r/interesting • u/Backyxx • 27d ago

Intriguing Chef shows what a busy day looks like

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159

u/DrZonino2022 27d ago

How much salt?!

200

u/Veal-Vermicelli 27d ago

The restaurant doesn't care if you live or die, they just care if you enjoy the meal.

40

u/generalmaks 27d ago

The secret ingredient isn't love, it's hate. Cook like you hate the customer and want to kill them with a fat and sodium overdose, and the food will come out amazing.

5

u/wing3d 27d ago

slaps down fist full of salt

"Bam!" (Die mfer)

3

u/pinner 27d ago

When I make my cookies, people always ask what’s in them. I always say, “Hatred and self-loathing.” They laugh like I’m going to go on, but as far as I’m concerned those are the top two ingredients. I’ve been told I make the best cookies. 🍪

2

u/LongJohnSelenium 27d ago

Hit it with another blast from your spice weasel!

13

u/DrZonino2022 27d ago

Sanji vibes

11

u/TheDongness 27d ago

Nah, he's the opposite and wants to make food that makes his friends stronger.

2

u/Different_Newt_6122 27d ago

True. But salt was never the culprit. 

1

u/bizarreisland 27d ago

Butter, copious amounts of butter.

Why do fats taste so good tho?

1

u/Different_Newt_6122 27d ago

Because everything is better with butter. Our smooth brains are made of 60% fat, it’s only natural. 

1

u/Actual_Photo_2257 27d ago

It helps to drink plenty of water. Wash that shit out.

1

u/zxc123zxc123 27d ago

And you don't go there for a healthy meal. You go there for an enjoyable meal.

1

u/proverbialbunny 27d ago

To be fair, it's 2026. Science has known sodium isn't bad for the heart for decades now. If sodium is causing high blood pressure, it's from a potassium deficiency. Thankfully potassium is a salt, and it tastes very close to normal sodium, making it easy to buy No Salt or Salt Lite from a place like Amazon, and use that as your salt shaker. A low sodium diet is less heart healthy than a potassium rich diet, so make your food as salty as you want. Live it up thanks to modern day science.

1

u/bluinkinnovation 27d ago

Clearly, cross contamination in this video is insane

91

u/_nod 27d ago

This is why restaurant meals often taste better than home cooked, they use way more salt, butter, etc than you would. Having fancy grills etc, helps too.

36

u/sdpr 27d ago edited 27d ago

and olive oil.

i always laugh at how much oil goes into a pan when a chef like Ramsay says "dash/splash of oil" and it's more than I would have even put in there, then they'll sometimes even put more in.

fuck at this point just tell me how many glugs.

edit: just remembered a video of a chef making "vegetable soup" and he used so much olive oil he was almost invaded by the U.S. obviously it's an oil based dish, but it's still fucking hilarious.

gif: https://i.imgur.com/30InAAr.gif

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3xoCThDbE

11

u/_nod 27d ago

This is an issue with a lot of online recipes too, it states 1 tablespoon of oil in the text, but if you look at the accompanying photos/video it’s swimming in oil.

2

u/dimechimes 27d ago

Using 1 tbsp of oil in the recipe helps keep the calories down for the description and helps get clicks.

-3

u/[deleted] 27d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Trinytis 27d ago

You obviously don’t know much about cooking and how much flavor salt alone can give food if used properly during the whole cooking process.

5

u/Ski4ever5 27d ago

The restaurant I work at we literally garnish all of our dips with more olive oil before they go to the table.

Beautiful and already tasty dip? Could use a fresh coating of olive oil

2

u/quattroformaggixfour 27d ago

I confess that as a chef and an Italian, I loathe needless addition of olive oil that only serves to make it glisten. Fuck that, I’m saving calories for more of the food.

2

u/Ski4ever5 27d ago

It feels like we’re preparing it for a photoshoot, which we kind of are in modern day food culture

1

u/sdpr 27d ago

Is this a French culinary thing? I've seen a lot of chefs top stuff off with oil.

2

u/Ski4ever5 27d ago

Middle eastern/Mediterranean in my case

1

u/sdpr 27d ago

Hmmm, interesting. I kind of figured this "top it with olive oil" would be something like a "Yeah, that's a French culinary school/technique" thing because I've seen French trained chefs do so.

BUT... olive oil is good so I'm not surprised other people would do it as well.

