The cook who tastes along the way gives mistakes less time to grow.

Cooking is a series of small corrections rather than a single act of following instructions. Salt, heat and time drift, and whoever tastes early finds the drift while it is still adjustable, when a squeeze of lemon or a lower flame will fix it. Waiting until the end turns a small deviation into a finished result you cannot take back.

Taste at every stage this week, including in dishes you have made a hundred times. Adjust in small amounts and taste again. The habit transfers: look at a piece of work while it is still warm rather than presenting it and finding out then.