Top TV chefs like larger-than-life Guy Fieri and foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay are beloved for their cheeky charm and passion for food. These celebrity chefs have years of cooking expertise, and they deliver a wealth of cooking tips and tricks that are perfect for every amateur chef. Here are our favourite kitchen hacks from TV chefs, including Ina Garten, Ree Drummond and even Meghan Markle.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the greatest culinary advice from celebrity chefs – counting down to the most genius tip of all.
According to Ina Garten, there’s one key thing you need to know when making scrambled eggs: cook them over a low heat. The reason is that protein gets tough on a high heat, so keeping the temperature low will make sure they stay tender. Also, remove the scrambled eggs from the heat just before they're done as they will keep cooking in the pan.
Meghan Markle released With Love, Meghan on Netflix in early 2025, and it was full of the kind of lifestyle tips and tricks that will make your next gathering an occasion fit for a queen. One of the things she clearly loves to do is think carefully about the presentation of every dish. She decorates croissants with springs of mint and piles of raspberries and serves pastries with jams and preserves spooned into their own containers for a more personal touch.
https://www.foodandwine.com/meghan-markle-breakfast-tips-11692701
Cooking for guests (especially on special occasions like Christmas) can be stressful at the best of times, so why add more pressure on yourself? British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay suggests keeping it simple with classic flavour combinations everyone loves (think honey-glazed carrots and parsnips and Brussels sprouts) and telling people lunch is at 3 or 4pm to give you extra time to get everything on the table.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/103494/best-christmas-cooking-tips-from-celebrity-chefs?page=30
Cheeky chap Jamie Oliver has two methods of cooking crispy bacon. First off, try putting the rashers into a cold pan with a drizzle of olive oil and then bringing the pan to a medium-high heat. As the bacon starts to cook, place something heavy on top of the bacon so remains flat and cooks evenly. Method two is probably a bit easier: get the grill super hot and get the bacon underneath it. Cook until beautifully crisp and curly.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/369191/jamie-olivers-bestever-recipes-and-cooking-tips?page=20
Guy Fieri has a tip for mellowing out the strong flavour of raw shallots and garlic. Essentially, slow roast them in the oven so they caramelise and become sweet. He then chops them and stirs them into a roux for mac 'n' cheese. It adds another layer of exquisite flavour to an already indulgent dish.
Turkey is famously dry meat, but UK food star Nigella Lawson has the ideal solution. “For me, the only turkey is a brined one,” she once said. “Not only does it tenderise and add subtle spiciness, but it makes carving the turkey much easier.” Lawson's approach is to fill a pan with water and whatever spices you like and stick the turkey into it for a few hours.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/103634/nigellas-best-cooking-advice-revealed?page=47
Martha Stewart has a nifty trick for getting the most juice out of citrus fruits such as lemon, lime, grapefruit and oranges. She suggests rolling the fruit on a work surface to break down the cells on the inside of the fruit before cutting them in half and juicing. This is especially helpful for those of us who struggle to juice a lime through sheer brute force.
When making chicken tetrazzini, a delicious pasta dish of diced chicken and peas in a creamy white wine sauce, Giada De Laurentiis says it’s fine to substitute heavy cream for flour, butter and broth, or milk. This is a good trick to know next time you’re halfway through preparing a savoury dish like chicken pie or pasta and realise you’ve run out of cream.
To make perfectly charred burgers, do as Bobby Flay of Boy Meets Grill, Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Beat Bobby Flay does. Use a meat mixture that's 80% beef, 20% fat, then give the patties a generous coating of salt and pepper. Create a small dent in the middle of each patty and fry them in a cast iron pan. But the most important thing of all is to only flip the burgers once.
A solid tip for any wannabe baker: sometimes it's just best to stick to the recipe. Mary Berry insists full-fat cream cheese can't be substituted for low-fat cream cheese when making cream cheese icing. The reason is it will slide off – and it isn’t as tasty. This same advice can apply to many high-fat ingredients used in baking.
