The Slicing Mistake That Robs Grilled Meat Of Flavor, According To Gordon Ramsay

The art of grilling a delicious piece of meat is relatively simple. With a good cut in hand, one hardly requires much seasoning to turn out a perfect steak. It's all about locking in as much flavor as possible. But the battle for a flavorful steak is often won or lost with each seemingly small choice along the way. One misstep and you could be left with a dry or even worse — a flavorless hunk of shoe leather. Celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay takes the taste of his steak so seriously, that his philosophy extends all the way to how you slice it before plating.

According to Ramsay, how you cut your steak can make or break its ultimate flavor. His advice: slice it thick. In a 2019 video posted on his YouTube channel, he offered his "10 amazing tips to nail the perfect steak" from a Gordon Ramsey Steak location in Las Vegas. But it's his eighth tip that gets right into the thick of things (pun intended), addressing how one slicing mistake can rob a steak of all its luscious juices and flavor.

"When slicing a steak, never slice it too thin," shares Ramsay. "To maximize the flavor and to keep it moist, keep it at least a half a centimeter [or around a ¼ inch] thick." Incidentally, he noted the same thing in our list of 25 tips from celebrity chefs for all your grilling needs. As the owner of multiple steakhouses, Ramsay certainly knows a thing or two about the best way to prepare steak.

It's not just your meat's thickness (or lack thereof) putting all that juiciness at risk. There's something else riding on that knife's edge that could block you from savoring all the rich primal umami-packed flavor you crave — slicing too soon. As Ramsay says elsewhere in the video, instead of losing all your juices prematurely, you'll want to take care to give the steak some time before cutting. "I promise you now, if you let it rest, it's going to be so much juicier," he implored.

Ramsay offers a few other hacks for a great steak. These include taking your meat out 10 to 15 minutes before cooking, starting with a hot pan, and being generous with your seasonings (both salt and pepper before and aromatics added during cooking). Additionally, he adds that it can be helpful to get a nice crust of color before flipping your steak, render down the rind of fat by flipping it on its side to sear, and baste in butter. When finished, remove from pan to rest before slicing.

Though steak cooked like this is amazing on its own, if you want to take it to "Next Level Chef" territory, you might try whipping up a fresh chimichurri sauce like Ramsay enjoys in yet another steak cooking tutorial of his on YouTube. Armed with this knowledge, and these other 12 tips for the absolute best steak from Gordon Ramsay, and you're well on your way to becoming a seasoned pro.