Is there one secret ingredient that can make any dish taste expensive and delicious? According to these celebrity chefs, yes! And, this particular ingredient is also pretty affordable (that is, in a world where nothing feels affordable anymore?!)
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There’s nothing more humbling than the long walk to the kitchen after checking your bank balance, and realising you just can’t justify ordering takeout no matter how much you’re craving a professionally made meal.
Further humbling is opening the fridge – and then the pantry – and realising you haven’t got much left to work with.
But if you have this ingredient on hand, according to Aussie celebrity chefs, then you can make any budget meal taste Michelin-starred.
Picture your go-to cheap eat – is it eggs on toast? Two-minute noodles? Cacio e pepe, if you’re feeling fancy?
According to Dan Hong, executive chef of Sydney restaurants Mr Wong, MsG’s and MuMu, the key to achieving an expensive-tasting meal on a shoestring budget is one thing and one thing only.
“It’s butter,” Hong tells 9Honey Kitchen.
“You can add butter to everything and people are like, ‘What did you add to this? Why does it taste so good?’ It’s butter. A lot of it.”
Don’t believe him? Queen Camilla’s food critic son Tom Parker Bowles also swears by the churned dairy product.
For ivy executive chef Nathan Johnson, however, the proof is in the pecorino.
“I’ve always got a bit of pecorino in the fridge,” Johnson tells 9Honey Kitchen.
“People think it’s a bit fancier than parmesan, but it’s kind of same same but different.”
It’s also perfect garnish to eggs on toast, two-minute noodles, and cacio e pepe. Go figure.
See more from chefs Dan Hong and Nathan Johnson at Good Food Events.
This article was reproduced with permission from 9Honey. To read the original article, click here.