Julia Child’s most important lesson is to always cook with love and laughter. As she so wisely said, “Always remember: if you’re alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. Who’s going to know?" We're not sure you actually should serve dropped lamb, but you get the idea!
When it comes to making picture-perfect cinnamon rolls, Ree Drummond says that a dash of patience is required. So before you start rolling out your dough, chill it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes – you'll immediately be rewarded. Chilling makes the dough firmer and easier to roll into tight coils.
When Rachael Ray fancies cannelloni but hasn’t got any tubes, she makes her own out of lasagne sheets. Cook the flat pasta until flexible, spoon the filling on one end, roll them up and place in a baking dish seam-side-down. Cover in sauce and cheese, then bake until golden. Handy!
The Barefoot Contessa star Ina Garten swears by adding a cup of hot brewed coffee to dishes that involve chocolate, such as brownies and cake. Declaring it her secret ingredient, she says it makes chocolate taste extra chocolatey. We've heard others say the same thing about espresso, too.
Meghan Markle came in for a lot of criticism online for her rainbow-style fruit salad, which in reality would cost an awful lot of money in store-bought fruit. But the idea behind fashioning your food into interesting shapes using striking colours is one we can all embrace. In her show, With Love, Meghan, the duchess encouraged everyone to "find the fun" in food to bring more joy to every occasion.
https://honey.nine.com.au/royals/meghan-markle-netflix-show-duchess-of-sussex-make-mornings-more-fun-rainbow-fruit-salad/fa69e0b2-ffb7-4d96-b251-fb0045f68a68
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14456733/Meghan-Markle-says-real-delight-luxury-present-parent-makes-rainbow-themed-fruit-salad-new-sneak-peek-Netflix-series.html
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royals/staggering-cost-meghan-markles-fancy-34790530
Nobody likes dry meat, and that's where this tip from Gordon Ramsay comes in. Turkey is the most notoriously dry bird, and if you're cooking one, allow at least 45 minutes of resting time in a warm place. Other meats will also need resting. This vital time lets the meat relax and retain moisture, meaning it'll get lovely and tender.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/103494/best-christmas-cooking-tips-from-celebrity-chefs?page=30
Jamie Oliver has the easy recipe for a perfectly poached eggs. Bring a pan of water to the boil and then reduce the heat to avoid boiling the egg. Oliver suggests you crack an egg into a bowl first, then gently drop it into the hot water to keep the egg intact. Leave the egg to poach for three minutes for a soft, squidgy centre.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/369191/jamie-olivers-bestever-recipes-and-cooking-tips?page=20
He’s eaten a lot of good meat on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, so it’s safe to say Guy Fieri knows how to cook steak. When frying filet of beef, the Mayor of Flavourtown suggests using olive oil and butter. He thinks this lets you get the lovely, rich flavour from the butter, while the oil stops it from burning.
Nigella Lawson recommends using blazingly hot fat (preferably goose fat) and smallish potatoes to guarantee crunchy roast potatoes that have fluffy insides. But her top tip is to first dredge the parboiled potatoes in semolina and rattle them around in a pan to rough the potatoes up on the outside. This makes them the perfect vessel for that deliciously hot fat.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/103634/nigellas-best-cooking-advice-revealed?page=46
Domestic superstar Martha Stewart provides us with endless wisdom on The Martha Stewart Show. One particularly top tip is about how to make the perfect baked cheesecake. To keep the consistency creamy and prevent cracks from forming, Stewart slow cooks it in a bain marie (a water bath), then lets it cool in the oven with the door ajar.
Everyone’s favourite Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis is an expert at Italian cooking. When the Giada at Home star makes classic lasagne, she takes it to the next level by adding a layer of chopped frozen spinach and ricotta. But she squeezes all the excess moisture out the spinach first so it doesn’t dilute the flavour.
Iron Chef's Bobby Flay has a nifty trick to nail perfectly done steak: remove the guesswork by checking the temperature with a meat thermometer. He says medium rare is 51°C (125°F) and medium is 60°C (140°F). Take the steak out from under the grill or pan before it reaches this as the meat continues to cook while resting. And yes, Flay also allows the steak to rest before serving.
