Knowledge Base > Char Nolan & Dan Marek - The Chef Instructor's Playbook

The Chef Instructor's Playbook

Char Nolan & Dan Marek - The Chef Instructor's Playbook

This event was on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Chefs Dan Marek and Char Nolan are set to share their experiences as community and food educators in the culinary arena in this event that is designed to educate aspiring instructors… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Overcooking garlic can wreck a dish, what is your rule of thumb for when you add it?

— Robert Morgan

Answer:

Yeah. So, um, in my personal experience, um, I'll usually add garlic kind of near the end of the dish, or when there's kind of a lot more into it. Like if you're just doing like a caramelization of onions and you add the, uh, garlic to it, you can sometimes over burn or overheat that garlic. So I'll typically add my garlic a little at the end of the dish. So it still has time to cook a little bit, but it's not gonna come in too much direct contact with the pan to be able to make that flavor expand out through the dish, but make sure you're not going to burn it. Char, as, uh, a chef, would you recommend that kind of same technique or do you have a a little extra to add Oh, With you a hundred percent. You know, uh, garlic is a low moisture vegetable and that's why it burns so quickly. So also make sure that your garlic is fresh, because if your garlic is old, it'll even be dryer. So, uh, if you follow the no oil recipe, the sequence of that teaches how not to burn garlic in the best way, as well as the garlic assignment with the two different vessels of, uh, yeah, not burnt and burnt where it can be a deep dark brown or black. So, hi Robert. Yeah, which I mean, you can also get a deep dark black garlic by doing black garlic, which is dehydration, um, technique, which is quite different and it tastes beautiful compared to a bart garlic at that same time.
Char Nolan & Dan Marek

Char Nolan & Dan Marek

Chefs

rouxbe