Weird Cooking Hacks From Celebrity Chefs: Cappuccino Eggs, Ice Cube Burgers and More

Credit: Courtesy of Alton Brown/Instagram; Food Network; Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

Weird Cooking Hacks From Celebrity Chefs: Cappuccino Eggs, Ice Cube Burgers and More

Everyone loves a weird cooking hack, especially if it comes from a celebrity chef! Sure, there’s not doubt the culinary pros know how to do things (such as scramble an egg or bake a cake) the “normal” way, but where is the fun in that? For example, instead of patiently waiting for his bananas to ripen the old-fashioned way, self-professed banana lover Buddy Valastro tells Us Weekly he pokes holes in the fruit and tosses it in the microwave in an effort to speed up the aging process and get cooking. The Cake Boss star’s wife, Lisa, may think he’s crazy for microwaving a piece of fruit, but Valastro swears by the unconventional method. Believe it or not, even cooking maven Martha Stewart has a few unorthodox tricks up her sleeve. While she certainly knows how to scramble an egg in a frying pan, the Martha Bakes star has also been known to be especially resourceful and use an unexpected (and quite fancy) kitchen appliance to get the job done, because, why not? [jwplayer gYcjVOWP-l3ahXupL] Speaking of resourcefulness, television personality and chef Alton Brown proved the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention one day in 2018 when he was cooking a steak. Finding himself without oil or butter, the Iron Chef America host slathered the slab of meat in a rather divisive, greasy substance and simply let the fat substitute work its magic. Not surprisingly, Brown’s unusual improvisation worked like a charm and he even inspired others to give it a try. Speaking of switching up ingredients, baking genius Christina Tosi has been known to add an underused item many of her cakes and cookies in an effort to add a depth of flavor and texture to her famous desserts. Hungry for more strange cooking and baking hacks from famous chefs? Click through the gallery below!      

Credit: Courtesy of Alton Brown/Instagram; Food Network; Dominik Bindl/Getty Images

Weird Cooking Hacks From Celebrity Chefs: Cappuccino Eggs, Ice Cube Burgers and More

Everyone loves a weird cooking hack, especially if it comes from a celebrity chef! Sure, there’s not doubt the culinary pros know how to do things (such as scramble an egg or bake a cake) the “normal” way, but where is the fun in that? For example, instead of patiently waiting for his bananas to ripen the old-fashioned way, self-professed banana lover Buddy Valastro tells Us Weekly he pokes holes in the fruit and tosses it in the microwave in an effort to speed up the aging process and get cooking. The Cake Boss star’s wife, Lisa, may think he’s crazy for microwaving a piece of fruit, but Valastro swears by the unconventional method. Believe it or not, even cooking maven Martha Stewart has a few unorthodox tricks up her sleeve. While she certainly knows how to scramble an egg in a frying pan, the Martha Bakes star has also been known to be especially resourceful and use an unexpected (and quite fancy) kitchen appliance to get the job done, because, why not? [jwplayer gYcjVOWP-l3ahXupL] Speaking of resourcefulness, television personality and chef Alton Brown proved the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention one day in 2018 when he was cooking a steak. Finding himself without oil or butter, the Iron Chef America host slathered the slab of meat in a rather divisive, greasy substance and simply let the fat substitute work its magic. Not surprisingly, Brown’s unusual improvisation worked like a charm and he even inspired others to give it a try. Speaking of switching up ingredients, baking genius Christina Tosi has been known to add an underused item many of her cakes and cookies in an effort to add a depth of flavor and texture to her famous desserts. Hungry for more strange cooking and baking hacks from famous chefs? Click through the gallery below!      

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Buddy Valastro’s Banana Trick

The Buddy V’s Ristorante owner loves bananas and banana-centric foods – banana cream pie, banana pancakes, banana pudding and banana bread – so it makes sense that he’s developed a way to quickly age the fruit. “I sometimes can't wait for my bunch to ripen so I will absolutely admit to poking holes in the bananas with a fork and then tossing them in the microwave for a minute or two so I can get to baking,” he tells Us. “My wife, Lisa, thinks I’m bananas every time she sees me do it!"

