28 Top Chef Recipes to Add to Your Rotation

Hung Huynh (Season 3)

This earthy, mushroom-and-bacon-studded clay pot rice from chef Hung Huynh is flavored with ginger, garlic, and scallions. Soft, slightly sweet ginkgo nuts can be added to the dish as well.

Stephanie Izard (Season 4)

At Cabra in Chicago, 2011 BNC Stephanie Izard channels her love of Peruvian cuisine to deliver inspired takes on traditional ceviche and tiradito. At the restaurant, Izard dresses raw sushi-grade tuna steak with a creamy Kewpie mayonnaise-laced sauce, thinned with lime and orange juices, and studded with spicy serrano chiles. For a twist, try giving the tuna a quick sear in a screaming-hot skillet to add another layer of complexity to the dish.

Carla Hall (Seasons 5 and 8: All-Stars)

Made with a combination of grated cold butter for flavor and vegetable shortening for tenderness, chef Carla Hall's biscuits owe their towering, flaky layers to her classic laminating technique. You can freeze the unbaked biscuits on a pan, and then keep them in a resealable freezer bag in the freezer for up to two months.

Tom Colicchio (Judge)

This creamy pasta from chef Tom Colicchio comes together in just minutes, though you'll have to make the pickled cherries the night before. Pair the finished dish with a tart, cherry-scented Austrian red, such as Zweigelt.

Kristen Kish (Season 10)

Top Chef Season 10 winner Kristen Kish designed this dessert to honor both of her grandmothers, one known for her apple pie and the other for her snickerdoodles. Kish folds spiced apple pie filling into vanilla ice cream, then sandwiches it between chewy snickerdoodle cookies.

Gail Simmons (Judge)

"In my teens, I spent a summer on a kibbutz in Israel working in my first professional kitchen," TV personality and cookbook author Gail Simmons says. "I was assigned to breakfast duty and fell in love with scrambling, poaching, and frying eggs by the dozens. Today, one of my go-to brunches is baked eggs in a cherry tomato–pepper mix seasoned with the Mediterranean spice blend za'atar."

Gregory Gourdet (Seasons 12 and 17: All-Stars)

"When I was a kid, we often left Queens on Sunday mornings to visit Mémère, my paternal grandmother, in New Jersey," chef Gregory Gourdet says. "Along with warm kisses and a few words of broken English, this chicken stew would greet us. Its official name (poul nan sos in Haitian Creole, or 'chicken in sauce"' is quite an understatement. The meat is marinated overnight with onions, garlic, thyme, and chiles along with citrus, and then rubbed forcefully onto the chicken to access the fragrant oils. After the meat takes on all that flavor, it's stewed with the marinade and loads of bell peppers for a satisfying, thrilling stew. This dish is Haiti, something we make time and time again. I suspect you will, too."

Isaac Toups (Season 13)

New Orleans–based chef Isaac Toups loves Bellegarde grits for their creamy texture and buttered popcorn flavor. The chowchow for this recipe can be made up to a week in advance and is delicious with grilled meats or other rich dishes.

Padma Lakshmi (Host and Judge)

This is a light and lovely way to prepare zucchini, which gets quickly sautéed with garlic, shallots, and ginger, then tossed with fresh dill. TV personality and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi likes to stir dried pomegranate seeds (called anardana in India) into this dish for a bit of crunchy tang.

Sarah Grueneberg (Season 9)

Here, Top Chef finalist Sarah Grueneberg cooks parboiled spaghetti right in the tomato sauce so it becomes infused with flavor. To get a head-start on the recipe, you can make the sauce in advance—it can be covered and refrigerated for up to five days.

Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio (Bryan: Seasons 5: Masters, 6, and 17: All-Stars. Michael: Season 6)

For a perfectly tender and crusty steak, brothers and chefs Bryan Voltaggio and Michael Voltaggio salt their meat up to 12 hours before cooking and let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator. This step seasons the meat to its core and pulls out moisture for a better sear.

Melissa King (Seasons 12 and 17: All-Stars)

This ultra-rich tiramisu from Top Chef Season 17 winner Melissa King is subtly sweet and well balanced by the lightly bitter tannins in the Hong Kong milk tea powder. If you want to make this dessert in advance, assemble the tiramisu without the milk chocolate garnish and chill it overnight.

Sheldon Simeon (Seasons 10 and 14)

This recipe from Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon is inspired by the food trucks that serve garlic butter shrimp on Oahu's North Shore. The shrimp are marinated in a mixture of Italian dressing, mayonnaise, calamansi juice, and salt, then grilled and tossed in roasted garlic butter. The result: unbelievably sweet, juicy grilled shrimp. You can make the garlic butter in advance, and use any leftover garlic butter on pasta, fish, or toast.

Joe Flamm (Season 15)

For this creamy Croatian risotto, Top Chef Season 15 winner Joe Flamm was inspired by a dish from Gverovic-Orsan, a seafood restaurant on the Adriatic Sea. Squid ink provides dark color and a gentle brininess. Rather than lots of butter and cheese, this risotto relies entirely on stirring to make it creamy, so stay close by as it cooks. You can substitute the langoustines with eight large shrimp or four halved Maine lobster tails, if needed.

