Gordon Ramsay says that the true test of any cook is how he or she can scramble eggs. Check out this blog with tips and a video demonstration.

Ted Allen from Top Chef gives a fun, thorough and easy-to-follow video on how to cook a bone-in-shoulder. “The secret,” he says, “is to cook it long and slow.” It’s worth the wait. That roast looks heavenly!
Plus, it takes just minutes to marinate, and you can go on with the rest of your life while the food cooks.

Ming Tsai teaches you everything from how to fillet a salmon to opening a bottle of wine in his free podcasts. While many of the tips are geared towards beginners, even the experienced kitchen diva will enjoy the show. Why? Because… he’s kinda cute.

Italian chefs always have a signature pasta dish, and this is one of Roberto Donna’s favorites. It’s delicious, gourmet enough to serve guests, but fuss-free for days when you’re too tired from holiday shopping to cook.

One of the most popular chefs in the Washington DC area, Donna actually hails from Italy, and aims to teach what “real” Italian food is (as opposed to the watered-down stuff they sell at steakhouses).

Serve this dish with a Pinet Noir, he suggests, and a bowl of light chicken broth.

Ingredients
1/2 loaf Italian bread, crust removed and sliced (preferably day old bread)
1 onion, very thinly sliced
6 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, peeled, quartered, seeds removed, and thinly sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered
1 bunch basil, shredded
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Soak the bread in cold water for 15 minutes. Then, in a separate container, soak the onion in water as well (place on paper towels when done).

Mix celery, cucumber, tomatoes, basil and onion. Throw in the the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add the bread and toss well to combine.

We mean that in a good way.

This is Rachael Ray’s recipe for spiced nuts, taken from Food Network which hosts her show. If you’re making this in bulk buy nuts from the market.

Ingredients

2 cups walnut halves
1 cup peeled hazelnuts
1 cup whole unsalted cashews
1 cup whole pecan halves
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon ground anise
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1 cup smoked almonds (recommended: Diamond Smokehouse almonds)

What’s Next

Toast nuts in a pan. This usually takes 7 minutes but use your nose as your judge. Transfer to a plate when done. Then, melt butter in the pan, adding your spices. Pour back the nuts. You’re done!

Celebrity chefs have huge pantries at their disposal—but what’s the one ingredient they can’t live without? Six of them share their secret.

Clarissa Dickson-Wright: Heinz tomato soup. She also depends on chicken stock, but prefers to make her own. For regular blokes, she says, “”There’s a place for the stock cube in every kitchen.”

Richard Corrigan: Organic Swiss vegetable bouillon. This is something he only uses at home, since he makes his own stock from scratch in the kitchen.

Antony Worrall Thompson: ketchup, worcester sauce and anchovy essence

Delia Smith: Sainsbury’s fresh bolognese and freshly made gnocchi. “This is a total cheat - but utterly gorgeous”

James Martin: Supermarket’s own-brand fresh stock. “It’s my favourite thing at the moment. It makes a great sauce”

Sam Stern: Marmite. “The best shortcut for stock is having the real thing around in your freezer whenever you want it”

Jamie Oliver shares his best holiday tips in his personal blog. An excerpt:

1. For 2 or 3 days over the festive period, lose the clutter from the kitchen – that means moving the kettle, condiments, old serving urn your Gran gave you, out of the kitchen to give you space.

2. Order your turkey at least 3 weeks before Christmas day – to ensure you get the best available.

3. Next time you do a bucks fizz, try using clementine juice with champagne or Prosecco (Italian bubbly). Delicious!

4. Indigestion tablets – don’t forget them!

5. To give you some more space in the fridge, take out all the water, alcohol, juices and prepared veg and put them outside….well it is cold outside!

6. Count up all your crockery and cutlery before you start, just in case you are a few short.

7. A week before Christmas, get all the heavy stuff bought and packed away – things like water, beers, fruit, veg, more beers – this means you are not lugging heavy things around at the last minute.

We have a tip for you too, Jamie: most of all: don’t make fun of the names of your friends’ kids!

James Martin’s culinary career started very early — by 12 years old, he’d cooked for the Queen Mother. (Well, it helps that his dad catered for Castle Howard.)

He started training when he was 16, training at Scarborough before Antony Worrall Thompson became his mentor. The two then traveled around France, before opening the Hotel and Bistro du Vin in Winchester. He was 22. Pressure was high. Did he buckle? Never. In fact, he changed the menu every day.

He’s become a well known TV Chef, starring in popular shows like Delicious! and Jamies Martin Sweet. Now, he’s part of Saturday Kitchen which airs on BBC.

Known for his desserts, he published James Martin - Desserts in Spring 2007. Here he shares his recipe for spun sugar:

1. Place 125g/4½oz caster sugar in a pan
2. Pour in just enough cold water to cover.
3. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has turned light caramel in colour.
4. Using a fork, carefully pull out the sugar threads from the pan and shape over the back of a ladle or large spoon.
5. When hardened, gently ease off into ball shapes. Repeat with the remaining caramel.

Chef Jody Adams personifies the ease of being a great chef through the use of available resources found in your kitchen today. Being a good cook is a given with practice, but with more practice and a touch of imagination at that, good chefs are sure to arise. This has been one of the beliefs that have catapulted Chef Jody towards mastering the art of cooking.

Cooking in the eyes of Chef Jody would simply be like following instincts rather than the usual traditional cooking practices that people see on television or from reading the available cookbooks in stores today. It all boils down to following a cooking style which would carve out your name in the genre of food that a person would want to cook up.

This is the secret that Jody Adams shares as her ultimate success in cooking. With a wide array of recipes that includes starter meals, seasonal prepared meals and Italian tradition meals such as pasta until deserts, Chef Jody has a long list of recipes all based on her instincts and what she can do around the kitchen. People can do this as well if they know how to go around the kitchen of their homes as well.

Technorati Tags: chefs, jody adams, italian, deserts, seasonal

There are so many celebrity chefs and so many TV programs on the air nowadays that it can be hard to choose which ones to tune in to. A family for our family is the Barefoot Contessa. She is such a wonderfully elegant yet appealingly normal person, rather like we’d all like to be. She’s the perfect host and yes, her recipes are delicious and easy to make. You can make great dishes simply by following along as she tells you what to do from the TV screen.

One of the most interesting things about Ina Garten is that growing up, she wasn’t even allowed to be in the kitchen. For those viewers who’ve never been in the kitchen before, take heart. Just look at where Ina Garten is now and you’ll be inspired too - she had a successful restaurant which she later sold to her employees and still has quite a successful online food business aside from her TV shows.

Ina Garten gives very clear, simple instructions. Just make sure to listen well since she has a rather soft voice. Try her Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers With Satay Dip. The recipe below is coutersy of the food network and is truly delicious!

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4 lemons)
3/4 cup good olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed
Satay Dip, recipe follows

Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Pour over the chicken breasts in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.

Heat a charcoal grill. Grill the chicken breasts for 10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Cool slightly and cut diagonally in 1/2-inch-thick slices. Skewer with wooden sticks and serve with Satay Dip.

Satay Dip:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2/3 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Cook the olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger root, and red pepper flakes in a small, heavy-bottomed pot on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10 to 15 minutes. Whisk in the vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry, and lime juice; cook for 1 more minute. Cool and use as a dip for Grilled Lemon Chicken skewers.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups