Who do you go to when you need some cooking tips? Most probably, your mom or your grandma. In recent years, we also learned to adopt some tricks from online cooking content or cooking TV shows. While those are all great, don’t you sometimes wonder why it is that the same dish cooked by the chef of your favorite restaurant tastes so much… more interesting than when you try to recreate it at home?
Talent and years of study and hard work any chef puts into their cooking is very important, of course, but also, every chef has a small secret, and that’s the ingredients they use to make their dishes ever so appealing. Some of them share these secrets so that you also can become better at cooking and impress your guests.
We have collected a list of ingredients for you to incorporate in your cooking, as recommended by chefs online. You don’t have to be a professional cook to pick up some useful tips, even if it’s just for food to make at home for yourself and your loved ones.
Let’s take a look at the chef’s table and see what ingredients they recommend to have in your fridge or pantry. Which ones do you already have at home? Which ones were a complete revelation to you? Share this article with your cooking-loving friends and don’t forget to tell us how your enhanced cooking goes.
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"Butter. In soups, sauces, stews, browned or with more components added, on meat, with fish, in mash...
I mean, the reason your food tastes better at a restaurant is because it's made by a guy who doesn't give a crap about your arteries or cholesterol and will nuke your food with the golden yellow deliciousness."
Oh yes, Buttered mashed potatoes with a decent dollop of English Mustard incorporated is bloody orgasmic !! Butter is a key ingredient in all good food.
"Garlic."
jvalverderdz replied: "No chef here, but garlic, along with onions, is my single favorite ingredient of all time. Just pour some chopped garlic and onions into a pan with olive oil, and it smells like I'm doing some fancy gourmet stuff."
"Bay leaves. Like salt, you don't want them to be the dominant flavor in anything, but they make a night and day difference in stews, pasta sauce, you name it."
accountingsucks420 replied: "Bay leaf in the stew is alchemy. I don’t know what it tastes like specifically, but if you skip it, the dish is sucky."
Bramblebelle said: "Around my house, we call it 'The Lucky Leaf' if you find one in your bowl."
I grew up in a home with a bay laurel tree in the back yard. When my Grandma said, "go pick a bay leaf," I knew dinner would be delicious!
"Slaps block of cheese on table CHEESE."
May I qualify that and say GOOD cheese, not those sheets of plastic sold in individually wrapped slices or that strange concoction that is (horror!) squirted out of a can?
"Nutmeg. Goes in the sweet stuff, in the savory stuff, in some drinks."
Nutmeg is divine. Also funny story, the first time I used it I started grating the shell then realized I had to crack it open. Lol. My Caribbean ancestors would have been so disappointed.
"Paprika makes anything taste better."
KaszaJaglanaZPorem replied: "Hungarians entered the chat."
"Soy sauce. I will put it on anything including fruit. I have a packet of it in my bag all the time.
Is soup tasteless? Soy sauce. Marinating meat/veg/tofu? Soy sauce. Broke and starving? Rice with a bit of soy on top and it’s a filling meal (did this plenty during my college days). Stranded on a desert and need to eat your shoe to survive? Bam! Soy sauce that motherfather."
squreky replied: "I came here looking at how to eat my shoe and you provided it, thanks, man!
Soy sauce with steak is amazing!"
"Good smoky paprika. Give me a nice fresh smoky paprika and I can make magic."
"Chef of 25 years. My personal favorite is Worcestershire sauce. Use it more at home than in restaurants I've worked. Such a nice umami though."
dream_bean_94 replied: "My grandma has a bunch of severe allergies. Well, at least, that’s what she tells people.
For years, we have speculated that she’s just REALLY picky when it comes to food and, instead of admitting it, she just tells everyone that she’s “allergic” to whatever food she doesn’t like to eat.
The biggest one is seafood. She is “deathly allergic” to seafood and the type of fish that gives her the worst “reaction” are anchovies.