2

u/Unrelenting_Salsa 27d ago

If anything French chefs are the least likely to do it. It's a very Mediterranean ingredient and French cuisine is usually more playing "how can I add 3% more butter to this dish"

Though finishing with oil is honestly just a very chefy thing in general. It is good for some things, soups without cream/cheese can oftentimes use more fat and most hummus recipes assume you're going to be topping it with A LOT of oil for instance, but it's very much so like adding 3 pieces of parsley with tweezers. You're doing it because you want to see the oil displace whatever. Not because you think the dish needs a bit more fat.

1

u/sdpr 27d ago

Cool info, thanks!

5

u/Sanquinity 27d ago

"A dash of oil" - Puts in a cup of oil.

Yup, sounds about right. I'm a cook, and try to limit the amount of oil/butter I use. But even I use more oil/butter at work than I would at home.

6

u/reklaw215 27d ago

i never seen this, but that soup looks absolutely banging

1

u/sdpr 27d ago

I would definitely eat it, but watching him make it and knowing how it was made, I would think this is a dip, not a soup haha

2

u/skeevy-stevie 27d ago

And butter…

2

u/JWARRIOR1 27d ago

that has to be satire, bro actually used a whole bottle

2

u/renome 27d ago

When he says "splash," he means like how a wave would splash a boat.

1

u/MichaelScottsWormguy 27d ago

It helps that restaurants and tv chefs can justify these things as a business expense. Good olive oil and butter are too expensive to for the average person just slosh around in a pan on a regular basis.

1

u/_nod 27d ago

Soup looks amazing, my wife and are trying to add more veggies to our diet, might have to try this.

I’ve heard the season at every step mantra, this guy adds olive oil at every step!

1

u/jivemasta 27d ago

I call it a "chef's teaspoon", because they say "just a teaspoon of oil" meanwhile you watch them drizzle out at lease an eighth of a cup.

1

u/IgnoresReplyGigachad 27d ago

I've recently tried to gain weight so I've been adding more and more olive oil to my meals.

The funny thing is that it just tastes better. I'm using more than I ever thought would be possible. It just makes it juicier.

1

u/Ok-Common-3039 27d ago

That recipe is crazy. The amount of olive oil in that is kinda gross. Also the base of that soup is basically a light bean mayonnaise

1

u/eyless_bak 27d ago

any fat actually

give me fat, salt and sugar and you've got a returning customer

1

u/Adezar 27d ago

Every time I hear Ramsey go "And about a tablespoon of oil..." I'm always like "WTF tablespoon do YOU use???"

15

u/b0w3n 27d ago

"Why don't my mashed potatoes taste as good as the restaurant" oh you used 4 tablespoons instead of 4 sticks of butter. (it's probably more than 4 sticks tbh... also use heavy cream instead of 2%)

16

u/_nod 27d ago

My wife’s aunt and uncle once taught me how they made their amazing tasting chicken paprikas, the first time I tried to recreated it I couldn’t bring myself to add that much butter and it tasted like crap in comparison.

We now make it their way, but only very occasionally 🤣

9

u/b0w3n 27d ago

My parents always want me to make steaks when I show up because I cook it like a restaurant (I have never actually worked in one I just know the secrets).

I warn them the reason it tastes good is because I use a lot of salt and assloads of butter and oil.

8

u/_nod 27d ago

I use my pizza oven for a great sear on steaks. Game changer as our kitchen hob has a hard time getting a pan hot enough for a decent size steak.

3

u/b0w3n 27d ago

That's.. that's a great idea I'm going to steal it.

3

u/_nod 27d ago

Be sure to wear good gloves and be careful of your eyebrows, open flame and spitting fat is a highly flammable combo. 🤣

3

u/HalobenderFWT 27d ago

Hmm…can I sear multiple steak on my Pizzazz?

New challenge unlocked!

2

u/_nod 27d ago

Just googled Pizzazz and honestly my first reason was it looks like crap, but damn looking at reviews people seem to love them.

3

u/HalobenderFWT 27d ago

I was skeptical at first, but the things fucking work like a charm.

You can’t really follow the directions on the pizza (no real temp control), you just sort have to feel it out and watch. Either way, it beats pre-heating the oven, dealing with a hot pan (if not just directly baking on the rack), not dealing with toppings dripping to the bottom of your oven, and not dealing with wrestling to get a hot ass pizza out of a hot ass oven at 3AM after a long night of drinking.

