Curious about cooking? High-pressure culinary school requires a lot of time and money. We asked present and former culinary students for their No. 1 "ah-ha!" moment or takeaway from class so you can benefit from what they learned — without enrolling.

Culinary Student: Jenny Bierman, Culinary Producer, Food Network Kitchens

Confession: When I started breading things for frying, I always wound up with a weird pasty mush all over everything because my wet and dry ingredients were mixing with each other, resulting in a terrible fried crust. When I learned to keep one hand for the wet ingredients and one hand for the dry ingredients, I was introduced to a whole new world of breading. No more goopy, floury egg everywhere —just a crispy nice crust and clean(er) hands.

For more on the high-pressure ups and downs of culinary school, tune in to The Freshman Class every Monday at 10:30pm ET