Great cooking tips and hacks from top chefs
Top chefs from Heston to Nigella, Raymond Blanc to Michel Roux Jr, offer some indispensable kitchen tips and tricks.
Some of the world’s greatest cooks share their clever, simple tips so you too can work like a pro in the kitchen.
Heston Blumenthal
For perfect roast potatoes forget what you’ve been taught before; boil the potatoes to “within an inch of their lives” so they’re about to fall apart, let them steam dry and cool down, then coat them in melted beef dripping or goose fat and cook them for between 45-90 minutes.
Jamie Oliver
To cook basmati rice to perfection fill an empty, clean, tin can with rice and pour into a pan, followed by two tins of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil then simmer until the rice has absorbed the water; you shouldn’t have to drain off any liquid.
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Raymond Blanc
If you over-salt a dish, the famous French chef suggests adding a peeled potato while cooking to absorb excess seasoning.
Nigella Lawson
When cooking pasta, add some of the pasta water to the sauce you’re cooking just before you drain. The starchy water emulsifies the sauce so it clings to the pasta better.
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April Bloomfield
Use sharp knives every time you cook – it’s not only more efficient it’s safer too, recommends the British chef of NYC’s Michelin-starred The Spotted Pig and The Breslin.
Wolfgang Puck
The US-based Austrian celebrity chef always tests the thickness of sauces and soups with a spoon test. The liquids should leave a film on the spoon and there should be a clean streak when you run your finger across this film.
Marcus Wareing
To prevent onions from burning when frying, sprinkle them with salt – the water content in the vegetables will be drawn out and this moisture will prevent burning. Alternatively, cover the pin with a lid.
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Angela Hartnett
Angela Hartnett recommends using a sugar as a seasoning, like salt, to balance flavour. The Michelin-starred chef adds a pinch of sugar to tinned tomatoes and vinaigrettes to take away some of the acidity.
Marco Pierre White
To cook the perfect roast beef, the legendary British chef uses well-marbled meat that’s preferably been hung for at least a month. He then browns the beef with a little oil in a large pan on the stove on a medium-high heat before cooking it in the oven – this helps caramelise the beef.
Thomas Keller
American chef Thomas Keller, of The French Laundry fame, always brings food to room temperature before cooking it as it helps the food to cook evenly, at the right temperature, and for the right amount of time.
Jacob Kenedy
The chef patron of London’s popular Soho haunt Bocca di Lupo seasons with salt throughout cooking, not just at the end.
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Hélène Darroze
The acclaimed French chef believes the ingredients should speak for themselves so choose the best you can afford and cook them simply.
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Ferran Adria
Owner of the iconic elBulli in Spain, Adria is known for combining creativity with technique. When cooking meat on a stove he stresses that the thicker the pan the better, use a minimal amount of oil, and make sure the pan is very hot.
Auguste Escoffier
The king of modern French cooking lives on thanks to his books and to the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in the US, which highlights on its website some common cooking mistakes, including crowding a pan when cooking meat. This lowers the heat and creates moisture, which results in uneven cooking and stops the surface of meat from searing properly.
Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa)
If you love to bake, taking the eggs and butter out of the refrigerator the night before so they come up to room temperature will give you better results.
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Alain Ducasse
The French legend cooks the perfect ribeye or sirloin steak by cooking it first on its fatty side to render the fat down, before laying the steak flat and cooking on both sides.
Sanjeev Kapoor
One of India’s biggest chefs, Kapoor wants to dispel the myth that Indian food is complicated to prepare. Once you have the basic spices it’s simply a case of tossing them in a pan, he explains. He also adds a dash of cream to raita to give it extra flavor.
David Thompson
Australian chef Thompson made his name creating exquisite Thai dishes for his restaurant Nahm. His tip for getting Thai dishes right is to taste, taste, taste in order to achieve the fine balance of hot, salty, sweet and sour that’s required. And make the rice the hero of any Thai meal.
Michel Roux Jr
To cook well professionally or at home invest in good pans and a decent set of knives says the Michelin-starred chef.
Daniel Boulud
The French great is a master of sauce. One of his recommendations is to always season, but to do so carefully, adding salt and pepper and the like to the base at the beginning then slowly building up.
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Donna Hay
The Australian all-rounder (she’s a cook, stylist, writer, host and magazine founder) encourages home cooks to cheat a little for great results. Decent store-bought pastry is not a sin, while good quality cured meats such as pancetta and cured meats are ideal to have in the fridge for when you need to make a quick salad, frittata or salad.
Heston Blumenthal
For the best chicken stock the Willy Wonka of the restaurant world advises chopping up chicken wings then dusting them with milk powder before roasting them with a bit of oil and some carrots and onions. Then make the stock.
Gordon Ramsay
To peel a garlic clove bash it with the side of a broad knife; the skin peels away easily. To peel a whole bulb, crush with the palm of your hand, separate the cloves, cover in a bowl and shake hard for 10 seconds, then simply pick out the peeled cloves.
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Marcus Wareing
To get the most flavour from fresh herbs do as the experts do. Rather than chopping, Wareing uses the back of a knife to break down herbs such as thyme and rosemary to release their natural aromas.
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David Chang
The Korean-American chef thinks that fish sauce is the Vietnamese answer to ketchup. It has a great umami flavor which can enhance all sorts of dishes from soups to stews to sauces. Make it a store cupboard staple.
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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
The British chef, writer and food campaigner has many tips on being a responsible chef by avoiding food waste. This includes caring for fresh food by keeping it in its wrapping in the fridge, and freezing what you don’t eat – such as dairy products, veg and sauce – rather than discarding.
Ludo Lefebvre
French chef Ludo Lefebvre runs a couple of highly-rated restaurants in LA and has been a mentor on TV show The Taste. His top tip for creating the perfect omelette is to move the pan while you're stirring your eggs.
Anthony Bourdain
And lastly, take this advice from chef and world traveller Bourdain, who said: “Basic cooking skills are a virtue… the ability to feed yourself and a few others with proficiency should be taught to every young man and woman as a fundamental skill.”
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