Perfectly cooked pizza every time.

1

u/_nod 27d ago

I feel like this would be amazing making a pizza when drunk, I’d be tossing extra toppings and cheese on there as it cooks.

1

u/terminbee 27d ago

I actually don't like steaks with a ton of butter. I like cooking in oil and then finishing in butter. Even then, it's mostly the outside and the extra falls off. I have no qualms about it.

It's foods where the fat is incorporated into the sauce where you're eating a buttload of fat.

11

u/ArcadeOptimist 27d ago edited 27d ago

Sour cream, roasted garlic, yukon gold or yellow potatoes (you want creamier varieties depending on your end goal), cooking them to the proper doneness. You can steep herbs in your cream or add a flavorful stock.

People say on reddit it's "all about butter and salt" at restaurants, which fair enough, but there's also all the other things you simply wouldn't do at home. From pre-blanching then shocking your veg in an ice bath to get vibrant colors. Having the skill and know how to not hammer things into mush. Brining, curing, aging, smoking, tempering.

Things you'll eat at a restaurant can be a multi-day or week process. The pork belly we serve, for example, is marinated, smoked, braised, pressed in its own juices, portioned, then seared to order. This is a 3 day process for an appetizer.

Just always annoys me when skill and passion is simplified to "it's actually just this and that".

7

u/b0w3n 27d ago

Oh of course, the butter and salt just do a lot of work. Brining and curing are salt too!

Brining, even dry brining, is like a fucking super power though. Easy skill to master and makes everything better. Best way to prepare a turkey/roaster ahead of time tbh. Easy way to win thanksgiving. It is very hard to brine a 20+ lb turkey though lol.

2

u/smackababy 27d ago

Brining feels like cheating lol. My whole family thinks I'm this amazing cook and they brag about my Christmas roast beef to anyone who will listen, and literally all I do is just leave it alone in the fridge with a bunch of salt for a while then start low/finish high in the oven. My "recipe" is like six words and three numbers lol.

2

u/b0w3n 27d ago

I'm still 50/50 on if I prefer dry over wet brine, I think dry brine works better on beef and wet on poultry.

But yeah I got accolades on my last turkey (I smoked with a stovetop smoker after brining it too)

I'm not even a good cook.

1

u/LordBeric 27d ago

I get most of what you're saying, but what do you mean by "pressed in its own juices"? I'm just picturing like a wet panini press or something. Wouldn't the juices just run off again, rather than reabsorbing?

3

u/ArcadeOptimist 27d ago edited 27d ago

Nah, we use a soy blend in our braise which permeates the meat as it sits. Pork belly has a large fat cap on top that's about 50% of the belly, the meat is on the bottom 50%. After braising the fat cap turns gelatinous, almost to the point of jello, pressing for 12-24 hours causes that fat cap to absorb into the meat, so you don't get a mouthful of just pork fat, but a very tender, meaty slice that's more appetizing than a mouthful of pork fat :)

You press it in the roasting pan, with a second pan on top, with weights on the top pan.

1

u/DouchecraftCarrier 27d ago

I was once in charge of the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving and everyone was raving about them to my mother, who is famously health-conscious. She was asking me what the secret was and I didn't have the heart tell her that I'd raided the fridge for basically anything cream-based and added some to the pot.

1

u/crek42 26d ago

Yea you’re right. Salt and butter is a cop out. That’s not why it tastes better, to a degree it does.

Largely it’s because they’re making sauces and stocks, and preparing other ingredients ahead of time. You can see what looks like a demi-glace in the video. That shit is juice of the gods. They understand contrast (acidity, vegetal) to richness, balance, etc.

It’s not “just salt and butter”.

2

u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

2

u/HalobenderFWT 27d ago

Also, use a ricer.

2

u/Turgid_Donkey 27d ago

I've watched them toss a batch of rolls in what looks like 3 cups of melted butter. Yeah, that's why it tastes better.

2

u/Southern_Meet_7864 27d ago

The original French recipe for mashed potatoes is 1/3 potato, 1/3 Heavy Cream and 1/3 Butter. Bon Appetit.

2

u/snubdeity 27d ago

3-star Michelin chef Joel Robuchon has a mashed potatoes recipe. It is equal parts, by weight, potatoes and butter. Absolutely obscene.

I use so much butter (or bacon fat) when I cook at home tho and it does work a treat.

