4 Famous Chefs Revealed The Secret Tricks They Use To Get Their Food To Taste So Good, And It's The Advice You'll Wish You Knew Sooner

I recently attended Desert Smash, a yearly charity tennis event where tennis stars and celebrities come together to donate proceeds to the WTA Foundation’s Global Women’s Health Fund in support of UNICEF.

Krista Torres

And this year, HexClad showcased an incredible food experience, featuring delicious recipes by Chef Josh Capon, Chef Tiana Gee, and Chef Eduardo Ruiz.

Krista Torres

Alongside Corporate Chef of VCR Company Lucas Billheimer — who owns Fly Fish in New York City and Capon's Burgers at Fontainebleau in Las Vegas — Josh served up his eight-time award-winning burgers and lobster rolls. Tiana served adobe short ribs and grits from her traveling pop-up SoulPhil, featuring a woman-led team. And Eduardo showcased colorful cauliflower, mushroom tacos, birria queso tacos, and chips with guacamole served at his restaurant Chica's Tacos in Culver City, Californa.

Besides being completely blown away by how good the food was, I also got the opportunity to speak with the chefs, who spilled some of their most coveted cooking tips and secrets. Here are 19 they shared...

That is me pictured with Chef Josh Capon and his lobster rolls.

1."Pat meat dry with paper towels. You don't want moisture when you cook things, you want things dry when cook them to get a nice sear, nice carmelization."

—Chef Josh Capon

2."When you buy steaks, buy them a day or two ahead of time, and, leave them in the fridge uncovered, and they will dry out. You'll get a little bit of a dry aging effect when you cook them. They'll have a much better taste and reaction when you cook them on the grill."

—Chef Josh Capon

3."Short ribs can get extremely tender by braising — lots of love low and slow cooking. You don't want to rush it at all, so we do a nice braise for about eight hours. A combination of really high-quality meat, as well as a lot of attention to detail, makes for the perfect tender piece of meat."

—Chef Tiana Gee

This is Chef Tiana Gee's mouthwatering short ribs.

4.For parents with picky eaters: "In my household, we try not to hide things. We try to get them to be into it from the get-go, and I think you get more longevity out of that. I have a 4-year-old, and the best thing you can do is expose them to as many foods as you possibly can early on. Have them eat green vegetables and interesting things early. I'm not talking spiced stuff, but get them in front of sushi rolls that have just rice, not nori. Get them to eat their vegetables early. The earlier you do that, the more they are thinking, 'Oh, this is normal. This isn't a big shock.' If you raise them on mac and cheese, chicken fingers, and french fries, and then try to give them a cooked piece of broccoli out of the blue, of course, they're gonna freak out."

"With picky eaters, keep it simple. Serve their sauce on the side, vegetables on the side, plain chicken on a plate. It's there. It's about availability. If you're eating it, show that you enjoy it. Kids and people who are not into saucy stuff or vegetables, if it's sitting there, maybe you can convince them to try it. My wife has unbelievably good recipes for burgers, meatloaf, and spaghetti sauce, and it's got ground mushrooms in it. You also fold in some spinach to wilt. It's definitely a good way to go, but we try not to hide things."

—Chef Lucas Billheimer

5."I define a good tortilla by the less ingredients the better. Our corn tortillas only have three ingredients: water, lime as in the mineral, and corn. Our flour tortillas only have the flour, butter, water, and salt. Anything else that has more ingredients is no longer a tortilla."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

I'm holding one of Chef Eduardo Rui's delicious cauliflower tacos (he's in the background).

6."Paying more attention to your ingredients is the key to making better food. There's a lot everyday people, I would say, not sourcing the best ingredients. Of course, if you're a home cook, you're sourcing stuff you got on a budget. I understand that, but I am talking about things like making your own chicken stock versus buying chicken stock in a carton. Making chicken stock is literally the easiest thing you can do: use chicken scraps, chicken bones, chicken meat, a little bit of vegetables, and let them simmer for an hour or two. That is way better than the carton stuff you can get."

—Chef Lucas Billheimer

"I do believe in letting ingredients shine so whatever it is you're cooking, just go a little bit extra. Buy the best ingredients you can and don't overthink it."

—Chef Josh Capon

7."Season every step of the way, as you go. Don't just season all at the end. Make sure you season every component. And that's what makes a super well rounded dish."

—Chef Tiana Gee

"'m an aggressive seasoner...higher-end chefs like to push the envelope and get the most flavor, but it's really a range. You have to know who you're cooking for. If it is people who aren't very adventurous with their food, maybe cook it a little bit lighter. If it's salty ingredients, like cured fish or smoked meat, maybe season a little bit lower because of the flavors and salt that's already in it. You really just need to think about what you're doing — tasting, thinking and executing."

