When we watch cookery shows on the telly, the most amazing thing is that the chefs cook such amazing dishes in so little time. Even on Masterchef, the contestants cook beautiful dishes in tight time schedules. How? The answer lies in efficiency strategies that all chefs and cookery experts have mastered. Even our mothers follow most of these strategies. But if you are new to cooking, here are the tips from celebrity chefs:

1. Keep the shelf clean and uncluttered. This is the most important thing you could learn from the way chefs work. As they work through their dishes, they also regularly attend to items on the shelf that will not be used anymore. So the peelings and other waste will be thrown into the bin right away. The utensils that have been used, will be placed aside for washing later. The idea is to keep your workspace uncluttered so you can see everything in its place when you need it.

2. Multitask. If you stand around waiting for the water to boil for your pasta, you waste a lot of time. You should never be standing around doing nothing! As you wait for a cooking process to finish, you can use the time to either start another process, or peel/wash/chop vegetables, or lay the dinner table, or make the drinks etc. If nothing else, use this time to wash the utensils you have piled up in the sink.

3. Use the Kettle. Boiling water is a lot quicker in the electric kettle. Since the LPG is now going to cost more, this will help in saving money also! Whenever you need water to boil vegetables or pasta etc, boil the water in your kettle and then use it in a pan!

4. Choose foods that cook quickly. Fresh home made pasta cooks very quickly as compared to the dry store bought pasta. If cooking non vegetarian, tough red meat takes very long, chicken cooks quicker, and sea food takes even lesser time!

5. Chop vegetables and meats finely. Bigger chunks and pieces of meat or vegetables will obviously take longer to cook. So when chopping your produce, chop into smaller and thinner pieces.

6. Use the microwave. When cooking Indian sabzis, you might want to microwave your chopped vegetables for 5 minutes before adding them to the hot pan on the stove. This will cut the cooking time by half! Remember microwave does work more efficiently, so try to use it in your cooking as often as you can.

7. Do bigger batches. When you are making an onion garlic masala, do a big batch that can be stored in the fridge. Now you can make gravy for your rajmah or chane in no time!

With such shortcuts and efficiency tips, you can also cook efficiently like a pro! If you have such tips, please share them with us in the comments section below.