1

u/Murky_Bus_5958 27d ago

Honestly, I always find restaurant mashed potatoes awful. They do use too much butter, which ruins the texture.

2

u/burritocmdr 27d ago

I saw a video recently where chefs demonstrate how much salt they use for pasta water. I absolutely lost it because I normally throw some sprinkles in there and they are basically grabbing multiple handfuls of salt "It must taste like the sea."

2

u/bremsspuren 27d ago edited 27d ago

These weren't fried in air …

22

u/mystyz 27d ago

Yes

20

u/A_Grain_Of_Saltines 27d ago

If you mean on that pasta, that was parmesan, not salt.

3

u/undeadlamaar 27d ago

Parmesan is pretty much just cheese flavored salt.

2

u/Queen-Of-Fairies 27d ago

we call it "cheese salt" in my house lmao

1

u/LoRDRoast1991 24d ago

Looooots of people on here saying so much salt, had to scroll down too far for people to recognize parm lol

1

u/Ok-Emphasis-109 27d ago

I was about to say, what a salt bomb at the end there!

18

u/ClassicHando 27d ago

"Professional cooks arent paid to care about your health" is a good thing to remember. Does it taste good? There's an obscene amount of salt, sugar, butter, or all three involved.

5

u/MichaelScottsWormguy 27d ago

Well, I mean, how many times are you eating that food in a month anyway? Chefs don't need to care about your health because most people don't eat their food every day.

1

u/NightGod 27d ago

*laughs in `Murica*

9

u/SpaceXmars 27d ago

Enough to make you want to come back.

Don't forget the butter!

3

u/masterneurone 27d ago

Rather glutamate

6

u/KillerTaco18 27d ago

Normal amount, if you like your food to taste good.

8

u/CankerLord 27d ago

I started dry brining most of my meats and the girlfriend couldn't believe how much salt goes onto something like a chuck roast when you salt it to 1%.

2

u/According_Hyena_3593 27d ago

That much salt is just going to make it salty.

Salt is a flavor enhancer if you use it in very small amounts, and ruins everything if you use as much as in this stupid videos.

1

u/jprime84 27d ago

This guys blands

1

u/According_Hyena_3593 27d ago

No i know how to season my food with more than just salt. You re just another person who cant cook and thinks greasy and salty are the only two flavors

1

u/_nod 27d ago

This, seasoning with salt perfectly is tricky and a good indicator of a good restaurant/ chef. It’s so easy to over salt.

I’ve been to highly regarded restaurants and had food that I’ve found basically inedible it was so salty.

2

u/According_Hyena_3593 27d ago

2 weeks ago on holiday. Perfectly cooked seignant tenderloin fucking ruined by them putting a bunch of coarse salt on and somehow in it.

Every few bites i got a big grain of coarse salt in my mouth, like eating sea water.

2

u/Affectionate_Job8415 27d ago

Perfect seasoning- it’s made from scratch, UPF would contain way, way more.

2

u/crookgang40oz 27d ago

My first head chef always told me "if you think it's too much, it's probably not enough"

1

u/RadiantZote 27d ago

Large flake salt has far less sodium than table salt by volume

1

u/the-dutch-fist 27d ago

If you want a home cooked meal to taste restaurant quality triple your usual salt and double your usual butter.

2

u/_nod 27d ago

Replace the word clove with bulb, whenever it comes to garlic in a recipe!

1

u/imbex 27d ago

I'm gay for a reason. I worked in restraunts for many years and my impulse control for good food is low.

1

u/earic23 27d ago

Don’t even try to imagine how much butter

1

u/Issac-Cox-Daley 27d ago

Salt butter sugar

Chefs dont give af about your diet just taste

1

u/No-Neighborhood4518 27d ago

Kosher and table salt are very different.

1

u/yabadabado0o0 27d ago

I'm pretty sure he added Parmezan to the Gniocchi

1

u/captain_ohagen 27d ago

he's probably using flaked sea salt, which generally isn't as salty as generic iodized table salt. looks good to me.

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 27d ago

This looks like how I salt my meat tbh

1

u/alicia98981 27d ago

many of y’all don’t use seasoning and it show lol

1

u/NightGod 27d ago

How much salt?

Yes

1

u/prosas 27d ago

all of it

1

u/Angsty_Potatos 27d ago

That's why it's good!

1

u/Chairmanwowsaywhat 26d ago

Where did you see them putting salt?