32 Cooking Hacks Celebrities Swear By

Culinary secrets of the stars

As if being wealthy, gifted and successful isn’t enough, the rich and famous love to share their hidden talents in the kitchen too. Here’s what the stars cook to woo, treat themselves and stay healthy – and in some cases raise money for charity too.

Hugh Jackman

This Aussie actor is a bona fide foodie who credits his dad for getting him into cooking. He told Food & Wine that, according to his father: “If you’re ever looking to really impress someone, particularly a girl, flambéed crêpes suzette is a good way to go.”

Chrissy Teigen

Model, writer and cook Chrissy Teigen is famous on social media for her culinary creations. When she makes breaded fish she uses panko breadcrumbs and cooks them in the oven at a high temperature – they taste just like they've been fried, except they're healthier.

Kim Kardashian

The Kardashians' star is known for rustling up soul food feasts for her family and her offerings include fried chicken, green beans, rice and cornbread. Kim has a hack for making perfectly crispy cornbread: line a muffin tin with butter and sugar before pouring in cornbread mix. A drizzle of honey on top makes it extra sweet.

Alicia Silverstone

A staunch vegan, actress Alicia Silverstone has some great tips if you’re planning on going plant-free. On her blog she suggests simple tweaks including trying some veggie restaurants, investing in vegan cookbooks, turning your favorite dish into a veggie version, and trying mock meats such as Field Roast and Beyond Meat.

Emilio Estevez

Given his Galician heritage, it’s no surprise actor-director Emilio has a thing for Spanish cuisine. He recommends frying padrón peppers in Spanish olive oil with salt and lemon. He also likes to grow the peppers himself and is impressively green-fingered.

Stanley Tucci

Actor and author of the Italian-inspired Tucci Cookbook, Stanley Tucci knows a thing or two about cooking. His tip for rich and savory mashed potatoes is to use olive oil instead of milk or cream, and to beat in a raw egg yolk just before serving.

Emma Watson

Emma Watson finds the best way to start the day is with a Mexican-inspired breakfast. The Harry Potter star makes guacamole, salsa, and scrambled eggs, throws the lot into a tortilla and toasts it. It sounds pretty delicious to us.

Seth Meyers

NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers mom’s homemade Chex Mix (a cereal mix that can include nuts, bagel or potato chips, pretzels and seasoning) is so good he declared it his death row meal. The secret to making it so delicious? Add melted butter.

Audrey Hepburn

The instantly recognizable My Fair Lady actor had a few foodie secrets. Audrey Hepburn never skipped breakfast and regularly indulged in spaghetti al pomodoro, serving it smothered in sauce.

Kylie Jenner

In a cooking tutorial uploaded to YouTube, the reality star and makeup mogul revealed that when she makes burgers, she adds teriyaki sauce to ground beef to give it flavor. Kylie calls it "the secret potion".

Tom Hiddleston

British actor Tom Hiddleston has a few tricks to make sure his bolognese is exceptional. He uses a generous amount of butter, plus bacon, and braises the ground beef and veg on the stove. Once all the ingredients are in the pot, it goes in the oven to thicken the sauce and boil off the red wine.

Kristen Stewart

One of Twilight star Kristen Stewart's favorite dishes to cook is Mexican tortilla soup and she kindly shared her recipe with Vogue. The spicy broth takes little more than 30 minutes to make and is topped with diced avocado, shredded Cheddar, cilantro, lime and toasted tortilla strips.

Amy Sedaris

Actor and comedian Amy Sedaris has good advice for entertaining in her cookbook, I Like You: Hospitality Under The Influence. One useful hack for meatballs is: "Freeze them on a cookie sheet before putting them into a freezer bag so they won't stick together".

Jennifer Aniston

Mexican food is a favorite for Friends star Jennifer Aniston, and she loves nachos in particular. Her hack for a healthy, homemade version of the snack is to take tortillas, cut them into triangles and fry them in coconut oil.

Eva Longoria

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria knows how to make a killer guacamole. Her trick is to dice avocados instead of mashing them, use serrano peppers instead of jalapeños, lemon juice instead of lime, and lots of salt. She says she basically makes a salty lemonade for diced avocado, tomatoes and onion to swim in.

Jennifer Hudson

Singer and actor Jennifer Hudson has an easy trick for making healthy baked turkey wings taste like they’re fried. She covers them in reduced-sodium taco seasoning by adding both to a zip lock bag, sealing and shaking. She only uses a smidgen of olive oil cooking spray to coat a baking sheet and cooks the wings for 18 to 20 minutes.

Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz offers an abundance of cooking advice in The Longevity Book. However, our favorite has got to be her simple trick of adding a squeeze of lemon juice to a dish to jazz it up. Make like the movie star and squeeze the citrus fruit over salad, grate the zest over pasta and throw a wedge in your water.

