- 1 hour ago
Learn 67 essential kitchen tips with Chef Curtis Stone, from choosing a perfect rib eye to cutting onions, prepping vegetables, shucking oysters, making vinaigrettes, storing truffles, organising your kitchen, and refining knife skills. This chef-driven guide covers beef, seafood, herbs, cheeses, dressings, and everyday techniques to help you cook smarter, cleaner, and more confidently at home with professional results.
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00:00Oh, my God, you just threw an onion at me.
00:14When you cut them, they can make you cry.
00:17It normally happens when you squash the onion with a blunt knife.
00:21So I hate to tell you, but if you're crying all the time
00:24with your onions, you probably need to sharpen your knives.
00:28Leave the root on because it makes cutting the onion way easier.
00:31Because we gave ourselves a nice flat side,
00:34that means that the onion will sit nice and still.
00:36If you want to slice, you're just going to pull your knife straight through
00:40from top to bottom, just like that.
00:43Let me show you how we dice it.
00:44Long, thin strips down the onion,
00:48then long strokes of your blade cut towards the root
00:52will get you all the way into the onion, turn it over,
00:55and then you are dicing.
00:57You can get a perfect dice, really simply,
00:59a perfect slice, really simply.
01:02And look at me, I'm not crying.
01:07One of the things our chefs learn about when we go to school
01:10is all the different knife cuts.
01:12If you want to take something and cut it into a julienne,
01:15all you'll do is very thin slices like this.
01:20Then you'll turn it and you'll cut them into really, really fine strips.
01:25So that's great for a stir fry, great for when you want lots of texture.
01:29Now, if you want to do batons, is cutting it a little thicker,
01:34and then you push them all to your knife,
01:37keep the tip of your blade anchored on the board,
01:40and then the back of the knife is where you're actually doing your chopping.
01:44If you want to take that one step further and turn that into a dice,
01:48you turn it, and you just cut straight on through.
01:52You might hear of a haché, or mincing a vegetable,
01:56and this is when you want the vegetable to disappear in the dish.
01:59We go back across, and we're doing a fine mince or a really fine dice.
02:04So here we've got julienne.
02:06The baton, obviously, much more robust in its size and its shape.
02:09That turns into this if you dice it, and this turns into that.
02:13So that's a dice, this is a haché.
02:15Just take your time. It's not a rush.
02:17Don't try and be like the guys you see on TV.
02:19Speed will come with experience.
02:21So just take your time, and you'll get beautiful knife cuts,
02:24and your vegetables will really jump and stand out when you cook them.
02:27I love cutting a julienne, but I know lots of you are like,
02:31that's way too difficult, and I'm not going to try it.
02:33I've got something for you.
02:35You've got a peeler, which on the other side is a julienne cutter.
02:39Peel your carrot just like that, and switch it over to the julienne side,
02:43and you're just going to go on through your carrot just like this.
02:49You could turn that into a really gorgeous salad.
02:52It could replace noodles if you're going gluten-free.
02:55It's a great little tool.
02:56Here's a quick little tip on cleaning as you go.
03:00Keeping your kitchen clean and organised when you're cooking in it is so important.
03:03It starts with having a container for everything,
03:06but then you also need to have a little towel.
03:09I always have one damp and one dry.
03:10It's a really useful tool.
03:12You don't need a hundred towels.
03:13I always start by opening it up, folding it in half, doing the same thing.
03:18So then you start with one, two, three, four.
03:24I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, once you go through cleaning 20 towels at the end of a cooking session,
03:30you'll learn how to fold your towels really well and get the most out of it.
03:33Let's talk dressings.
03:41All you need to make a good dressing is a bowl and a whisk.
03:46And what we're going to do is emulsify two different components, an acid and a fat.
03:51Those two things normally want to stay far away from each other.
03:54But what we're going to do is force them to be friends.
03:57You start off with the acid and then you can flavour your dressing or vinaigrette with anything you want.
04:02Maybe you want to add a little Dijon mustard.
04:04You might want to add a little honey, some shallots, some garlic, some different herbs.
04:09Then you mix and in a thin stream, you're going to pour some olive oil.
04:17And you whisk at the same time.
04:19It's like one part vinegar to about three or four parts oil.
04:23The appearance is going to be is creamy.
