We Asked 14 Chefs What Ingredients They Always Have In Their Freezer

For some of us, freezers are a place where frozen meals, ice creams, and leftovers take up space. However, for professional chefs, freezers are valuable territories where they can store ready-to-go ingredients and staples to help save prep time. 

While we typically associate chefs with using fresh ingredients, many of their most important ingredients live within their freezers. A well-stocked freezer is a necessity for any professional chef, as it helps expedite cooking times and keep ingredients usable for longer periods of time.

To learn more about what chefs keep inside their freezer, we interviewed 14 chefs, asking them to break down some of their go-to items. From frozen vegetables to baked goods to pre-made broth, there were so many items we were surprised (and delighted) to learn that professional chefs keep on hand. After reading their picks, you just may be inspired to revive your own freezer with some of these suggested items.

Based in Chicago, Chef Jake Peterson is an accomplished chef and co-owner of the acclaimed Dēliz Italian Steakhouse. Known for their incredible handmade pastas and other authentic Italian dishes, Peterson and his restaurant have gained a reputation for providing fresh, quality meals to their customers. When asked what he likes to keep handy in this freezer, Peterson noted: "I keep frozen vegetables like broccoli, corn, and cauliflower on hand."

In addition to his role as a chef, Peterson is also a father. The chaos that goes along with parenthood has greatly influenced his freezer inventory. "My wife and I also like to prep and freeze healthy baked goods like spinach banana muffins, broccoli cheese quinoa balls, and meatballs for quick meals for ourselves and our toddler," he said. "Other great options are egg bites, sweet potato fries, and proteins that freeze well."

Chef Manheet Chauhan is an internationally acclaimed chef and restaurateur who has found popularity through her work as a host, judge, and competitor on the Food Network. Off screen, Chauhan owns several successful restaurants near her home in Nashville as well as the newly opened EET in Walt Disney World Resort. When it comes to stocking her freezer, Chauhan is heavily influenced by her role as a mother. "Now I'm looking at this from a very mom aspect, not as a chef," she explains. "So I always have frozen vegetables. It could be peas, it could be mixed vegetables."

In addition to frozen vegetables, Chauhan likes to store pre-made ingredients, including tomato sauce, ginger-garlic paste, and some frozen herbs. 'When I have downtime, I make this huge bag of Indian masala, which is literally onions, ginger, garlic, and whole spices, and I cook it for hours," Chauhan said. "When you talk about Sunday sauce, that's my Sunday sauce. I make a big batch of it and then I go ahead and freeze it in small portions." The reason she keeps this in the freezer is so that her cooking times can be cut down. "So an Indian dish, which would traditionally take two or three hours," she says, "I can make in 20 minutes and it's flavorful."

Chef Ashley Lonsdale is an accomplished chef with a mission to make healthy eating approachable, accessible, and enjoyable. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute, Lonsdale has gone on to become the chef-in-residence at ButcherBox, a subscription service that delivers quality meat and seafood to over 400,000 customers. "The best part about the freezer is that it's like a pantry for highly perishable cooking ingredients," Lonsdale explained. "Proteins of all sorts freeze and defrost remarkably well due to their unique anatomical makeup."

For Lonsdale, this means stocking up on proteins so there's always something on hand. "I keep seafood like wild-caught shrimp or scallops, which are quick to defrost and can be easily seared and added to a pasta or piled onto a buttered piece of thick toast with a sprinkle of chives." Seafood isn't the only protein Lonsdale keeps on ice; ground grass-fed lamb is a versatile ingredient she also stocks. "Once defrosted, I'll make a spiced mince dish, like an Indian keema," she says, "or roll it into meatballs and roast them alongside winter squash, then serve it over a smear of dilly yogurt." 

In addition to proteins, Lonsdale mentions that a "huge benefit a freezer provides is a place to store cooked food that might not get eaten." Whether its a pre-made chicken or potato curry or a "homemade heat-and-eat lasagna," Lonsdale loves to keep delicious recipes on hand.

As the recipe developer at Pinch and Swirl, an online cooking publication and recipe hub, Chef Marissa Stevens has gained extensive experience in knowing which ingredients should be kept fresh and which can stay frozen. In addition to the usual staples, Stevens likes to add some more unusual items to her freezer, including Parmesan rinds. "I buy big wedges of Parmigiano Reggiano at Costco and, once I get down to the rind, it goes straight to the freezer," she says. "They add deep, savory flavor to soups, sauces, and brothy beans. Just one rind transforms a whole pot."

As a great solution for those with a sweet tooth, Stevens also likes to keep pre-portioned cookie dough balls in her freezer. "I'll pass on cookies that are even a day old, but can't resist one that just came out of the oven," she notes. "I portion cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, freeze until solid, then transfer to a labeled freezer bag." In order to help make a delicious recipe in a bind, Stevens also recommends cooking "... big batches of beans from dried and freeze them in 2-cup portions. They have much better texture than canned, and they thaw quickly for soups, salads, or quick bowls."