Credit: Emily Dorio

Brian Riggenbach’s Garlic Hack

Like most chefs, the Chopped alum uses plenty of garlic when he cooks, so he’s always innovating new ways to get more flavor out of the spice. “One of my favorite cooking hacks would be to toast garlic in a dry cast iron pan until its charred and slightly softened,” he tells Us. “It’s such a simple move but it lends an incredible depth of flavor in just minutes of time!”

Credit: Food Network

Martha Stewart’s Cappuccino Eggs

The lifestyle guru caused quite a stir in January when a video of her “very fun way to make scrambled eggs” surfaced. Instead of whipping up the popular breakfast food in a frying pan, as most people are wont to do, the cookbook author brought a cup of raw eggs to a cappuccino machine and let the steam wand do the work. “It steams the eggs into the softest, fluffiest scrambled eggs,” she explained as the cappuccino machine gurgled. “In just a matter of seconds your eggs are finished.” Whatever you say, Martha.

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Martha Stewart’s Drunk Lobsters

Proving her fondness for weird hacks extends well beyond breakfast, the Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party star has also raised eyebrows in the past discussing an interesting hack she employs when boiling lobsters. During a Facebook Live video with Jennifer Garner in 2018 she explained, “I boil mine for about 15 minutes. I put them in boiling water with vodka or tequila. I give them a drink. That “drink” is about half a cup of booze. Reasoned the mogul: “If you were going to be boiled alive, wouldn’t you like to have a drink first?”

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Alton Brown’s Mayonnaise Steak

If there’s a king of kooky cooking tips, it’s the Good Eats host. In September 2018, he revealed via Instagram that he slathers a steak in mayonnaise before cooking it. “I didn’t have any oil or butter so...#mayo #steak,” he captioned a snapshot of a condiment-covered piece of meat. Like, say, oil, the mayo helps prevent proteins (like steak) from sticking to a grill. It also promotes even browning.

Credit: Courtesy of Alton Brown/Instagram

Alton Brown’s Egg Carton Meatballs

The Los Angeles native also has a pretty genius (albeit slightly strange) hack for cooking meatballs: He roasts them in an egg carton. Brown showed off this maneuver on Instagram in May 2017, claiming the vessel helps "wick away the grease" so the meatballs end up tender in the center, but crispy all over the outside.

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Nigella Lawson’s Centered Deviled Eggs

Making a perfectly centered hard-boiled egg can be tricky, but the Simply Nigella host knows just how to do it. Believe it or not, the hack actually involves how you handle the eggs before they even make contact with the boiling water. "In order to help the yolk keep centered as they cook, I leave [the eggs] lying on their sides in a dish (rather than sitting upright in their boxes) overnight out of the fridge before cooking them," Nigella writes in the chef's note for her deviled eggs recipe. "It’s not a fail-safe guarantee, but it does seem to make a difference.”

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Graham Elliot’s Ice Cube in a Burger Patty

Placing an ice cube in a burger patty may seem counterintuitive, but the former MasterChef judge swears by the odd trick. In an interview with Fox News, he revealed that pressing a small ice cube into the middle of the meat before grilling it helps keep the meal very juicy. All you need to do is place a small ice cube in the center of the patty and mold the beef around it so it seals.

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Christina Tosi’s Milk Powder Baked Goods

The MasterChef Junior judge is famous for her decadent baked goods, which she whips up with the help of a rather banal ingredient: milk powder. The dried food apparently makes her famous desserts even richer. “Milk powder adds an incredible depth of flavor and texture to any baked good you add it to,” explained the Milk Bar owner. "It doesn’t impart a milky flavor, it just amps up any flavor your working with."