04:26You're going to season it with a little kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper.
04:29The right way to taste a dressing is getting yourself a leaf, dipping it in.
04:36Whoa, that's good.
04:37So often people will make a vinaigrette and they'll taste it and be like,
04:41it's too vinegary.
04:42They'll add more oil.
04:43And then when they toss the salad with the vinaigrette, they're like,
04:46it still doesn't taste right.
04:47That's because you didn't taste it the first time on a leaf,
04:50because you need to make the vinaigrette way more powerful than you think you'll need it to be.
04:55This is a zester.
05:00This is a lemon.
05:01The oil in the lemon, those essential oils, are in the skin.
05:05Good zester is always one that takes off just a little bit.
05:08It's really quite light.
05:10Now, if I was to concentrate and just go in one spot,
05:13I'm going to end up with more of the pith than the zest.
05:17So you want the zest for that nice, bright, sour flavor.
05:20The pith will have more bitterness.
05:21So that's something you want to avoid.
05:26All it is, is a shape that has three sides.
05:29So I'm going to break down how you do it.
05:31I've got tomato and chili pepper jam.
05:33I've got two spoons.
05:35Rinse them in slightly warm water.
05:37Pick up just enough to fill your spoon.
05:40And then you take it off that spoon with the other spoon.
05:42Keep going from one spoon to the next until you get that wonderful shape.
05:48One, two, and of course, underneath are the three sides.
05:51But a mousse or puree or even a soft cheese can be quenelle very, very easily.
05:57I think it looks a little nicer than just a dollop of something.
06:02Now, the blowtorch is how we start our fire here at Gwen.
06:06But if you want to get a little char and a little sweetness into an otherwise quite acidic cheese,
06:12like a goat's cheese, here's a little tip.
06:14Sprinkle it really lightly with a little demerara sugar, which has a lovely flavor.
06:19You grab your blowtorch.
06:20You get to caramelize the sugar without melting goat's cheese.
06:24It gives it a nice crisp crust.
06:27I'm going to break a little piece off.
06:29Just make sure that sugar's set first.
06:35Delicious.
06:38Oysters.
06:39If you open them at home, you need a towel.
06:41What you're going to use is a thing called an oyster knife,
06:44but you don't want to push it into your hand.
06:46Just put the oyster on your towel.
06:49I always give it a tap.
06:50Let him know I'm coming.
06:51You fold that towel over onto the oyster.
06:54Wiggle your oyster knife in to that little hinge.
06:58Once you feel like you've got a nice foothold, you just pop it.
07:02What you're trying not to do is just tear it off because then you'll break the oyster.
07:06That's the cup and that's the shell.
07:07You're going to stick your knife in here and you're just going to sever the oyster.
07:11I like to turn the oyster over.
07:13So you just flip him over like that.
07:15And then your oyster is ready to eat.
07:18Bottoms up.
07:18Scallops.
07:22Or scallops.
07:23Depends where you're from.
07:24You want to make sure they smell really sweet.
07:27They never should smell funky or fishy.
07:29They should just smell lightly of the ocean.
07:32You always have the server side.
07:34So there'll always be one side bigger and one side smaller.
07:37You want where it holds onto the cup because there's more of it.
07:40It makes the scallop look slightly bigger and fuller.
07:43So that's a better presentation.
07:44I always cook the server side first so that bigger side goes into the pan first.
07:50You only ever turn scallops once.
07:52Get it beautiful and golden brown.
07:54Turn it one time and it's done.
07:55Pop them straight onto your service tray.
07:57This is a ribeye.
08:03When you're talking about a ribeye, this is the longomastorsi.
08:07And this little crescent-shaped mussel is the spinalastorsi.
08:11Both those mussels eat quite differently but are absolutely delicious.
08:15So this is a beautifully dry-aged, heavily marbled ribeye.
08:19Let me show you what one from the store might look like.
08:22Quite different, right?
08:23You can see it's a little pinker in colour, much less of that marbling or intermuscular fat.
08:29It's also very large.
08:30It's come off a larger animal.
08:32Usually would mean that it is older and probably a little tougher.
08:36The other thing that's missing from this is that spinalis.
08:39That's really delicious.
08:40So I think that's a bit of a bummer.
08:42It's probably just a little further up the primal.
