Being excessive

One of the first things I learned to avoid when cooking is the tendency for exaggeration, the idea of ‘the more the best’. A beginner may tend to buy and cook huge quantities of the food he/she likes most – food enough for a whole squad. Leaving food cooking ‘just a little more’.
Cutting everything in too small pieces or even cutting it too uniform (what happens if one of the guests wants a smaller piece?). ‘Too’ doesn’t seem to work well in the kitchen.

But I think the biggest problem is to exaggerate in salt and/or spices, specially pepper. For instance, I learned that salt or pepper ‘to taste’ doesn’t mean the food will be good regardless of the quantity of salt or pepper you use. It means you should put a tiny quantity of salt or spice (since you cannot take it once it is there) and then try it, put a little more if needed and try it again until you find it good. A problem may occur then when the meal is finally ready and you no longer want to eat it because you have tried too much. Concentrate, grasshopper. Cooking is the art of taming fire and steel, quality and quantities, time and desire.