Nina Compton (Season 11)

"I love making this lentil soup when the weather begins to cool," says Nina Compton, chef-owner of New Orleans hot spot Compère Lapin and a 2017 Food & Wine Best New Chef. "The ham-hock aroma hangs around the kitchen beautifully; the smell alone makes you warmer. Adding a little ginger and lemongrass brightens the soup and reminds me of being back home in St. Lucia. Using local okra reminds me of my Louisiana home and adds a different texture." To make your own croutons for this rich, brothy ham hock and lentil soup, toss three cups of cubed baguette with three tablespoons butter and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt; bake at 375°F, stirring three times, until toasted, about 15 minutes.

Mei Lin (Season 12)

Top Chef Season 12 winner Mei Lin slow-roasts these ribs in the oven until they're super-tender; then she glazes them on the grill with a sweet and spicy sauce spiked with gochujang. She also stirs the sauce into pulled pork, serves it with french fries instead of ketchup, and mixes it with melted butter to toss with fried chicken.

Tiffani Faison (Seasons 1 and 8: All-Stars)

Monkfish, with its tender, springy bite reminiscent of lobster, is firm and sweet enough to stand up to this lemony butter sauce enriched with white miso. Plenty of briny capers and caperberries help cut through the richness.

Leah Cohen (Season 5)

"The first time that I ate one of these omelets was on the street in Thailand," says Leah Cohen, chef of New York's Pig & Khao. "I had never eaten a deep-fried egg and I was shocked that it was crispy but still tender. My mind was blown and [the] low-and-slow egg cooking that my French training taught me was turned on its ear." Two important tips: Whisk the eggs well until light and frothy and uniform in color, and make sure that the oil is smoking hot.

Zoi Antonitsas (Season 4)

Chef Zoi Antonitsas is passionate about preserved fish. The salty, briny fillets are her favorite powerhouse pantry ingredient. They can make almost anything into a meal—and a delicious one at that. For this quick, flavorful puttanesca, use high-quality tins, like Matiz España brand, for the best results.

Tony Mantuano (Top Chef Masters Season 2)

In this recipe, adapted from Wine Bar Food by Tony Mantuano and his wife, Cathy, lush ricotta-filled crêpes bake in a rich marinara sauce. The Mantuanos recommend serving the meal with a Tuscan red blend.

Claudette Zepeda (Season 2 of Top Chef Mexico and Season 15 Top Chef U.S.)

In chef Claudette Zepeda's Birria Tacos recipe, a combination of two meats creates the best balance of tender texture (from the chuck roast) and succulence (from the short ribs). The tacos get slow-cooked flavor from the adobo sauce, which features three dried chiles—guajillo, ancho, and cascabel.

Richard Blais (Seasons 4 and 8: All-Stars)

There are all sorts of tricks for making deep-fry batters both delicate and crisp. Sometimes, recipes call for beating in beer or club soda (the little air bubbles lighten the mixture), or adding vodka (alcohol boils off more quickly than water, enhancing a batter's texture). For these onion rings, chef Richard Blais uses both strategies and amplifies their effect by aerating the batter in a siphon. The results are some of the laciest, crunchiest onion rings you'll ever taste. This batter is equally good on all kinds of fried foods, like chicken, pork cutlets, fish, and other vegetables.

Floyd Cardoz (Top Chef Masters Season 3)

The late, iconic chef and Top Chef Masters winner Floyd Cardoz created this juicy, saucy dish as an ode to his mother's pork vindaloo, using ribs instead of the more traditional shoulder. Serve the ribs with crusty bread to mop up every bit of the spiced, tangy sauce

Kwame Onwuachi (Season 13)

Traditional Trinidadian doubles are served open-faced and quickly wrapped in wax paper, letting the bara steam, and keeping the spicy filling piping hot. Try leftover tamarind sauce in margaritas, drizzled over fresh mangoes, or with roast pork.

Eric Adjepong (Seasons 16 and 17: All-Stars)

Chef Eric Adjepong's steamed clams get a burst of bright flavor from green, tangy sorrel. If you can't find sorrel, or it's out of season, Adjepong recommends using fresh basil and adding a little extra lemon juice to mimic its tart, lemony flavor. Don't skip the warm crusty bread to soak up the delicious sauce.

Karen Akunowicz (Seasons 13 and 17: All-Stars)

This elegant-yet-hearty dish pairs creamy butter, nutty farro pasta, and a fortifying mix of wild mushrooms with just enough truffle to elevate each forkful. Black truffle paste, available year-round, melts beautifully into the buttery sauce, but when they're in season (November through February), chef Karen Akunowicz recommends splurging for fresh black truffles, and using a rasp grater to get as much truffle goodness as possible into each perfect bite.

Shota Nakajima (Season 18)

Dashi and soy sauce add umami to buttery leftover mashed potatoes in this cozy soup from chef Shota Nakajima. As a kid, whenever he was hungry, he'd grab anything left over from the previous meal to make soup or fried rice. "I grew up in a Japanese family, and I was taught to never waste anything," Nakajima says. This soup is his riff on a recipe from his mother. Add milk for a creamier texture, or more dashi for a thinner consistency. Substitute any mashed vegetable you have on hand, such a cauliflower or sweet potato, but be sure to finish the soup with generous pats of melting butter and an extra drizzle of soy.

Dawn Burrell (Season 18)

This poundcake created by chef Dawn Burrell gets a bit of a savory edge from the mellow cheddar cheese mixed into the batter and sprinkled on top of the cake as it bakes. It's excellent with afternoon coffee or tea on its own, but the Brandy Caramel Apples move it clearly into dessert territory (add a scoop of ice cream to take it over the top). You can bake one large cake in a Bundt or tube pan, or bake two cakes in loaf pans.