08:44You're really getting more of a New York than you are a ribeye.
08:47Always look for those two mussels and look for that beautiful marbling all the way through.
08:53Aging beef.
08:55It is a big question.
08:56Dry-aging or wet-aging?
08:58Let me explain it.
08:59This is wet-aged.
09:00It normally comes in a package like this.
09:03A lot of the moisture stays in the beef, right?
09:05So it's going to give you a really juicy end result.
09:08Although there's not much flavour development from that aging process.
09:12Now all beef is aged.
09:13You can't eat it immediately.
09:15It can't be too fresh.
09:16If it is, it's very fibrous and very tough.
09:19If you dry-age, and here's an example of a primal, this is the whole ribeye,
09:24that has been dry-aged.
09:26There's a little mould growth on the outside, very, very dry and hard.
09:31It literally is almost impenetrable.
09:35You're developing a wonderful flavour, right?
09:37There's a little bit of funkiness going on inside the ribeye.
09:41It's also been dehydrated, hence dry-aging.
09:44This, believe it or not, was cut from one exactly like that.
09:50You don't eat the outside.
09:51You don't eat anything that has the mould growth on it.
09:54Still beautiful and soft on the inside.
09:57It does get that incredible flavour.
09:59By far, my favourite.
10:01Dry-age.
10:05There's a couple of important things that you need to do before it goes on the grill.
10:09I took this out of the fridge about an hour before I'm going to cook it.
10:12Called tempering the steak means you're not going to get red in the middle,
10:15grey on the outside.
10:16It's going to be perfectly pink all the way through.
10:19Season the outside really generously, just with kosher salt.
10:22Pepper on a live fire will burn.
10:25You don't want that burnt pepper flavour.
10:27You can pepper it at the end.
10:29When we cook steak at Gwen, we have a really interesting technique,
10:32because most people tell you to turn the steak once.
10:35We continually rest the steak during the cooking process.
10:39We start it for maybe 60 seconds on each side and remove it and sit it on a rack
10:43and allow it to rest for five minutes.
10:45Once those juices have redistributed through the steak,
10:48we bring it back to the grill and we give it another 60 to 90 seconds on each side.
10:52Then another five minute rest.
10:54We continue that through the cooking process and we'll end up with a perfectly pink ribeye.
10:59You want to cut with the grain or directly against it.
11:03You never want to cut through it on an angle.
11:04You will make it tougher to eat.
11:06There's not a pool of juice on my board.
11:09That resting process allows all of those juices to redistribute through the meat
11:14and it stays in the steak and not all over your cutting board.
11:19Oh man, that is a beautiful way to cook a steak, I've got to tell you.
11:27Check out this baby.
11:28This is fennel.
11:29There's a way to use it all and I'll explain it to you.
11:32If you go through and remove some of this leaf, it smells and tastes very similar to dill.
11:38So you can use that and chop it up.
11:40When it comes to the actual bulb, if you cut straight on through it,
11:43you now give yourself a nice flat side that you can prep.
11:47Run it through a mandolin.
11:50Those beautiful, super thin slices.
11:53It gives you wonderful texture.
11:55One method is to salt it, wash the salt off after an hour,
12:00and then throw a hot pickle over it, which is one, two, three.
12:03One part vinegar, two parts sugar, three parts water.
12:07Great with smoked salmon or any sort of shellfish.
12:10So the bulb you can thinly slice.
12:12The leaf you use in place of dill.
12:14And any of these big stalky parts, that's good to make a stock.
12:18Or you can go ahead and use this as a bed to roast your meats and fish over.
12:27Delicious steam, just the way they are.
12:29That's a very Californian way.
12:31Just cutting the base off here, steaming the whole thing.
12:34But the really beautiful thing about an artichoke is the actual choke itself.
12:38I'm going to show you how to get to it.
12:39You need a big, strong knife that you can get up on top of and go right through.
12:43Trim it up so it's nice and flat.
12:47Then hold onto the base.
12:49You're going to go around the artichoke and remove these outer leaves.
12:53Come in and you're going to turn the artichoke around like that.
12:57Work kind of quickly because it will oxidize.
12:59So you don't want to spend too long because you'll end up with a brown artichoke.
13:03This is the center.