As an executive chef, Rob Clagett has gained a reputation for his impressive seasonal menus. While using only the freshest ingredients is standard at his restaurants, there are some items that Clagett always makes sure to have on hand within his freezer. "I like to keep stock in the freezer, particularly vegetable stock, chicken stock and beef stock," he says. "Whether I'm braising something, making a sauce or cooking anything that needs a flavorful liquid, it always comes in handy."

In addition to being a helpful way to save time on creating recipes, making stock allows you to make full use of your groceries, an important consideration when trying to stretch a budget. "[Stock is] also a great way to utilize the often wasted scraps from one dish to the next," Clagett explains. "Build a stock or broth with the scraps, cool it and freeze it for when it comes in handy next."

While freezers are valuable territories for storing stocks, vegetables and proteins for entrees, they can be equally as essential for storing ingredients for baked goods and desserts. For award-winning pastry Chef Katherine Sprung, who is known for her NYC-based company Squish Marshmallows, the freezer can be a valuable tool for storing some of her favorite essentials, including puff pastry and fruit. "Puff pastry lends to so many great baked goods, and if you're in a pinch, it's so quick and easy to whip up a delicious filling to incorporate and bake right off!" she notes. "And if you can't even be bothered to make a filling, just grab some granulated sugar and make some palmiers!"

As for fruit, it is usually recommended to use fresh produce in your recipes. However, for certain recipes (and in certain seasons), the freezer can be a valuable ally. "[Frozen] fruit is also great to use for jams, fillings, or when the fruit doesn't need to be fresh," Sprung says. "Frozen fruit will usually become mushy when it's defrosted, so it's not meant to be the star of the show here and more of a component, like a compote, sauce, anything where you'll be cooking it down in some capacity, etc."

For Kyle Taylor, a chef who contributes recipe and cooking guidance through the online platform HE COOKS, his freezer "...isn't full of leftovers. It's full of potential." This means strategically packing his freezer shelves with proteins, sauces, doughs, and vegetables to eliminate one of his least favorite chores. "The freezer is my secret weapon," he explains. "I cook with whole ingredients as much as possible, and I like to go to the grocery store as infrequently as possible. That means the freezer becomes an extension of my pantry."

Most of the items Taylor stores are ideal for freezing — proteins, stocks, dough, etc. — but he emphasizes the importance of properly packing them before adding them to the freezer. He explains that when ingredients are "vacuum-sealed and properly packed, they hold their quality for months." As an added tip, Taylor suggests portioning stocks and sauces into ice cube trays, which helps make "... weeknight dinners come together fast without sacrificing craft."

With three incredible restaurants under his belt, Chef Greg Garrison has made a name for himself as a provider of incredible contemporary cuisine that features fresh, locally sourced ingredients. However, in a pinch, Garrison turns to the freezer to find select staple ingredients, including butter. "When you need it, you need it," he says, "so I always keep backup in the freezer." Some items Garrison often keeps in stock are venison ("Somehow, it always finds its way back into the freezer"), peas ("Perfect for pasta, pot pies, or even as a quick ice pack my daughter's 'boo-boos'"), and nuts ("I like having options, and they seem to last forever when frozen").

When it comes to main entrees, Garrison likes to use some of his freezer space to store soups. "My wife loves soup and is always trying new recipes," he says. "We always seem to have at least two different types of soups in the freezer, which are great for nights when we don't feel like cooking." Convenience is always a factor when deciding what to keep on a freezer shelf, and as Garrison suggests, a pre-made meal like soup is always a good place to start.

With an extensive career history working as a chef for some of the world's premier luxury hotels, Chef Olivier Gaupin knows a thing or two about quality ingredients. For him, the freezer can be a great host for some unique favorites, including Kaffir lime leaves, which he describes as having "... such an amazing fragrant flavor in any of the Asian influenced dishes I cook like curry and coconut soup with kaffir lime leaves." Some other favorite ingredients, for similar reasons, are lemon grass and ginger root, which Gaupin loves to "... use in different applications such as my open fire roasted chicken."

Beyond ingredients, Gaupin likes to have some meal options on hand. "I always keep my shrimp har gow, the most incredible little Asian purse made of shrimp and a skin made with wheat starch and tapioca starch, [it's] the perfect item for a quick dinner with a ponzu dipping sauce." And, since no freezer is complete without a savory or sweet treat, Gaupin also loves to stock up on french butter and some ready-to-bake croissants.