So, anyways, we’re out at the melting pot (fondue restaurant) one night and they’re making us the cheese fondue right at the table in front of us. The chef goes to add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and I’m like “STOP! Sorry, but my grandma is allergic to anchovies so we’ll skip the Worcestershire thank you!” and my grandma goes “I get this all the time, I love Worcestershire sauce and use it all the time!”. Heh heh... busted!
I told her that Worcestershire sauce is literally made out of fermented anchovies and she flipped out and denied it, said there’s no way that’s possible, and refused to look it up or read the back of a bottle.
She still eats it all the time and is still deathly allergic to anchovies."
It can't be just any Worcestershire sauce, though. It MUST be Lea & Perrins, there is NO substitute, and I will die on this hill.
"Onions. I add onions to almost every dish."
anonmymouse replied: "Onions are ok but recently I've discovered shallots. I knew they existed and everything before but never used them much, and now that I have I use them in everything. Shallots are the star of the onion world and no one can convince me otherwise, they're better in every way."
"Cinnamon takes a back seat to no ingredient. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, 'Oh This is so good. What's in it?' The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again."
Except that almost all of what you get is cassia, not true cinnamon (which has a much better flavor).
"Sumac. Seriously, get yourself a huge bag for like $15 bucks and thank me later. It's lemony and salty, sweet and smoky and earthy and beautifully red. Sprinkle it on toast, curry, chicken, steak, tacos, devilled eggs, ice cream... Just about everything.
You can also brew it like tea and it has an intense wild-berry flavor."
TehPinguen replied: "My mom is half Iranian, so we grew up eating sumac with our rice all the time. My parents thought it was hilarious when little me asked for some while at a friend's house, and of course, they had never heard of it."
Sumac is one of those things that is ubiquitous in New England. Every year, we cut down all the males in our yard, but let the females grow as long as they're still producing flowers and aren't getting too big. It's easy enough to dry and grind at home.
"Roasted sesame seed oil, it adds a light nuttiness and saltiness to a dish."
ratherbewinedrunk replied: "Use with care though. It's amazing, but it can overtake a dish fast if you use too much."
"Black pepper."
CurmudgeonInterrupte replied: "Fresh- black pepper."
"Vinegar. It is often the thing that is missing when people go for more salt and spices in their cooking wondering why it doesn’t taste quite as good as in a restaurant."
An old Chef's (like me) trick for flavouring sauces that are a bit bland is to mix up a 'Gastric'. Basically a decent k**b of butter in a medium pan, add a tablespoon of sugar (Demerara / Muscovado are the best), then gently add White Wine or Cider Vinegar until you have a sweet / sharp / Umami flavour, then add slowly to the bland sauce until you have the balance of flavours that you want.
"Caramelized onions. I have had bowls of nothing but caramelized onions for whole meals. Besides that, they are a standard base ingredient of almost every good recipe I've made."
Try making a Tarte Tatin with Caramelised Onions, chopped Pancetta and a little Diced Apple ; it is astonishingly good !!
"Salt."
rjjm88 comments: "If there's an objectively correct answer to the question, it's this. Or butter."
rondell_jones replied: "I found out that French cooking was just different ways to flavor the butter."
"Any form of acidic liquid. Please don't continually pour salt into your dish because it's lacking that punch. Use some lemon juice, vinegar, even Balsamico for the love of God."
"I've only been baking for a few weeks, but the zest of citrus fruits (especially lemon) is so good. I like to put zest on almost anything. For my mango pie, I used orange zest, and for my pear apple spice pie, I used lemon zest. I'm planning on doing an orange pie next or some other baked good that includes oranges."
I can do lime or lemon zest, but orange peel I've never liked. I thought I could deal with a little of the zest in something I baked last week, but no, it was less than a teaspoon and I still couldn't eat my serve of it. Ended up giving the whole dish to my mum, which she was more than happy to take!
"Eggs. Make desserts like ice cream, custard, pudding, pot de creme, and pies. Savory Sauces like bearnaise, mayonnaise, and hollandaise. Add them cooked to salads or eat them scrambled, fried, poached, or basted."