13:04We've got to take that out because this is the part that's inedible.
13:07Right.
13:08And you've got yourself a perfectly turned artichoke.
13:11This is where all the flavor is.
13:13That is now ready to cook.
13:14You're probably going to do quite a few when you turn them.
13:17So the best thing to do is drop them into some acidulated water.
13:20So just water with some lemon juice and that will keep them from turning brown.
13:24And that's the best way to keep them until you're ready to cook.
13:31Take a good long look at my leek.
13:33I love this vegetable.
13:35They're a little tricky to clean though.
13:36So let me give you a couple of tips.
13:37The green you don't really use very much unless you're making a stock.
13:41This white part is the really special bit.
13:44Get yourself a nice sharp knife and just start at the top.
13:48And slice all the way through the heart of that leek.
13:51Now I can look and see all of that sand.
13:55I leave the root on.
13:56Go under the tap.
13:57I can sort of play that like a deck of cards.
13:59Get the water running in between them.
14:01And that way you get perfectly clean leeks.
14:04The most common way to use it is just to slice it straight across.
14:09There's no sand showing up to your party.
14:15One of my favorite and I think most underrated herbs.
14:19It will wilt quite quickly.
14:20But I've got a little tip.
14:22When you buy a bunch like this, I break it into pieces that I'm going to use it in.
14:26So the yews now, the yews later in the week and the yews next week.
14:31Mist some water over.
14:33Some paper towel.
14:34Take your fresh herbs, place them inside and then just roll it up nice and tight.
14:39That will keep them fresh so you'll get maximum life out of those herbs.
14:45Will probably double the usable time that you can use the tarragon for.
14:49You can see the leaf of the cilantro right there.
14:55But what I'm interested in is the flowers.
14:58Great for garnishing a salad, a raw fish dish, even a big old steak.
15:02The flower has a slightly more mild flavor than the leaf.
15:07So if you like the flavor of cilantro, but you don't want to use a big old leaf, serve the flower.
15:15Best way to know you're getting a nice fresh tomato is actually the green.
15:19If that's old and dry, it's probably been picked a while ago.
15:21If it's beautiful, vibrant and green, then it's probably pretty fresh.
15:24You can also kind of tell the ripeness of a tomato by smelling it.
15:28The stronger the aroma, the riper the tomato will be.
15:31Tomato, excuse me.
15:34Peas have to be one of my favorite ingredients.
15:36There's two ends, one where it was attached and the other where the flower was.
15:41Snap it and then you peel that little piece of string off the pea.
15:46Is it absolutely essential?
15:49Yeah, I don't want that stuck in my teeth.
15:51That is really quite fibrous.
15:52You want to peel the stringy bit off your peas.
15:56Now the thing about the snap peas is they cook so fast.
15:59If you have water at a boil, 15 seconds, that's it.
16:02If you toss them into a stir fry, into a hot wok,
16:05maybe a minute or two and they are ready to go.
16:07You can even eat them just like this.
16:11Fantastic.
16:17While we might consider these wild mushrooms,
16:20I can tell you with absolute certainty they were grown in a hothouse
16:23and they weren't grown out in the woods where they would come into contact
16:27with all sorts of things that would need them to be cleaned.
16:30So when you find these varieties that are grown in a hothouse,
16:34you don't have to worry too much about washing them.
16:36If you wash mushrooms in water,
16:39the porous nature of a mushroom is it will absorb the water.
16:42If your mushroom absolutely needs a wash, get yourself a damp cloth.
16:47That works.
16:47If you were buying from a forager or you were collecting mushrooms yourself,
16:52you might want to brush it with a pastry brush
16:53and even use a toothbrush to sort of get into some of those hard to reach areas.
16:59You can always feel your board.
17:00Was there any sand in there?
17:02No, that was actually pretty clean and pretty simple.
17:05Mushrooms are delicious.
17:06Once you know how to clean them, you'll be using them all the time.
17:13If you're going to spend lots of money on truffles,
17:15you need to know how to store them.
17:17If you leave them in a container, eventually they will become wet
17:21and they'll become slimy.
17:22Wrap each one individually in some paper towel.
17:25So each day that you have these in the fridge, you're going to change that paper.
17:29You're going to rewrap it and then pop it into a little container.
