Matt Preston's super-chef secrets

WHETHER you are 3-star Michelin chef or someone who thinks a three-course meal is having a third piece of toast in the morning, we all have food influences.

matt, george and jamie

IT DOESN'T matter whether you are 3-star Michelin chef or someone who thinks a three-course meal is having a third piece of toast in the morning - what and how we cook is a reflection of myriad influences from family, friends, colleagues and what we've seen, tasted or read.

Here is some of the salient advice from top chefs that has impacted on the sort of cook that I am today.

I hope it helps you too.

USE LESS INGREDIENTS

GAULTIERO Marchese is sort of like the venerable pope of Italian cuisine.

His message is to always look at what you can strip out of a recipe to make it purer - whether it's the vegetables which hide meat flavours when making stock or the stock you use when making risotto.

Risotto is about the rice, he reasons, so salted water will do instead. This has made my food cleaner and clearer tasting.

ADD A LITTLE BIT AT THE BEGINNING AND THE END

NEW York's Mario Batali is a great man to share a drink with and also, along with the River Cafe's Rose Gray, a beacon when it comes to refining Italian peasant cuisine into sophisticated simplicity.

His great tip is to perk up the flavour of a sauce or casserole by re-adding key ingredients at the end of cooking - whether it's a little more of the sherry you used to deglaze the pan or the herbs for the sauce.

QUESTION FLAVOURS

THE UK's Heston Blumenthal has many claims to fame but for me it is the way he has made me question and discover new flavour combinations that makes him special.

In my house, the mandarin and thyme tart will come with an Earl Grey granita and the red cabbage is always dressed with a little seeded mustard.

Perhaps that's why on my last trip to Istanbul, Antochia's Jale Balci surprising combination of bitter, salty olives and sweet, tangy pomegranate molasses delighted me so much that I became a little obsessed by it.

DRAIN YOUR YOGHURT

GEORGE Calombaris might seem laid-back on the telly but he's quite a stickler for things. Now I'd never make the Greek cucumber dip of tzatziki without hanging my yoghurt overnight to drain.

INCONSISTENCY CAN BE GOOD

MOST chefs advise consistency in chopping equal-sized pieces will give you an evenly cooked result. Not so the late Rose Gray, she insisted that when making a fricassee or frying veg to toss through pasta, you should cut each vegetable in a number of different sizes to get different textures and flavours of that veg in the final dish. Brilliant.

WHAT YOU COOK SHOULD REFLECT WHO AND WHERE YOU ARE

IT'S the simple message from two of the world's great culinary thinkers and chefs, San Sebastian's Juan Mari Arzak and Copenhagen's Rene Redzepi. It is a goal to aim for in this wonderful, rich multicultural country in which we live blessed with amazing wild and grown produce.

USE MORE ACID

SWEET, salt, creamy and crunchy are the four horsemen of tasty food apocalypse as harnessed wonderfully by the likes of Momofuku's David Chang. They do, however, need acidity to rein them in.

Think of vinegar on your salty french fries or lime juice in a crispy Thai fish salad.

Vinegar and lemon juice are also the pep between a world of fresh green salsas, chatnis and herb sauces as taught by everyone from LA's Roy Choi to Jamie Oliver to balance out sizzling grilled meats and oozy cheese.

I've also learnt that a little bit of acid makes your pastry better as attested to by Nigella, Maggie Beer and before them Shirley Corriher.

SEAFOOD IS EASY

I DOUBTED this until I spent the day with Rick Stein.

I now cook seafood a lot and pretty darn well. To read his straight-forward advice on how to cook fish see my full piece at www.taste.com.au

SEASONING IS THE KEY

I'VE spent a couple of days with Thomas Keller and wisdom drips from his lips like honey. His advice on salt is that we should season until just before saltiness can be detected by the tongue.

PERFECT PASTA

ANTONIO Carluccio taught me that perfect boiling water for cooking pasta is as salty as the sea, but my mother taught me to stir a glass of cold water into the pan after adding the pasta to stop it sticking.

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ZUMBARONS

AUSTRALIA'S own devilish Willy Wonka, Adriano Zumbo, has released a cute little book Zumbarons, on how to make 41 of his more outlandish flavoured macarons.

While I can imagine that sticky date, chocolate orange and even kalamata olive could taste pretty good in the hands of the self-styled patissier of pain - but choc mayo?

I've just got one thing to say to you Adriano - stop the insanity. What's next? Sushi flavoured ones? Oh, there it is - a wasabi and ginger one - you've already done it.

EGGSELLENT TIP

TO separate eggs in a quirky way, crack the egg on to a plate then take a clean, thin-plastic water bottle, squeeze, and place the mouth just above the yolk. Release the pressure and the yolk will "jump" into the bottle leaving the white behind.

FRUIT FLAVOUR

UNLESS it is hot, don't store fruit in the refrigerator. Store it in a fruit bowl to maximise flavour. Then eat it quickly before it spoils. Oh, and don't buy too much fruit at any one time - that's a recipe for waste.