As the owner of two thriving restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina, Chef Marc Hudacsko has plenty of expertise in using fresh, coastal ingredients. While his restaurants are known for serving sandwiches, salads, seafood, and southern fare, his freezer is often home to a different variety of ingredients. One of his staple items is bread from one of his favorite local bakeries. "Rather than let them stale in my bread box, I wrap half and freeze it immediately," he says. "Make sure you run the loaf under water before heating in a hot oven to get fresh from the baker results!"

Some other items Hudacsko loves to keep on hand are soup, stock, chili, and red sauce. "Making a big batch is just as easy as making a small batch!" he explains. "I love to flat pack some in gallon zip lock bags for an easy lunch or weeknight dinner." As for more unusual items he stores in his freezer, Hudacsko keeps some leftover wine: "I freeze the leftovers in 1/2 pint deli containers. This is great to add to a pan sauce or other recipe that calls for a cup of wine." 

Hudacsko also uses the freezer to give kitchen scraps a second life. "Have some leftover herbs? Some garlic? Chiles? Whatever it is, you can make any easy compound butter," he says. "Soften a pound of butter and mix in whatever you want. You can roll it into a log and freeze. Cut off as much as you need for topping a steak or adding to a sauce."

Chef Toni Elkhouri has build a reputation for being dedicated to sustainability within her kitchen at Cedars Cafe. "As a chef that's focused on zero waste and sustainable cooking of whole ingredients," she says, "my freezer is my flavor bank." Her freezer is full of interesting items, including "herb stem cubes," which she created by blending leftover herbs with olive oil. Another item she won't throw away are her citrus zest and juice pucks. "Any time I have additional [zest] or juice, I like to freeze them together to add brightness to sauces and dressings."

Like many of the other chefs on this list, Elkhouri likes to keep stock cubes in the freezer as well as cooked whole grains and legumes to she can make an easy, quick meal on the go. Finishing up her freezer roster is a more unique item: "caramelized onion skin purée for an instant umami." Elkhouri's freezer houses an incredible array of items, each with myriad uses. "My freezer isn't just storage," she notes. "It is preservation with purpose and sustainability and a way to save time and reduce waste."

In her cookbook "Seasons Around the Table," Chef Jessie-Sierra Ross gives guidance on creating beautiful and delicious seasonal meals and accompanying floral table-scapes. In her freezer, you'll find a different kind of scenery, as her freezer is usually stocked with a unique assortment of items. One such item is unsalted butter. "Let's be honest, butter is really the soul of so many sauces, baked goods, and other recipes where you need a delicious fat to flavor or fry," she explains. "Butter also freezes extremely well, and I always restock my freezer when I see boxes on sale at my grocer." 

Another item you will find in Ross' freezer are whole coffee beans. "Whole coffee beans are the way to go if you are a picky coffee drinker like me," she notes, "and freezing the beans is the best way to retain their flavor and aroma, as well as prevent any accidental spoilage." A more unusual item she keeps in her freezer is flour: "It might sound strange, but storing your grain flours in the freezer is one of the best ways to prevent spoilage and bug infestations." Rounding out her freezer haul is fresh herbs, dill in particular, and some homemade stock to make at-home cooking more convenient.

On his website and YouTube channel, The Cooking Foodie, Chef David Davidov shares a variety of recipes perfect for an at-home cook to replicate. With new recipes constantly coming into his rotation, his freezer has become an essential space for storage. One of his staple items is pre-portioned chicken breast and ground beef, which he describes as "lifesavers for one-pot meals or quick protein-packed dinners." Another unique item he keeps on hand is frozen french fries. "A must-have for quick sides or movie-night snacks," he says of the potatoes. "I bake them, toss with herbs and parmesan, or load them up with toppings for a fun family dinner."

Davidov also keeps peas, corn, spinach, and edamame, which he uses in stews, soups, pastas. When it comes to baking, he stocks the freezer with berries, puff pastry, and cookie dough balls so he can have fresh cookies anytime his daughter asks for them.

Located in beautiful Napa Valley, Clif Family Winery & Farm is home to incredibly wines and an inventive menu created by executive chef Magnus Young. At Clif Family Winery, all of their grapes are organically farmed, and this mission is also reflected in the winery's menu, which is based around a seasonal and sustainable approach. One of the best ways to cut back on food waste is by utilizing leftover food in a freezer, which is something Young does often.

When it comes to stocking his freezer, Young loves to keep "stock, reserved trim and bones for stock, french fries and sweet potato fries, stuffed pastas, portioned cookie dough, compound butters, some doughs including our biscuits." Another interesting item that he keeps in the freezer is the parts for his meat grinder because "keeping them [as] cold as possible makes it easier to grind meat." Like the other chefs on this list, Young utilizes his freezer as a valuable place to keep ingredients that make cooking easier and more sustainable without sacrificing quality.