Scarlett Johansson

Apparently, Scarlett’s vegan chocolate chip banana muffins are so good she’s had marriage proposals because of them – fellow foodie Gwyneth Paltrow even asked for the recipe. So what’s her secret? She makes it up as she goes along.

Julia Roberts

When Julia Roberts' children were younger she had a great tip for getting them to eat their greens: making crispy kale chips covered in cheese. The Oscar-winning actor would put a bowl on the table and they'd be gone in no time, then she didn't need to worry about them not finishing their salad at dinner.

Drew Barrymore

Formerly kitchen-shy Drew Barrymore knows how to make one thing well and that's an open breakfast sandwich. Her version requires crusty bread, eggs, basil, tomato, black pepper and a secret ingredient: Boursin cream cheese. It adds flavor yet it doesn’t overpower.

David Beckham

The retired footballer is a fan of homemade pasta since completing a cookery course in Italy – he now makes his own from scratch and serves it to his family. He’s also a dab hand at risotto which is difficult to perfect. His advice? “You have to constantly stir”.

Krysten Ritter

Juices are a penchant of Breaking Bad and Jessica Jones actress Krysten Ritter. However, she keeps them healthy by sticking to veggies such as kale, spinach, parsley, cucumber and celery instead of sugary apple or agave.

Patti LaBelle

Singer Patti LaBelle’s makes a mean mac 'n' cheese which contains no less than five different types of the yellow stuff, including Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Velveeta. Follow suit to turn this comfort food dish into a memorable indulgence. 

Gwyneth Paltrow

One of actor, goop founder and author Gwyneth Paltrow's most popular recipes is her Green Goddess Dressing and she shares a tip for turning it into a dip as well. Skip the water and it'll have a thicker consistency for enjoying with raw vegetables, or add a little H20 so you can drizzle it over lettuce.

Amy Adams

She starred in Julie & Julia, a film about a blogger who attempts all the recipes in legendary chef Julia Child’s Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, but Amy Adams is also a dab hand in the kitchen. When cooking with garlic she keeps the smell off her hands by using a rubber device to remove the skin.

Emma Stone

A keen cook and baker, Emma Stone uses baking to help her cope with anxiety and panic attacks. The actor told Vogue that, during the filming of Spider-Man, she had baked so much "There were stacks of things in the kitchen that nobody could possibly go through."

Jessica Biel

Actress Jessica Biel has a great trick for staying healthy when there’s not much time to cook. She roasts vegetables then blends them into a simple soup, seasoned with just salt and pepper, for a speedy but nutritious meal.

Now take a look inside your favorite celebrity chefs' kitchens

Norah Jones

According to an interview with Food & Wine, Norah Jones can whip up a mean cocktail. The singer shakes vodka, cucumber and ice really hard so it mashes up the cucumber and the ice waters down the vodka. She also adds a little fresh mint, a drop of absinthe or a squeeze of lime.

Take a look at more three-ingredient cocktail recipes here

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton set social media alight when she debuted her culinary YouTube series Cooking with Paris which is now also a Netflix cooking show. The heiress' top tips for making lasagna include not breaking up the pasta sheets (because it ruins the lasagna vibe), wearing chef gloves to avoid cheese-grater injuries and donning sunglasses while chopping onions.

Meghan Markle

Before she became the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle shared a number of great tips for making homemade pasta on her blog The Tig. She advised to always prepare sauce first as cooked pasta can’t wait for sauce, but sauce can wait for pasta. Also, save pasta water for a silky sauce and never let fresh pasta cook for longer than seven minutes. Meghan also wrote the introduction for Together: Our Community Cookbook, a charity cookbook produced to raise money for victims of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, UK.

Dolly Parton

A Tennessee girl through and through, Dolly Parton's specialty dish is chicken and dumplings. Her recipe for the dish is a straightforward one: she simmers a whole chicken in water with a few vegetables and the recipe contains just eight ingredients, proving less is sometimes more.

Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh is known for roles in films like Little Women, Midsommar and most recently Black Widow, but she's also gained a reputation on social media for her culinary skills. The actor has hosted several cookalongs on Instagram, showing fans how to make everything from the perfect roast chicken to homemade pasta. For Florence's easy tzatziki, her favorite dip, mix together full-fat Greek yogurt (it's essential to use full-fat), salt, olive oil, pepper, grated cucumber and grated garlic. Florence suggests keeping the skin on the cucumbers as it holds the dip together and adjusting the amount of garlic according to personal taste (the more, the better for Pugh).

Taylor Swift

One of Taylor Swift's go-to recipes to make at dinner parties is Ina Garten’s Real Meatballs and Spaghetti. But the pop singer has her own trick for the meatballs – she omits the pork and veal, using packaged breadcrumbs and ground beef only. 

Oprah Winfrey

Iconic talk-show host Oprah Winfrey shares her favorite healthy recipes on her website. The actor is a fan of swapping beef burgers for lower-fat turkey burgers and using lettuce leaves as wraps instead of tortillas or burger buns.

Check out these healthier versions of your favorite comfort foods