17:33Another thing that we will sometimes do is keep them on rice
17:36because the truffle aroma will scent the rice
17:39or keep them with eggs because eggs have a poorer shell.
17:42The flavour and aroma of the truffle will go through the shell of the egg
17:45and your eggs will taste delicious like truffles.
17:48How do I put together a beautiful cheese board?
17:56I always think getting three distinct varietals of cheese is really important.
18:01I've got an Alpine style aged cheese over here.
18:04I've got a triple cream for those cream lovers.
18:07And then I've got my goat's cheese log down the end.
18:10Make sure you serve them at the right temperature.
18:11Let them temper for about half an hour before you serve them.
18:14The other thing that's important about selecting great cheeses
18:18is knowing how to cut them.
18:19So the Alpine cheese is really quite strong in flavour.
18:22So you want to cut it into really thin slices, just like that.
18:25You want to slice all the way along the cheese
18:28so you get some of that milky centre
18:30and some of that thicker, richer flavour from the outside.
18:35If you cut a big, thick piece of that cheese, it would be way too rich.
18:38Next, I have a triple cream.
18:40So what you want to do with a cheese like this is serve it in wedges.
18:44Some people will warm their knife.
18:45That'll allow it to go through the cheese quicker.
18:47But what you want to do is quite quickly punch your way through the cheese.
18:52See how it's still kind of chalky right there in the centre?
18:55That hasn't fully ripened, but the outside of the cheese looks much softer,
19:00almost a little gooier.
19:01And that is because the cheese is ripening.
19:04We want to make sure that we get a piece of that mould with the interior of the cheese,
19:10which is why you're going to cut through in wedges like this.
19:14We'll be able to pick up a piece of cheese and eat it from side to side.
19:18And that is the perfect balance for a triple cream.
19:22Oh doggy, that is good!
19:24That cheese is very soft.
19:26It will be quite delicate, which is why we use a wire.
19:29Just pressing straight through the cheese like that.
19:33You can also just line it up from the top and go straight through.
19:39Because the wire has virtually no drag, it is certainly the simplest way
19:43to cut those lovely discs of what is otherwise a very, very soft cheese.
19:50The best way to cook eggs.
19:52My favourite way is sunny side up.
19:54I'm using a non-stick pan, and you'll notice I haven't got the pan too hot.
19:58If the pan is too hot, you're going to cook the egg from the bottom up too quickly.
20:03So that's why it's got to be on a pretty low heat.
20:06Let that butter turn slightly brown.
20:09You're going to season this with a little bit of salt and pepper.
20:12And then I'm going to finish it with some of this white truffle on egg.
20:18There's just nothing better than that.
20:19Before you take it out of the pan, while it's still hot and bubbly,
20:22take your truffle.
20:23You don't need a lot.
20:24Lightly go over the top.
20:26Make it rain.
20:27Whenever someone in a restaurant comes and talks to you while they're shaving truffles,
20:32distract them.
20:33Try and confuse them.
20:34Then they'll just keep on shaving.
20:36It's the way you get the most out of the person.
20:38And I don't know about you, but everything I've ever learnt in the kitchen,
20:42there's not much that compares to this.
20:49I would die happy right now.
20:50I know these blocks of butter look very similar, but they couldn't be more different.
20:58This is a fresh butter.
20:59The one that you are used to buying from the store.
21:02And this one is a cultured butter.
21:03The difference is one takes long walks, read books and visits museums.
21:09That was a stinker.
21:11And I'm sorry.
21:11A cultured butter is aged, actually has flavor developed.
21:16I've also got my favorite butter that I couldn't not show you.
21:19It's called Berta Burrat.
21:20The flavor of this butter to me is really quite exceptional.
21:27Oh man, I'm serious.
21:28I could just slice it and eat it on a cracker.
21:30The regular butter you might want to use to melt in the bottom of your pan before you make your omelette in
21:34the morning.
21:35The cultured butter, that's a real specialty butter that maybe you want to eat
21:39just with some bread for a special dinner party.
21:41Invest in good butter.
21:42I've pulled together some of my favorite fats.
21:47I absolutely love using butter.
21:49It has a really low smoke point.
21:51So you can't just cook in butter if you want to cook on a high heat.
21:54Like a steak, for instance.
21:55You try and cook a steak in butter.
