co… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Does increasing the temperature of the oven to cook something faster also dry out the food?

— ly brod

Answer:

Yes, you bet. It would also, um, hasten that drying process. So there's gonna be a, uh, a balance here that you wanna achieve, um, you know, by adjusting the cooking time, uh, as well as the size of the food items that you, that you place on your, uh, your sheet pan. And so, larger items will dry out slower than small items, okay? They will also require a little bit more cooking, but you can, um, you know, adjust the heat as you're talking about, to get more intense heat into that item, to cook it faster. And so there's a balance in there, um, hopefully that will create a result that you like. Now, I will also mention that if you have a gas oven, um, and I'm gonna at least speak on, on, based upon my experience here at, at home on this topic, um, a, a gas oven on the very bottom, uh, in other words, on the floor of the oven, not, we're not talking racks here, we're talking about the floor of the oven. We'll have just a smooth surface, right? Unlike an electric oven, which will have, um, in a, a heating element on the bottom, okay? A gas oven, uh, in, in most cases, should have just a flat surface. And I will often put my sheet pan directly on the floor of the oven to get really intense heat, and, uh, it'll brown foods relatively quickly and cook them relatively quickly. And, uh, it works very nicely for me, and you might give that a try and see how you like those results.
Eric Wynkoop

Eric Wynkoop

Director of Culinary Instruction

rouxbe.com