The 20 Best Cooking Tips We Learned From Celebrity Chefs In 2023

At first, we invited celebrity chefs into our homes through our televisions. Then the internet came along, and we welcomed them through our computers via YouTube. Now, thanks to the power of social media, we can appeal directly to celebrity chefs for help with any (and all) cooking problems.

It's easy to see why celebrity chefs serve as a bridge between the professional kitchen and home countertops for so many people. These culinary virtuosos provide a treasure trove of insights, techniques, and inspirations with their unparalleled expertise (usually earned by toiling away for years in the world's most renowned kitchens). Through their engaging shows, easy-to-follow cookbooks, and online platforms, they're able to demystify the occasionally intimidating cooking process – making gourmet dishes accessible to the everyday kitchen enthusiast.

Given their ability to break down complex recipes into manageable steps, celebrity chefs tend to provide exceptional guidance to home cooks. With that in mind — and the end of the year fast approaching — let's take a look at some of the best cooking tips we learned from celebrity chefs in 2023.

Many recipes claim to take 15 minutes or so to prepare ... only to end up taking 30 to 45 minutes before you finish. In many cases, this happens because recipes don't factor in the time it takes to actually gather the ingredients and set them up.

Ree Drummond knows this pain, as well. Since "the back-and-forths to the pantry to the drawers to the fridge can really tack on time," as Drummond told Tasting Table in a November interview, "the best way to achieve the time the recipes list is to gather everything you need before you start prepping." So the next time you start a recipe that advertises its prep time, try following this cooking tip from the Pioneer Woman.

When Marcus Samuelsson uses peanut butter, he doesn't just spread it on a piece of bread and call it a day. He elevates it to heretofore unseen heights by combining it with unlikely ingredients. Samuelsson often finds ways to create new and exciting flavors by incorporating peanut butter (or simply peanuts) into unexpected dishes — and you should, too.

The peanut-inspired pop-up restaurant Samuelsson briefly opened in October offered peanut butter waffles, for instance, as well as a peanut butter and jelly old-fashioned cocktail. Now, some folks out there might think these elements have no business being together. But Samuelsson isn't one of them — and that fact alone should inspire you to use peanut butter more often in unusual culinary ways.

An egg frittata may consist mainly of scrambled eggs. But the dish is a bit more complicated to prepare than the great American breakfast food, as a frittata requires more tinkering and patience than basic scrambled eggs. To help facilitate that process, Alex Guarnaschelli suggests adding some water to fluff up those frittatas.

When Guarnaschelli discussed her new cookbook in a September interview, she stated she chooses water over cream because "scientifically, it creates the fluff factor." Somewhat surprisingly, Guarnaschelli didn't come up with this brilliant cooking tip on her own. Instead, after being served a water-infused omelet once at a restaurant, she learned it was a go-to cooking move from Dione Lucas (a culinary contemporary of Julia Child) — and decided to adopt the water-adding technique for herself.

Who knew the trick to prevent chicken from drying out while cooking ... is to dry it out in the fridge beforehand? Martha Stewart, apparently. Stewart revealed as much during a March interview when explaining what made the chicken at her new Las Vegas-located restaurant a success. Letting the chicken dry in the fridge overnight is "very important ... before you roast it," as it helps make the skin exceptionally crispy.

Like Stewart, you may want to combine your fridge-dried chicken with high-quality herbs and butter. But keep in mind the chicken skin is unlikely to insulate the meat as well once it's been dried, so having a meat thermometer nearby to monitor the temperature (and pull the poultry out before it overcooks) is your best bet.

Since different types of rice behave differently when cooked, selecting the right kind largely depends on the dish you're preparing. In that regard, when dealing with risotto? Lidia Bastianich recommends opting for a short-grain variety, such as arborio or carnaroli, for the best results.

As Bastianich told us in a March interview, this type of rice is ideal for risotto because it "releases the starch and makes it creamy." But she also notes this won't occur all on its own, as following the steps "of toasting, cooking, and coaxing that starch" out of the grain is crucial. The celebrity chef suggests adding hot stock a little at a time after toasting the rice, before eventually completing the process by mixing in butter and cheese.

Barbecuing with smoke that emanates from wood-based flames is a great way to add an extra layer of flavor to your meat. But that flavor doesn't simply appear in your food out of nowhere. Rather, it comes from the chemical process that occurs when wood burns, resulting in flavorful smoke that filters into your food.

As such, it's important to choose the right type of wood for this activity. Barbecue maven Sunny Anderson suggested using mesquite in a July interview – though she noted you don't have to exclusively stick with mesquite. Anderson herself is partial to cherry wood, as well, and isn't opposed to bending the rules a bit by using liquid smoke (especially when opting for a gas grill).

When demonstrating how to cook a steak, Gordon Ramsay never seems to tire of pointing out the importance of letting the meat rest for a period of time before placing it in a hot pan. Of course, you can't just let your beef rest anywhere, as it has to be taken out of the fridge and brought to room temperature.

Ramsay explained as much in a February interview, noting a steak "needs to rest before you cook" it. Just as a steak "needs to tenderize, it needs to be seasoned, and ... rubbed either in a beautiful dry rub or lightly drizzled with a touch of olive oil" to taste its best, allowing it to warm slightly from the refrigerator's cold temperature ensures a more even cooking process. Otherwise, you risk burning the exterior of your steak before the interior is ready.

When a fan of baked goods wants a cake, they may choose to look up a recipe and make one at home. But when that same person wants a pastry, more often than not? They go in search of a bakery that knows what it's doing. Pastry-making really isn't for everyone, after all, as it can be highly technical. But if you're willing to give it some time, Jacques Torres believes that can change.

Torres suggested skipping any shortcuts in a January interview when it comes to baking pastry. He noted "there are no tricks to make (pastry) go in two minutes," as the time-consuming process includes "the caramelization of the dough in the oven, the finishing, (and) the glaze."

No one likes fishing out those little pieces of eggshell that sometimes get into the bowl when cracking an egg. Of course, with Richard Blais' nifty cooking tip, you may never have to do so again. Blais discussed this shell-reducing method during a February interview – a tip he originally learned from Gordon Ramsay. This simple but effective trick involves first cracking your eggs on a table (rather than a bowl), and then transferring them to the bowl.

Perhaps you thought using the bowl to crack eggs would solve a cleanliness problem — and that may be true. But that method also means accepting some potential eggshells in your bowl simply for the sake of keeping egg white off the table. While Blais acknowledged he doesn't quite understand "the mysteries of what happens with egg whites," he's confident this eggshell-reducing method works.

Since Kristen Kish loves to make chicken paprikash, she knows a few tips on how to properly prepare it. As Kish told Tasting Table in November, one of the most important steps is to "use a delicious chicken broth." This can be homemade, but it doesn't have to be; in fact, Kish gives her blessing to use a store-bought broth (one of good quality, that is).

Another trick to Kish's chicken paprikash is to "properly render the chicken thighs and bacon," which "will yield a less oily final product." Whether or not you're planning to make this particular dish, though, the concept behind Kish's cooking tip still stands. Because a quality chicken broth will elevate any recipe that requires the ingredient.