21:57The butter is going to burn every single time.
21:59The extra virgin hasn't had any heat brought to it.
22:02That's a wonderful finishing oil.
22:04Here's something that we used to cook in a lot.
22:07Beef tallow.
22:07When it comes to cooking in animal fat, use the fat to cook the same type of meat.
22:12So if you're going to use duck fat, it's wonderful for cooking duck.
22:15If you're going to use beef fat, it's great for cooking steak.
22:18That said, duck fat roast potatoes.
22:20Oh my Lord.
22:22It is really, really good.
22:23If I make Yorkshire pudding, I always use beef fat because I serve it with roast beef.
22:27Experiment with it.
22:28You get different flavors from cooking in different fats.
22:33I always think of food as a balance.
22:35Is it rich enough?
22:36Normally that comes through fat.
22:37Is it bright and acidic enough?
22:39Normally that comes through a vinegar or an acid.
22:42We actually use acids all the time.
22:43In every single vinaigrette or dressing that you've ever had,
22:46there would be some form of acid in it.
22:48There's really more there as a flavor enhancement.
22:51Vinegars bring beautiful brightness.
22:54Rice wine vinegar, a sherry vinegar, a champagne vinegar, raspberry vinegar, lemon juice.
22:59This is a bit of a different one.
23:00This is a Buddha's hand.
23:01Now it looks really pretty.
23:03It doesn't have juice in it.
23:04So you're only really using this for the zest.
23:07Always have some ready.
23:08Just a few drops into that pasta with crab or into that bolognese sauce.
23:14Will totally change the way you cook.
23:15Don't forget about the acids.
23:18Probably the most important tool that you have as a chef.
23:27You call that a knife?
23:28This is a knife.
23:29This is a beautiful big slicer.
23:31I have a smaller version of that, which is a utility knife.
23:34For a big cook's knife, you want with a heel on it,
23:36because your knuckles will be underneath that blade.
23:39So you want to be able to chop.
23:40You know, I've always got a knife in my pocket to open boxes.
23:44This little switchblade.
23:46I have no idea what it's for, but it's super cute.
23:49If I could just have one knife, I would go for something like this.
23:53That's a santuku.
23:54That's a great slicer.
23:56And it's also got a heel, so you can use it to chop.
23:59And then of course, not too thick.
24:01So you actually don't have too much drag through the things you're slicing through.
24:08If you came into my restaurant and had a look in the fridge,
24:11you'd see all these containers with these little blue labels on.
24:14You're going to laugh at me, but I don't let my crew take that blue tape
24:19and just tear it off like this.
24:21Because sometimes you'll get the corners missing on the tape.
24:25No, no, no, no, no.
24:26You need to label and date everything that goes into your fridge.
24:30If you're like me and you're just a little OCD,
24:32the tape also has to be torn perfectly.
24:34I know how embarrassing that is.
24:36Let me show you in the kitchen.
24:37This is the fridge, the most important room in the building.
24:41So everything's kind of sectioned off into different areas.
24:44So we have all of our juices and all of our elixirs in one area,
24:49all of our sauces in another.
24:51Everything's in its place.
24:53All the mise en place can be easily accessed.
24:55You know exactly what it is when you need it.
24:58If you want to organise your kitchen just like a chef does,
25:01get similar sized containers, label them all,
25:04and have things put into sections.
25:08Cooking over live fire gives incredible flavour,
25:11but every type of wood will give you a different scent, aroma, and taste.
25:15I'm actually cooking with white oak.
25:17There's also wonderful cherry trees and apple trees here in California,
25:20so sometimes we'll burn those.
25:22The one thing all three of those woods have in common is it's relatively mild in flavour,
25:27but it burns nice and hot.
25:29They're the two characteristics we really look for.
25:34I know this sounds strange, but a chef spends most of his life standing on his feet,
25:39so you need real comfy shoes.
25:41And these are the ones I like.
25:43They're Birkenstocks, open heels, so if you need to kick them off in case you burn yourself, you can.
25:47That cork sole means that your back doesn't ache.
25:50I swear by it.
25:51I've really enjoyed hanging out with you, having you in my kitchen for the day.
25:55We've done a bunch of tips together.
25:57I hope you use them in your kitchen.
25:58All the best.
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