How to Cook Like a Michelin-Starred Chef

Grilling fish properly can feel intimidating for even experienced home cooks, but one of the world’s great chefs has some tips on how to prepare this delicate protein over fire.

Chef Michael Cimarusti is the driving force behind Michelin three-star Providence in Los Angeles, one of the great seafood-focused restaurants in America. His spot has been a proving ground for talented chefs and a beacon of sustainability in fine dining, so he’s a great person to learn from when it comes to cooking better fish.

“People just convince themselves that they’re not good fish cooks, but the truth is that it’s not that hard—if you learn a few simple techniques, you can become a really proficient fish cook in a short time,” Cimarusti says in a video he made with Positively Groundfish. “What you should take for this as a home cook is the idea that to cook fish well it takes attention—you don’t just throw it on the grill and walk away. You throw it on the grill, and you watch it, and you care for it, and you nurture it until it is perfectly done.”

In the video above, Cimarusti shares a few of his tried-and-tested techniques for grilling a filet of fish. First he runs his knife along the scales to extract excess water that could impede browning, but then leaves the scales on this particular fish to provide a little extra protection for its flesh. Next, he employs a surprise ingredient: mayonnaise. Brushing on a thin layer of mayo will help prevent the fish from sticking to the grill. Much of the cooking here will happen skin-side down to allow the filet to crisp up. His goal with grilling isn’t to get nice grill marks, but this form of cooking is about imparting the flavor of the fire into the food. So to aid with that and to help cook the flesh, he covers the fish to trap some of that heat and smoke and direct it back toward the top of the filet.

Toward the end of the cooking process he does flip the filet so the flesh does receive some direct heat from the fire, all the while checking it with a cake tester to see how done the fish is. If the thin metal cake tester hits too much resistance as it pokes at the fish, then it still needs a little more time. The goal is to cook it until it is just slightly underdone. “One of the most important tips to give you, is allow the fish to rest,” Cimarusti says. That carryover heat will finish the cooking and keep it nice and juicy.

While Cimarusti may be showing off these tips in one of the best kitchens in the world, the advice he imparts is easy enough for any home cook to add to their arsenal.