Have you ever tried to prepare a dish that you recently enjoyed at a fancy restaurant and failed completely? Things like that happen and you should not give up. Practice makes perfect and this saying is even more suitable when it comes to trying out new recipes. If you continue to fail you either lack cooking skills and talent or you are trying to bite more than you can chew. Believe it or not, there are many dishes out there which you should never attempt to prepare on at home. Instead, you should only enjoy them at an excellent restaurant that employs trained and experienced chefs. To save you the embracement, we will outline a number of restaurant meals the preparation of which is quite challenging because it requires:

• Special skills;

• Expensive equipment;

• A lot of experience;

• Rare ingredients;

• All of the above;

Recipes you should leave to the pros

We are not saying that you cannot prepare the dishes which we are about to list. However, often times it is cheaper, easier and even less smelly to simply go to a trendy restaurant and to order them there. In other words, preparing certain meals at home is sometimes not worth it.

Dishes that take ages to cook

If you love to eat Ramen, just go to the nearest Japanese restaurant. This meal does not only require the use of a long list of ingredients but it also takes too long to prep. The broth alone often takes more than a day to make. Similar is the case with many Asian soups, particularly Vietnamese ones. The worst thing about these dishes is that even if you have enough time to dedicate to their cooking, they rarely end up tasting good when made at home.

Pictured: Ramen

Dishes that require the skills of a master

Even if you take extra pride in your cooking abilities, you may still lack the skills to prepare a Baked Alaska or a Croissant, for example. These are two of the most difficult recipes to master and even professional chefs find them extremely tricky to make. Croissants require the use of pricey equipment and special dough. Plus, the temperature in the kitchen in which they are prepared needs to be very specific in order for the croissant to turn out just right. The Baked Alaska dessert, on the other hand, is filled with ice-cream and it has meringue on top which you must brown but without melting the ice-cream.

Top 5 most difficult dishes to prepare

Dish	What is it	Basic ingredients	Why is it hard to master
Béarnaise sauce	A French sauce	Clarified butter, egg yolks, herbs, vinegar, shallots	It must be prepared over boiling water but the eggs must get too hot.
Consommé	A soup	Egg whites, stock, tomatoes	The simmering process is very tricky.
Baked Alaska	A dessert	Ice-cream, cake, browned meringue	To make the meringue firm, the dish must be placed in a hot oven but the ice-cream must not melt.
Soufflé	A baked dish with eggs	Eggs and a variety of other ingredients (can be either sweet or savory)	Whisking eggs in such a way that they fill up with a lot of air. Only then will the soufflé rise during the baking process.
Beef Wellington	A steak dish	Beef tenderloin, puff pastry, Pâté	The beef meat must be rare but the pastry must remain golden brown.

Pictured: Baked Alaska

So tasty that it’s deadly

Other recipes are not suitable for a home kitchen because they may be deadly if they are not cooked to perfection. Such is the case with sushi which involves mainly raw fish. The cleaning process of the fish is so intricate that Sushi chefs train for years to master it. However, the most difficult fish to prepare is Fugu. Also known as Pufferfish, this creature of the sea is so toxic that you can get poisoned even during the preparation process.

World’s most dangerous foods:

• Pufferfish (Fugu) – This is one of the most poisonous animals in the world and Japanese chefs need to undergo years of training before they are allowed to cook their first pufferfish.

• Ackee – A fruit that originates from West Africa and it is widely used in Caribbean cuisines. It can be very toxic if it is not well-prepared or fully ripe.

• Elderberries – Consume only the berries because all other parts of the elderberries are poisonous including their seeds, leaves and even their twigs.

• African Bullfrog – This is the second biggest frogs in the world and in some African and even Asian countries it is viewed as a very delicious and nutrient meal. However, some parts of the frog of it can be very poisonous.

Tasty but smelly

Kimchi is a very popular side dish in Korea and more and more restaurants in the U.S. have started to include it in their menus. It is made of fermented and salted vegetables. In short, it is a type of picked Korean radishes and napa cabbage. One of the most delicious recipes with kimchi is Korean Fried Turkey Leg which also features cucumber kimchi and Korean chili sauce. Making kimchi in your home kitchen is neither dangerous nor tricky. It is not even very expensive or time-consuming. The problem, however, is that it is quite smelly. When ready, you will need to put in your fridge but that will fill it up with the kimchi stink.

Reasons why restaurant food is so tasty

Even if you manage to prepare your favorite restaurant dish in your home kitchen, its taste may not be the same as the one with which you are so in love. Again, do not blame your cooking skills. The fault may not be in you. Quality restaurants are stocked up with various spices, many of which are exotic and not available on your local food market. Also, professional kitchens have professional cooking equipment. Therefore, your oven may not be good enough, for instance. Finally, do not underestimate the presentation skills of a pro chef. As they say, one eats with their eyes first.