No matter what produce you choose to pick up during your trips to the supermarket to stock up, the Institute of Culinary Education chef emphasizes the importance of storing vegetables away from fruits. That's because of the ethylene gas that fruits release. "If you want to ripen up a banana or avocado, you can put it in a bag so it will be surrounded by its own ethylene gas, which is a ripening agent," Tonkinson explains. "It's good if you want to ripen that banana or avocado, but if you put these products next to other products, you're going to have problems. Those fruits are going to increase the ripening pace of all of those vegetables that you don't want to ripen quickly." That means it's time to do away with that catch-all produce bowl filled with loose onions, potatoes, bananas, and avocados, and get your pantry organized