Boost your kitchen confidence and transform your cooking with these tried-and-true tips from the UK’s top cooks. Perfect for impressing family members or dinner guests with dishes that steal the spotlight.
For more time-saving kitchen tips, see our 10 quick kitchen hacks everyone needs to know, the kitchen formulas you need to know to master pastry, cakes, pasta and more, plus our top 10 money-saving tips for your weekly shop.
You should see turmeric, never taste it – Vivek Singh
Vivek Singh is an Indian chef and restaurateur
I’ve had so much brilliant advice over the years! A handy one for in the kitchen is for turmeric – you should always see it, never taste it. Another great piece of advice I’ve heard was from a friend who worked with Pierre Koffmann for a long time: “Salt is the difference between a good dish and a great dish.”
Don’t let one bad meal put you off – Ilhan Mohamed
Ilhan Mohamed is a cookbook author and recipe writer
Cooking is one of those things where you can make something brilliant one day and completely ruin it the next. Don’t let one bad meal put you off. Keep cooking, keep tasting and eventually, you start to understand what went wrong. I think people often think good cooks are people who never make mistakes, but actually they’re just people who have made enough mistakes to know how to fix them.
Clean as you go – Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich
Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich are co-founders of Honey & Co restaurant
It’s not glamorous, but it changes everything! If you’ve got 10 minutes while something is in the oven, use it to wash up. We both really hate finishing cooking, then being faced with a huge pile of washing-up.
Know where the plasters are – Andrej Urosevic
Andrej Urosevic, aka @AndrejCooksFish, is a fishmonger and content creator
Trust me, you’ll remember this and thank me for it the first time you ‘christen’ your new mandoline while slicing courgettes…
Don’t salt too much – Niklas Ekstedt
Niklas Peter Ekstedt is a Swedish Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur
It sounds simple, but it is the hardest thing to master. People always think more salt equals more flavour, but it actually just kills the raw taste of the ingredients. You have to learn to season with restraint so the natural quality of the produce can come through.
Clean your kitchen – Anna Ansari
Anna Ansari is an award-winning food writer
I hate cleaning. Some people really love it, but I am just not one of them. There are few things I dislike more. When my sister and I lived together in NYC, she actually made me pay her to clean our flat. I did so gladly, though I really think she should have been more generous with her elbow grease – especially considering I am the elder sister! Was it not her duty as the secondborn to clean my toilet and vacuum my bedroom? Apparently not.
In any case, when I moved in with my now-husband, obviously Sara wasn’t there to clean up after me, so it was down to me and Ed to keep our home clean. Eventually, we were able to afford someone to help us with our messiness (thank goodness!), but as I started cooking more, I realised that a once-a-week cleaner wasn’t going to do it for my oft-used kitchen. I don’t know whether I read it or if someone told me, but I recall somehow hearing that the best thing a home cook can do to keep their sanity was making sure they cleaned up after every meal. Turns out that’s correct. Once I’m done cooking, I wipe down every surface, put every ingredient back in its place, wash every dish, yadda, yadda, yadda. I cannot handle having a messy, unkempt, dirty kitchen. As a result, our kitchen is the cleanest room in the house and, depending on the day of the week, sometimes it’s the only one.
Season as you go – Si King
Si King is a cook and broadcaster
The best kitchen tip I’ve ever been given is season as you go because what that makes you do is taste for seasoning as you’re developing the dish and it gives a deeper flavour to either savoury or sweet. It’s such a simple thing and it revolutionised the way that I looked at recipes and the way that I approached writing recipes. It’s so simple but a top tip.
Trade gadgets for good pans – Paul Ainsworth
Paul Ainsworth is a Michelin-starred chef
I often get asked about my favourite kitchen gadgets; I don’t really use gadgets. For me, it’s brilliant pans; sharp knives; and a well-crafted wooden chopping board from HexClad. If I have these three things, then I honestly don’t need anything else to create beautiful dishes.
I haven’t been given this as a tip, but something that has always been at the heart of my cooking is using top-quality produce – it’s why I called my debut cookbook ‘For the Love of Food’. Whether I’m cooking a beautiful piece of turbot with St Enodoc asparagus at Paul Ainsworth at No6, dressing the fish and chips on the pass at The Mariners, or coming up with the next pizza at Caffe Rojano, it all boils down to the quality of the raw materials and working with suppliers who care about their produce as much as I care about cooking it.
Julienne by arranging in a long line then cutting down the line – Tamar Adler
Tamar Adler is a chef, writer and author
The best tip I’ve ever been given was to brunoise by placing julienned vegetables in a long line, then cutting horizontally down the line. It was during my first week at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Before I even worked there, when I was just doing what’s called a stage (an unpaid visit where you essentially trade work for training). Cal Peternell, then one of the two chefs of the upstairs Cafe, showed me that I could julienne a carrot, for example, and then make a long trail of little clumps of julienned carrot, then move down the trail, cutting across, for a perfect brunoise. Or, almost perfect.
Don’t skip the salt – Alice Shields
Alice Shields is Good Food’s food editor and test kitchen manager
Don’t skip the salt, especially if you’re cooking a dish containing dried herbs and spices, as it really helps to bring out the flavour. If I’m developing a curry recipe, I’ll often include a measured amount of fine sea salt, to make sure enough gets added in. Vanilla works the same way for sweet dishes.
Put charcoal in your fridge – Ranie Saidi
Ranie Saidi is a London-based recipe developer
If your fridge starts smelling funky, just pop a few pieces of charcoal inside and leave them there for a while. They’ll slowly absorb the smell until it disappears.
Wash your hands! – Rhiannon Lambert
Rhiannon Lambert is a registered nutritionist, bestselling author, podcast host and founder of the Harley Street clinic, Rhitrition
Always wash your hands before you cook your food! It might sound simple, but our hands pick up bacteria throughout the day, so good food hygiene is one of the easiest ways to reduce the risk of food-borne illness, especially when cooking for little ones. Beyond that, I’d say keep your cupboard stocked with versatile staples like tinned beans, lentils, nuts and seeds. They’re an easy way to boost fibre, increase plant diversity and help a nutritious meal come together quickly.
Buy an oven thermometer – Matt Adlard
Matt Adlard is a pastry chef and bestselling author
Get an oven thermometer! We often assume that when we set the oven, the temperature we choose is always accurate. But unless your oven is brand spanking new, it’s very likely to be slightly off. In baking, even a difference of 10-20C can make or break a recipe. An oven thermometer removes that guesswork by showing the true internal temperature, helping you achieve more consistent, reliable results every time.
Freeze fresh herbs and veg – Maunika Gowardhan
Maunika Gowardhan is a UK-based chef, food writer and bestselling author
The best way to get the most out of them is to freeze fresh coriander, curry leaves and even spinach. The only thing to remember is make sure to use it straight from frozen while cooking to prevent discolouration.
Respect your ingredients – Jad Youssef
Jaf Youssef is a Lebanese chef, restaurateur and author of Lebnani
The best kitchen tip I ever received was to always respect your ingredients. Let fresh herbs, spices, and good-quality olive oil speak for themselves — sometimes the simplest touch makes the biggest difference in a dish.