"BLACK GARLIC! Makes everything 100x better. Most of what I see here are staple pantry items. If you don't have black garlic, get it. Crush it into a paste and make a compound butter or anything. BLACK GARLIC. Sweet sticky heaven."
"Pasta water on recipes that use pasta. Hit that sauce thick."
"Heavy cream."
hoodytwin replied: "Heavy cream in my coffee, scrambled eggs, and mashed potatoes."
"My answer for the best ingredient that you can sink your teeth into is spring onions and similar grassy onions. The reason is they have a profound effect on any dish they're included in, they look beautiful in white, green, and both, are super versatile, forgiving to cook with, caramelize beautifully, and work well in dishes from so many cultures and geographic regions."
"Miso paste Gochujang Doubanjiang.
All good stuff."
Overall_Instance replied: "Miso paste is insanely good, I could eat that stuff on toast."
"Stock/brock cubes. They often add a lot of flavor, seasoning, and depth." Trist8686 replied: "Best life hack I ever learned was adding chicken stock cubes to cut potatoes boiling in water. Seriously will up your potato game in ways you can’t imagine. I’ve also done it with rice as well where the rice was going into something else."
I add a few peeled cloves of garlic with my potatoes in the water - small diced - and they can be mashed together! Then I use good olive oil instead of butter! Yum, and heat healthy too!
"Salt obviously, but as far as funner items, you'll notice it changes. We go through stages. I've had my jalapeno/chipotle stage. My mushroom stage. My chickpea stage. My pancetta stage. My favorite was my Porchetta stage. I had the stuff on the specials menu in one way or another for so long we had to put it on the permanent menu of suffer the wrath of big eaters."
"Chef here. Lemon juice enhances the flavor of almost anything. Vinegar is too dominant for me."
"Oranges. They are just amazing. Do you enjoy lemon in your sauce? Orange is better. Fill your fish with baked oranges, will blow your mouth away. Hibiscus tea? Someone? Put orange and ginger, the most refreshing tea ever made. Chicken with orange and wine reduction? Beautiful."
"Not a chef, but a baker. Cardamom. It’s still not super common in American baked goods, and while I love cinnamon, that flavor isn’t special to my palette anymore. Cardamom gives such a warm, floral scent/flavor to whatever you make, and can be paired with so many things. Treat yourself: add some cardamom and orange zest to your next batch of banana bread."
craycrayfishfillet replied: "I love when my Indian colleagues bring in sweets because more often than not they have cardamom in them and I love the flavor."
Meowbagel said: "Oh, I’m Indian and just found out I’ve been eating cardamom my whole life without even realizing, lol."
"Tajin. It’s a season that adds a little bit of lime and a little kick to your dish. I put it on almost everything."
"Because I haven’t seen it yet, vanilla extract is too sweet as salt is too savory. So besides salt, vanilla extract is pretty bomb."
Took me a while to work out they meant to not too! I was wondering why, if it was too sweet it was their favourite.
"Not a single ingredient, but using the best and right oil for the right cuisine. Butter for french food, extra virgin olive oil for Italian, etc, always makes a huge difference.
If you’re trying to nail a country’s cuisine, learn the oil they mainly use. It’ll really help you achieve that flavor."
Nah. Just use EVOO for everything, with a touch of butter if you need an emulsifier.
"Carrots. Both sweet and savory. Almost endless uses from base ingredients to garnish. Pickle them. Candy them. Roast them. Eat them raw. Good in a soup, salad, or on a steak."
"Buttermilk. An underrated ingredient you can use in marinades and dressings as well as in just about every bakery item, bread, cake, etc. It just adds that extra zip."
herman-the-vermin replied: "It's the only way I do pancakes or waffles now. Overnight sourdough buttermilk pancakes are a favorite Saturday breakfast."
proscriptus comments: "Once you make buttermilk mashed potatoes, you will never make them any other way. With roasted garlic, olive oil, and some salty stock for extra depth."
"Lemongrass. I generally love the ingredients in Thai food. Cilantro, lemongrass, spice, and bamboo shoots."
purplefriiday replied: "I love bamboo shoots. The texture is amazing."
