Impressed when watching a cook flip food in a frying pan? Ever want to be able to do that, too? I always thought this practice was akin to a circus trick—an attention-getter that show-offs used to win Ooos! Ahhhs! and applause.

Well, it turns out (according to the pros over at www.seriouseats.com), I’m kinda right. In most cases, it isn’t an essential cooking skill, since there is almost always an equally good, less flashy way to accomplish your task (like stirring, or using a spatula). And frankly, as the Serious Eats folks say, “Even in practiced hands, tossing food in a skillet runs the risk of making at least a small mess. It's like juggling—you can get very good at it, but that doesn't mean you'll never drop a ball.”

However, this opinion doesn't mean the technique doesn’t have its place. First, it's an incredibly fast and efficient way to mix and move foods in the pan, with just a few quick tosses doing the equivalent of much more stirring. Second, in the case of wok cooking, it's partly responsible for wok hei, a hard-to-define flavor of, among other things, the vaporization of oils and liquids as they momentarily leap out of the wok into the intense heat of the burner.

But in all honesty: one big reason why we like to throw foods up, out of, and then back into a pan is because it looks pretty cool. Right?

So, for those of you who are even slightly interested in mastering this only semi-essential skill, here's how you do it. For those who don't, feel no shame. You, too, can still be a good cook.

First, it’s good to know what foods are good candidates for tossing. It’s not recommended that we try flipping pancakes, frittatas, and omelets. While such tosses, executed successfully, are impressive, it's way too easy to under- or over-rotate them, causing them to crash down on themselves in sad, broken heaps.

Second, because each of these foods tends to be large relative to the size of the pan, they are much more likely to partially or completely miss their target on the way down (imagine doing flips on a giant trampoline; then imagine doing the same flips on a rebounder—which would you feel safer trying?).

Third, even if you successfully rotate and land any of those foods, they're coming down hard on their wet sides, which far too often means a big old splattering belly flop.

Instead, the Serious Eats pros recommend carefully turning pancakes with a spatula; flipping frittatas onto an inverted plate, then sliding them back into the pan. And for omelets, at least following classic French technique, they really shouldn't be flipped at all, but rather rolled up in the pan while still moist on top and then gently turned out onto the plate.

But back to tossing: what does work? Small mixed ingredients (as when stir-frying and sautéing). This quickly combines and moves them around the pan. Or foods like pasta in their sauce, and starchy dishes like risotto (although this can sometimes be a sloppier affair, so proceed with caution and wearing an apron).

Also, tossing should only be attempted in cookware with curved, sloping sides, such as frying pans and woks. The Serious Eats tossing experts say “The mechanics of food tossing is kind of like ski jumping, and ski-jumpers race downhill towards a ramp, not a wall. In fact, let's use ski jumping as an analogy as we look at each step:

“The starting position is with food in the pan. The food is the ski jumper before the jump. The first thing the jumper does is race downhill towards the ramp. That's what you need to do with the food. But first, give the food a quick stir with a spoon, spatula, or tongs, just to make sure everything is sliding well in the pan and not stuck. Once you're sure the food is free and clear, give it a downward thrust towards the far slope of the pan.

“The analogy ends here. Now, just as the food is beginning to launch out of the pan, you want to lift the front edge of the pan while pulling back ever so slightly, to redirect the food's trajectory so that it shoots up vertically, or—even better—backwards and slightly towards you.

“With the food airborne and, hopefully, above the pan, you next need to bring the pan slightly forward again to catch all the food as it comes down.”

When done right, all the food will end up right where it started and not on the floor. “Note that once you get the hang of this motion, you can loop it so that the forward movement in this last step of catching the food simultaneously functions as the forward (and downward) movement of the next launch.,” the Serious Eats chefs conclude.

While I’m not really a show-off, I do think this would be fun to work on. How about you? Anyone out there a seasoned food flipper? Share you story below. Meanwhile, let’s keep cookn, whether we “flip” or not!