Jamie Oliver’s best-kept kitchen secrets

Jamie Oliver has revealed his top secrets on ways all of us can power up our kitchens and our cooking.

There’s certainly been a lot happening for Jamie Oliver recently, from launching a best-selling cookbook, 5 Ingredients Mediterranean, and shooting its TV series, to celebrating his 20-year anniversary with French cookware company, Tefal.

So, when taste.com.au’s Editorial Director Brodee Myers-Cooke caught up recently with Jamie on all his latest news, she also took the opportunity to uncover his top secrets on ways all of us can power up our kitchens and our cooking.

Pantry ideas

Secret 1: Limit your recipe ingredients

“A long shopping list, especially mid-week, is not what people want right now.” he says, adding that he is all about “lean and mean shopping lists that help people knock out dinner fast.”

“This is the way we’re cooking these days,” says Jamie, who admits that he was “bullied” into writing his latest best-selling cookbook, 5 Ingredients Mediterranean by his wife, Jools.

“She’d cooked all the recipes in the original 5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food – twice! And it was still all her friends wanted to talk about at the school gate. So I thought ‘I better do the right thing’,” laughs Jamie, who admits that being a modern day parent is tricky – something he knows quite a lot about, given he has five kids.

Pantry ideas

Secret 2: Stock a clever pantry

One way to limit your ingredients is with a well-stocked pantry, says Jamie, who confesses his own pantry is like that of a “mad professor”.

For the average person, though, Jamie suggests not being in a hurry, and gradually collecting what you like. “The good thing is that a pantry by nature is full of non-perishables. It’s not vulnerable stuff, it’s not going to go off. It’s also not something you’re going to have to buy straight away and spend all your money on.”

Jamie likens the kitchen to a wardrobe, with the pantry as your accessories. “The pantry is like your handbag, your watch, your tie,” he says. “You use it to amplify the everyday”.

Jamie also revealed his four top pantry essentials

Dried or tinned pulses

We all need to eat more beans, lentils and peas according to Jamie, who points out that the Mediterranean countries love their pulses and use them in incredible ways.

Spices

“Spices are amazing,” says Jamie who points out that, by weight, they are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. If you have a “library of spices”, he says, it opens the door to wonderful flavour packed moments like “that little handful of fennel seeds you crush when you cook a piece of pork or fish.”

A good pantry, he says, can also “take your chicken on a holiday every day.”

Pantry ideas

Wet condiments

Along with a good selection of sauces and glazes to add immediate texture and flavour, Jamie’s biggest pantry passion, that he’s “most geeky about is vinegar.

“I think vinegar is the most underrated condiment in the pantry, and probably in the entire kitchen. No one really talks about vinegar,” he says, pointing to the virtually endless spectrum of types and flavours from cider and champagne vinegar, to red and white wine vinegar, along with beer vinegar.

“Using the acidity of vinegar is a joyful thing. Adding a great vinegar to a salad dressing takes it to a whole new level,” he says. And he encourages everyone to make their own as well. “Last month I picked some blackberries and put them in red wine vinegar. Even just a thimble, in a frumpy old stew… slam!”

Flavour bombs

The other type of pantry ingredient Jamie would not be without are things like pastes and other mixes that punch well above their weight. “Often they’ll add as much flavour as you’d expect from seven or eight individual ingredients,” he says, naming pesto, curry paste, Thai seven spice, and Chinese five spice as just some of his favourites, alongside his beloved harissa, including rose harissa which contains rose petals or rose water and a broad range of spices including ground chillies.

Secret 3: Choose quality over quantity

According to Jamie, kitchen equipment is a little bit like the pantry. “You don’t need a lot of kit,” he says, “but you do need it to be reliable. It’s all about investing in the right stuff.”

Pantry ideas

Jamie Oliver’s basic kitchen essentials:

A good cutting board – “with a cloth underneath to stop it moving around”.

A quality set of knives – “you don’t need loads – just a nice little paring knife and a carving knife”.

Little bowls – “stack them inside each other for making your marinades and dressings”.

Secret 4: Jamie’s #1 kitchen essential

The piece of “kit” Jamie is most passionate about. Jamie says there are two absolute essentials of any good pan: it must be non-stick so you can put it on high heat; and it needs to have a thick bottom to ensure the heat is evenly distributed. Jamie also points to the usefulness of Tefal’s “Thermosignal” – the red chequered dot in the centre of pans that Tefal is famous for. As the pan heats up the thermal signaler turns bright red, indicating that it’s the perfect temperature for cooking. “I love this feature,” says Jamie who points out how much it can alleviate the nervousness many people face, especially when cooking chicken safely, or achieving the perfect crispy-skinned fish.

He says that one of the greatest joys of 20 years working with Tefal has been the chance it’s given him to be involved in the industrial design of pans. “Whether it’s looking at materials – like stainless steel, copper, and hard anodised surfaces, or influencing the shape, form and weight of the pan, it’s all about making sure the pan is ergonomic and wonderful to use.”

Jamie Oliver in his latest cooking series. PIcture: Ten

Secret 5: Revealed: Jamie’s favourite pan

It’s hard to imagine anyone who has cooked in as many pans as Jamie Oliver. So, what’s the pan he simply couldn’t live without?

“People always struggle deciding on that single pan they need,” says Jamie. “The one I use more than any other is often called a casserole pan, but it’s so much more. You can boil, fry, slow cook, pan roast or pot roast. You can use it on the stove top, whack it in the oven, put it in the freezer or fridge, and you can even bring it straight to the table, for serving.”

What is this ultimate wonder pan?

It’s Jamie Oliver Cooks Classic Induction Hard Anodised All-In-One Pan – a 30cm-wide deepish pan, somewhere between a fry pan and saucepan, with a handy glass lid so you can monitor exactly what’s happening as you cook.

“It’s easy to say,” says Jamie, “but if you go for the cheaper pan, it’s thinner, with hot spots, kinks and bends. You’re never going to cook the same great steak or consistently good fish without a quality pan. It really does make all the difference.”

For more recipe ideas, go to taste.com.au or check out the Taste Test Kitchen now.

Originally published as Jamie Oliver’s best-kept kitchen secrets