Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio reveals the most common mistakes people make when cooking

Award-winning chef, restaurateur, and "Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio weighs in on the most common mistakes home cooks make.

Colicchio is also a spokesperson for Arnold Bread and America's Better Sandwich.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Yeah, I think the most common mistake that people make when talking about food and talk about cooking is they think for some reason that you can read a few recipes and then you're just a good cook.

Hi, I'm Tom Colicchio with Crafted Hospitality.

If you want to be a good cook, you have to practice. And so I suspect if you're not a good cook, you don't spend a whole lot of time cooking. It's like anything. A lot of it's muscle memory, it's about creating good habits it's about learning good solid technique and methods. So it's much like learning to play a musical instrument. You have to understand basics, you have to understand theory. And then from there you can improvise.

You don't need a whole lot of gadgets you need a sharp knife. Make sure it's sharp and learn, learn how to use a knife. When I was a young kid learning to cook, I read somewhere that knife skills were so important so I would buy celery 'cause it was the cheapest thing I could buy and just practice cutting it. You know, and work on your knife skills. Getting comfortable with a knife is really important. Not just for speed but for precision as well. So I think, I think that's probably the most important thing.

The other mistake that people make is sometimes they're too - they adhere too much to a recipe and they get freaked out if they don't have an ingredient or ... you know, a recipe's a guideline. It's just a starting off point and you can go from there. And so, but I think if you really want to become a better cook, you have to cook.