Chefs often deploy ingredients that define them – ingredients that shape their cooking and are essential to their style. Sometimes they’re pantry essentials, items that every home cook is likely to have at the ready, and other times, they’re lesser-known secret weapons that boost the flavor of what otherwise might be a simple dish. Here are eight of the ingredients that F&W Best New Chefs can’t live without and why you should consider adding them to your culinary arsenal.
Sweet corn
When peak summer produce hits the farmers market, 2011 F&W Best New Chef Kevin Willmann always gravitates toward sweet corn. “We get way too into corn in the summer,” he says. “Put it in anything, and it’s better.” Willmann loves to quick-pickle corn, grill it on the cob, or add the kernels to ceviche. “Don’t toss the cob. Corn bones make killer stock and nage.”
Soy sauce
2014 F&W Best New Chef Justin Yu often leans on soy sauce to punch up the salty, savoriness of his cooking — especially when he’s making Italian food. His Bolognese, for example, is finished with a shot of his favorite soy sauce: Ohsawa Nama Shoyu. “I don’t need much,” he says. “Just enough to make the sauce a more intense version of what it actually is.”
Fancy butter
Whenever 2021 F&W Best New Chef Paola Velez and her husband travel, they bring along an empty suitcase for a very important reason. “We smuggle — er, I mean — bring back a variety of butter,” she says. “The key? Freeze it when you’re abroad, and pop it immediately into your freezer when you get home to prolong the shelf life.” Velez uses the butter to bake, or she spreads it onto toast for breakfast.
Lemongrass
At his restaurant, Bad Idea in Nashville, 2025 F&W Best New Chef Colby Rasavong uses lemongrass liberally. “We use lemongrass in just about everything, from sausage making to sauce work and even adding it finely sliced to raw dishes,” he says. The plant, popular in Southeast Asian cooking, adds floral, citrus-forward notes to any dish it touches. If you’d like to cook with lemongrass at home, then find it at your local Asian grocery store. Rasavong suggests looking for stalks that aren’t too green or large. “Middle-size, light-yellow-colored lemongrass will give you the most tender parts and reduce the waste. Save all of your trim though! It can be dried out and added to your tea.”
Cured egg yolks
One of the iconic dishes at Neng Jr.’s, 2024 F&W Best New Chef Silver Iocovozzi’s Southern-Filipino restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, is the adobo oyster topped with a cured quail egg yolk. “I love cured egg yolks,” he says. Made by covering egg yolks in a dry mixture of salt and sugar and chilling them for four to seven days, cured egg yolks have a more concentrated savory flavor and can be grated like cheese. Iocovozzi enjoys eating them with rice, but they are also delicious on toast, pasta, or steak. “I think they’re extremely satisfying and satiating.”
MSG
“[MSG] is the punch of umami that makes a dish — that makes you salivate, that keeps you coming back for more,” wrote 2022 F&W Best New Chef Calvin Eng in his cookbook, Salt Sugar MSG. At his Brooklyn restaurant, Bonnie’s, Eng adds monosodium glutamate — an umami-enhancing seasoning — to noodles, chicken, sundaes, and even cocktails like the MSG Martini. “I don’t add MSG to recipes for the controversial shock factor. I truly believe the seasoning adds something you can’t achieve with just salt and sugar alone.”
Duke’s mayonnaise
As a Southerner, 2015 F&W Best New Chef Katie Button uses mayonnaise often. But not just any mayo — Duke’s mayonnaise. “Duke’s is hands down the best mayonnaise out there in my opinion,” she says. “The biggest differentiator is that it doesn’t have any sugar or sweetener in it. This is really important to me because I think potato salad, pimento cheese, pasta salad, and sandwiches should sit firmly in the savory category … I prefer to lean tangy rather than sweet when I am using mayonnaise.”
Yuzu kosho
2001 F&W Best New Chef Wylie Dufresne isn’t a big fan of spicy food, so when his food needs a little something, he doesn’t reach for hot sauce. Instead, he goes for yuzu kosho. Made with yuzu zest, mild chile peppers, and salt, the Japanese paste is lip-puckering and tart. “The fermented tang and citrus notes temper the heat in a way that I enjoy more than a hot sauce blowout,” he says.
