The basic rule is that if you can count it, use fewer. If you can’t count it, use less.
Examples
After some reworking, the dish now has fewer calories.
After removing half the butter, the dish has less fat.
Use filet for beef, chicken, or anything other than fish. Use fillet in reference to fish.
Not housemade.
Please use the tilde over the n in jalapeño.
Creating the tilde
On Mac: option-n + n creates an ñ character
HTML: ñ or ñ
Just salty enough, just sweet enough, just chewy enough, just crisp enough.
Enough! We’re overusing this phrase. Please find a way around this locution. It’s fine every once in a while, but it begins to lose its meaning after several iterations.
Most non words are closed up: nonstop, nonrefundable. Your inclination may be to hyphenate these. Fight that inclination. Check this out: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/non
Most words beginning with the prefix pre are closed up: prebake, prewash, precut. Amazing, huh? Not really: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pre
Yes: prix fixe
No: prix fix
Hyphenated as an adjective: Many brunch spots offer prix-fixe menus.
Describing something as “quality food” raises the question: “What kind of quality?” We already have enough low-quality and mediocre-quality food.
That is to say quality is not an adjective but a noun.
If you’re using quality to mean stupendous, use high-quality.
Most re- words are closed up—reread, relearn, refried, for example.
But watch out for instances where adding the re- prefix introduces ambiguity—re-create and recreate are two very different concepts, for example. Use the hyphen when you are talking about creating something anew.