—Chef Lucas Billheimer

"When you're cooking, season with authority; as my friend Mark Murphy says, 'You need to season your food properly,' whether it's acid from lemon juice or even just basic salt and pepper. You want to bring your food to life. Nothing should ever be salty, but it should be properly seasoned."

—Chef Josh Capon

Chef Tiana Gee presenting her tray of perfection.

8."If you take chicken and soak it in a little bit of water and salt, and you take the time to dry it out — called brining — you'll have an incredible bird."

—Chef Josh Capon

"I wash all my meat in salt and vinegar to give it flavor."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

9."You can ruin a good lobster roll by using way too much mayo, where it's goopy. Nobody wants to eat that. You want to see the lobster. You don't want it too heavily coated, and you want fresh-picked lobster. You can make it nice with a butter-toasted briosh bun."

—Chef Josh Capon

Krista Torres

10."I would definitely recommend that people go to ethnic markets to find ethnic ingredients, versus going to like an Albertsons or Ralph's, where some of those ethnic ingredients may have been sitting on the shelf for too long. Some of the flavors kind of get muted and aren't as fresh as they could be. I would suggest going to a market that has a lot of rotation."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

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11."I actually shop at four or five different grocery stores. It's kind of dorky, but you know, where has your best bang for your buck, right? There are grocery stores like Aldi where you can buy your general stuff, and spend your money on the higher end stuff. Maybe go to Whole Foods for your meats. And, the internet's a good place to buy nowadays because you can get mail-order food which is really, really nice and really, really accessible, and a really, really good way to go, as opposed to just buying everything in the big box grocery store."

"You really have to do your homework and test it out, though. Like, order a little bit. Don't order a month's worth of food, order a little bit from one place and test it. When you open up a package, does it smell good? Does it come frozen? Does it come fresh? Mail-order food is now a real viable option — and I'm not talking Amazon. I'm talking about places that actually distribute high end. Go search locally in your area, you can order direct from ranches, that's a big thing going on in Colorado and California. Buying direct is a great way to get good stuff, but you have to have the right supply chain, so you just got to know who you're ordering from."

—Chef Lucas Billheimer

Chef Lucas Billheimer representing one of his many restaurants.

12."Tasting is the number one thing you can do to make your food better. Taste your food as you're making it. So many people don't cook with salt. They don't taste and adjust things like acid and flavors and stuff like that. That's the one big thing. Anybody can put together a recipe, put it on a plate and serve it, but real cooks taste their food."

—Chef Lucas Billheimer

13."People don't give spice enough credit. Spice doesn't mean it has to be spicy. It just means that there has to be a level in it. So if you're going to make a big bowl of salsa, you just need to know what the ratio is. For example, I might want to make a mild salsa, but I want the flavors of habanero. So I might just do one habanero for a big bowl, so that it's not spicy but I get that element in that flavor profile from the chili specifically. It's really about the balance of things. If it also has too much onions, the taste is going to be overpowering. If it has too much tomato, it just tastes like tomato. It's really about finding the right balance and ratio of all of the ingredients are."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

14."Birria is actually a very easy dish to make, it just takes a lot of time. So, the main ingredient is time and using the best quality chiles. The dried chiles really have to be really top quality."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

15."For anybody who's intimidated cooking, just make sure you do it with love always, feed your soul. Fill your soul, make sure that you're moving with intention and bold flavors. When I see everybody's faces eating delicious food, it brings joy to my spirit for sure."

—Chef Tiana Gee

Krista Torres

16."You have to be in the mood to cook. That's it. Like, if you're in the mood to cook, you can cook anything, and if you're in good company, then the food's going to come out that much better. But just be in good spirits. Sometimes, if I'm not in a good mood, I'll just go out to eat. Like, I want to be in a good mood, whether that's cooking with a glass of wine, or cooking with a friend I haven't seen in a while — or my dog and my cat cooking with me. Whatever it is, just be in a good mood."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

17."Don't rush it. Just let things cook. Let things build a little anticipation and always take the extra minute. Like, you know, if you go for a slice of pizza, I often say, if that slice of pizza was left in the oven for another minute, it's a different slice of pizza."

—Chef Josh Capon

Josh again with his award-wining burgers!

18."I think a great thing to remember is it's easy to get overwhelmed, especially lin the thick of it, and especially when you really care about something and you want it to be well received. But the main ingredient to making a delicious dish is to make sure you're having fun."

—Chef Tiana Gee

19."My mentality towards cooking, or my philosophy, is that there's no right way or wrong way to do something, you just use the tools you have. Like, for example, salsa. Some people will do salsa in a molcajete, and some people will do in a blender. Some people will do it in one of those juicers or anything that will mash up your ingredients. They all work, it's really just about the balance of all the ingredients that are going into it."

—Chef Eduardo Ruiz

Eduardo Rui again with his amazing spread.

Got any cooking tips you want to share? Let us know in the comments!