The key to a good potato salad is to create a symphony of flavors and textures with each bite, and to dress the ingredients thoroughly — otherwise, you're just eating cold chunks of potato. Chef Bobby Flay has the perfect tip for dressing your potato salad perfectly, so that it's already delicious before you add extra ingredients.

Flay's way to make a perfectly balanced potato salad dressing is to dress the salad while the potatoes are still warm and porous after cooking, which makes them richer and more flavorful. Dressing potatoes when cold means the fiber of the potato has closed a bit and will be harder to permeate, resulting in a less flavorful salad.

However, dressing a potato salad while warm doesn’t work for every recipe; mayonnaise-based dressings will fall apart when they hit warm potatoes and create a greasy texture. For these dressings, toss the potatoes in a little apple cider vinegar first to add some tang while they are warm and porous, then add your sauce later.