You can Google how to make the prettiest souffle and whip up a killer beef bourguignon, but grilling the perfect steak and making the fluffiest eggs take skills that you can only sharpen at culinary school.
So we snuck behind restaurant doors of our favorite top chefs out there to get their pro tips and kitchen knowledge for prepping the tastiest dishes on the planet. After all, they’ve got the cooking cred to back it up. Read on to get insider info on how to upgrade your meals instantly. Plus, once you’ve brushed up on your skills, come back to cook our 22 Meals to Melt Belly Fat in 2022.
Salting the steak will keep the meat super juicy. Then, before grilling, pat the steak dry with a paper towel and season it with salt and pepper again. Use kosher salt—it will make for a crispier crust! And while we’re on the subject of steak, check out 24 more ways to cook steak perfectly.
Dalkin also recommends seasoning your scrambled eggs with kosher salt at the end of the cooking process to keep them moist and fluffed and at the perfect consistency.
Dana Murrell, Executive Chef at Green Chef, knows a thing or two about garlic. To peel a bunch of cloves at once (all while keeping your hands smelling fresh), Murrell recommends placing the cloves in a medium bowl, then covering that bowl with another bowl, so they create a dome shape. Shake the bowls vigorously for a few minutes. When you uncover the cloves, they should be free of their papery shells!
Murrell, who was a restaurant chef for many years before joining Green Chef, says that placing a wet paper towel under your cutting board will keep it from slipping – no matter what you’re chopping up.
Instead of spending a lot of precious time de-stemming herbs like thyme or cilantro by plucking, Murrell recommends taking the stalk in one hand, and pulling the opposite direction down the stem. Your useable leaves will come right off.
Melissa Knific, Recipe Developer at HelloFresh, is a big fan of the rasp grater, which is basically a small, hand-held grater. According to Knific, you can use your rasp grater to do everything from zesting a lemon, to grating garlic, shallots, cheese, nutmeg — even chocolate!