A fan of seasonal cooking, Mary Berry considers what produce is at its best and readily available when planning what to cook. In some instances, recipes can be adapted. Berry will, for example, use asparagus in chicken pot pie in spring and switch to kale or leeks in winter.
We couldn’t leave out the late, great Julia Child’s cooking advice. The star of The French Chef, Cooking with Master Chefs and more hated the idea of overcooked chicken and had a fool-proof test for telling when it was cooked. If cooked chicken is pierced with a fork or sharp knife, the juices run clear yellow, not pink.
For ribs that fall off the bone in a sticky sweet sauce, Ree Drummond warns against a common mistake. Slow cook them first, then smother them in glaze – not the other way around. This way, your sauce will stick to the meat and not be diluted by the cooking juices.
Having racked up 30 seasons of 30 Minute Meals on Food Network, Rachael Ray knows what she’s doing. Her trick for using up garlic and onions is to roast the garlic and caramelise the onion, then pack into ice cube trays and freeze. Whenever you have a sauce or soup that needs a little something extra, add one of these flavour bombs.
When making chocolate and pecan scones, Ina Garten coats the chopped chocolate and pecans in flour before adding them to the dough to ensure they distribute evenly. This tip also applies to fillings such as nuts and dried fruit when baking bread and cakes.
Flavourtown's Guy Fieri has a tactic for layering flavour into family-favourite dishes, such as mac 'n' cheese, that require a roux. Fieri suggests that you fry bacon and use the fat as the base for the white sauce. Then, after assembling all the ingredients for your meal, use that crunchy bacon you cooked earlier as a topping – genius.
Nigella Lawson suggests that using chicken wings in a broth is one of the best and least expensive ingredients for delivering oodles of flavour. She says they're especially good in her 'special chicken soup', and she also freezes extra matzo balls (fluffy dumplings) for a quick midweek dinner alongside rice, toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/103634/nigellas-best-cooking-advice-revealed?page=46
Martha Stewart's family mac 'n' cheese recipe is far from boring. She adds tomato paste to the mix, followed by a healthy dose of cayenne pepper and black pepper to give it a punchy edge. It’s served with sour cream because you’re going to need it. Martha's mother also sometimes substituted the tomato paste for tomato soup.
Best known as a former judge on Great British Bake Off and a national treasure in the UK, Mary Berry has a bank of knowledge when it comes to baking, cooking and hosting. For example, she suggests impressing guests with a menu full of different textures and colours. She also warns against repetition, so don't go using cream in every course.
When it comes to melting cheese onto burgers, Bobby Flay has a clever method. While the patty is still in the pan, he adds two slices of American cheese on top and a dash of water to the pan, then covers it with a metal burger lid. The trapped steam melts the cheese onto the burger perfectly.
Martha Stewart has a top tip for getting your baked potatoes looking just like something you'd order from a steakhouse. Once the potatoes have come out of the oven (after an hour or so of baking), pop them in a kitchen towel and bash them onto your kitchen worktop. Then, when you cut them open, you'll reveal perfectly fluffy insides ready for their toppings.
From: https://www.lovefood.com/galleryextended/82341/martha-stewarts-best-tips-and-hacks-will-make-you-a-better-cook?page=34
Known as The Pioneer Woman on Food Network, Ree Drummond turned her passion for blogging and baking into a successful career. And if soft and gooey chocolate cookies make you melt, listen up. Drummond removes them from the oven just short of being done so they don't overbake. After all, they continue to cook while resting on the side.
The trick to crispy potatoes is to increase the spuds’ surface areas. When you make the surface area larger, more of it is exposed to the heat. To do this, Rachael squashes potatoes lightly with a fork partway through cooking. This technique works whether you are frying or baking them.
The Food Network chef Guy Fieri is known for his love of Tex-Mex and has some great advice for slow-cooked chilli. The top tip is to brown off the meat in batches before piling all the ingredients into the pot. This method gives the meat space in the pan to get a char. When the pan is overcrowded, meat steams instead.
Now discover the really bad kitchen habits you need to stop now
Last updated by Luke Paton.