16 Pro Chefs Share Restaurant-Level Cooking Tricks You Can Use At Home

French chef Daniel Boulud's number one tip for home cooks is to finish your dish "with a splash of acidity". It's just as important as salt — but it's often forgotten. Try using lemon juice, lime juice, or even a bit of vinegar as a last step to round out pastas, stews, stir-fries, or grilled meats and fishes.

It might sound weird at first — but Alton Brown swears by this trick. He says it helps "take the bitterness out of your brew."

Fresh herbs can go bad so quickly that you're often left throwing away a ton of it. To avoid this waste, chef Alex Guarnaschelli has a solution: She heats up the honey in a pan until it's bubbling and then adds the herbs in and lets them steep in there a few days. Drizzle that herbed honey on cheeses, toasts, or tomatoes — or use it in a vinaigrette or a marinade.

"This way, by the time the centers of the potatoes are cooked, the outside won't be falling apart," explains Gordon Ramsay.

To avoid hurting yourself while chopping, it's crucial to ensure your cutting board won't move around. To do that, Jamie Oliver recommends placing a wet tea towel (or a wet paper towel) underneath the board to stabilize it.

Rinsing your rice with cold water before you cook it helps get rid of excess starch. "That stops the rice from becoming clumpy in the pan and allows it to become really light and fluffy once it's cooked," explains Gordon Ramsay.

Poaching eggs can be tricky, especially if your eggs aren't extra fresh. To make the whole process a little easier, Julia Child recommends boiling the eggs in their shell for 8 to 10 seconds before poaching.

"This will often firm up the white just enough so it will hold its shape around the yolk when the egg is broken into the water," she says. Once you've done that, you can poach the eggs the traditional way, cracking them in a bowl and placing them in simmering water spiked with vinegar.