"Water. Not enough beef, add water. Need to make sauce, water. Chicken overcooked, water. Too much salt, water. Water fixes a bunch of s*it."
"I'm a big fan of cayenne powder. I throw a pinch in everything to give it a zing!"
My favourite recipe is cheese muffins with a sprinkling of cayenne on top.
"Garam Masala! I find it to be so good in many savory dishes. I replace cumin with it whenever it’s called for. It’s INCREDIBLE in chili or any Asian-influenced dishes!
Not an expert in Indian cooking or even the spice world in general. So I realize it’s not a perfect substitute, I just ran out of cumin once in the middle of cooking, subbed it in, and fell in love! I totally understand why some recipes may not be suited to it, this is just my opinion based on my experiences."
You know this is just a blend of spices, right? Normally cumin, coriander and small amounts of other aromatics, varying proportions depending who makes it. Good to throw in near the end of cooking in many Indian dishes, but at the beginning of cooking better to stick with the individual spices, preferably whole or freshly ground.
"Nutritional yeast. Adds a nutty, cheesy flavor and a creamy texture to anything you add it to, and it's absolutely packed with nutrients. Anyone who doesn't have a container of nooch in their cabinets needs to up their game."
I bought some because of one of these lists (which wasn't cheap) and was not impressed. Now I have to try and use it up!
"Liquid Smoke.
It is great for getting that smoke taste in vegetarian dishes."
"I was served the steak with a dry rub of Herbs de Provence once. Now it is the only way I'll make a steak."
"Everything bagel seasoning. Let me tell you right now, THAT IS THE BEST SEASONING EVER. It is salty, seedy, I don’t even know how to put it in words."
Just don't buy the insipid one from Trader Joe's. The version Costco currently carries is pretty good.
"Not a chef, but cilantro. It makes food so much fresher and earthier. The world hit a revolutionary breakthrough when they added cilantro to guacamole."
"Adobo."
iLutheran replied: "Oh, I stopped using those products when they became cloud-based subscriptions."
"Vietnamese fish sauce (different from Thai fish sauce). I've been working in the kitchen for 10 years, mostly in the Italian kitchens and Aussie steakhouses, but my most favourite ingredient is always Vietnamese fish sauce (for my foods only). It contains salt, seafood and umami flavour and I don't have to use MSG. I tried Thai fish sauce but the smell was quite strong, and the flavour wasn't good.
My second favourite ingredient is white wine. Some chefs like to add a dash of lemon or lime juice to their foods (western foods), but I think white wine works better."
"Compound butter and compound oil. In my opinion the saying, a team is only as strong as its weakest player can most of the time be very true in a kitchen. Seasoning your butter or your oil can make a world of difference especially with meat because oils will soak into most anything very well so the flavors that they impart are very important in either that umami kissing you on the cheek or kicking you in the face."
About once a month, I buy a load of shallots. I slice then super thin on my mandoline, then slow fry them in a neutral oil. That way, I get Thai fried shallots AND shallot oil to cook with. (Use a saucepan at least twice as large as you think you need, otherwise it will bubble over on you. Add thinly sliced shallots, cover with oil. Cook, stirring, over a medium to medium-low flame until the shallots are crisp and golden brown, adjusting the flame as needed. Drain, reserving the oil.)
"Sodium citrate. I can turn any shredded cheese (single or blend) into a sauce of whatever consistency is needed, in five minutes. No messing with roux, just velvety goodness."
Mustard. Good mustard, not the yellow stuff. Cheese sauce bland? Add a dollop of mustard. Salad dressing missing something? Add a bit of mustard. Deviled eggs flavorless? You need mustard.
I should stop reading these lists. Every time they just make me miss all the foods I can't eat anymore due to IBS!
Mustard. Good mustard, not the yellow stuff. Cheese sauce bland? Add a dollop of mustard. Salad dressing missing something? Add a bit of mustard. Deviled eggs flavorless? You need mustard.
I should stop reading these lists. Every time they just make me miss all the foods I can't eat anymore due to IBS!
