Gordon Ramsay's Tip For Seasoning Rice Is Simple And Delicious

Rice is a great canvas for favorite flavors, and the grain's versatility is part of the reason it's so beloved in cuisines around the world. That being said, rice can certainly be bland. Superstar chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay shares his top tip on creating flavorful rice that will enhance any dish — and it all comes down to seasoning. In a video on his Facebook page, Ramsay says that seasoning your rice before it's cooked is key to adding flavor. Ramsay begins by adding whole star anise, cardamom pods, and salt and pepper to the raw rice, allowing the flavors to infuse into the rice during the cooking process.

In addition to seasoning as you go, Ramsay offers a couple of other tips to get restaurant-perfect rice at home, including rinsing it thoroughly before cooking and adding cold — not hot — water to the rice to get the cooking process started. Ramsay recommends bringing the rice up to a boil super-quickly, so that you're able to maximize the steam to get perfectly fluffy rice every time. While the tips Ramsay offered in his Facebook video stuck to straightforward white rice, he's also shared other ways to take rice — specifically, his signature extra-creamy risotto — to the next level (hint: mascarpone cheese is his secret weapon).

Taking your time and seasoning your dish every step of the way is a key method to elevate any dish you create at home, whether it contains rice or not. Gordon Ramsay and other top chefs have shared tons of seasoning tips that can help the food you create in your home kitchen taste as if it just came from a restaurant. They even show you how to avoid common seasoning mistakes that can leave your food tasting too bland or too over-the-top. 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, according to Michelin-star chef Wolfgang Puck, is moving through the cooking process without tasting your food. When you take the time to taste at each stage, you get the chance to perfectly adjust the seasoning levels. This is key even in tried-and-true recipes, as different vegetables and herbs can offer different flavors depending on their freshness levels. Tasting throughout the process ensures that you'll get the end result you want.

Celebrity chef and Food Network personality Bobby Flay recommends seasoning individual ingredients before putting together a layered dish — for example, on TikTok, Flay showed how to season each component of arancini. Much like Ramsay's tip to season from start to finish, Flay's commitment to seasoning each level of the recipe creates a more flavorful end result. This tip can work well for other dishes that require dredging, like buttermilk fried chicken, fried fish, or even crispy fried vegetables.