Celebrity chefs’ top pancake-making tips
Heading to the UK this month? With Pancake Day hitting restaurants on 13 February, you’ll be in for a treat. Here, celebrity chefs from around the world share their favourite place to eat pancakes and their top tips for making the best batter
01/02/2022Updated 02/01/2024
Melted chocolate beats lemon juice
NADIYA HUSSAIN
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
The Original Pantry Café in Los Angeles. Since being open, it’s always been so busy that they never put a lock on the door – and it’s been a 24-hour diner ever since. When you walk in it’s like stepping into an American diner from the movies: high ceilings, booths and high stools at the bar, which is where I love to sit and see all the work happening on the flat plates and grills. Their pancakes are massive – so big that they hang off the edge of the plate. One is enough for one person but I always have two! Slathered with melting butter and drenched in syrup, they’re fluffy and light – everything a pancake should be.
What’s your top pancake-making tip?
When making pancakes, it’s really important to make sure you don’t add too much sugar as this will make them burn. I like to add a slither of melted butter to the batter to help keep it moist. Always use a non-stick pan with a thick layer of butter. I make the biggest pile and my kids get right through them, with whipped cream, bananas, berries, melted chocolate, syrup or lemon sugar on top.
The whisk factor (Getty). Opening image: stack ’em up (StockFood)
RAYMOND BLANC
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
It’s not something that I eat too often but, when I do, I want the best! The best experience I had was in San Francisco at Stacks (now closed). It was recommended to me for an ‘all American pancake’ experience. I chose savoury with crab and avocado and didn’t eat for the rest of the day! Et voilà!
Raymond’s top tip:
To make the perfect pancakes, melt 50g of unsalted butter in a small pan over a medium heat until it begins to foam and caramelise lightly to a hazelnut brown colour. Immediately whisk the hot butter into your pancake batter before you begin to cook them. Not only will this add a wonderful nutty flavour to your pancakes, but it will prevent the pancakes from sticking.
Go bananas (Alamy)
Andi Oliver
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
Whenever my mum comes to stay, she makes Antiguan banana pancakes. I adore them. They have a texture more like an American pancake because they’re thicker and have a little rise to them. They have fluffy banana, are slightly spiced and deliciously soothing – perfect with crispy bacon and egg. She makes them every single morning – it’s like her ‘settling in’ ritual. When I wake up to the smell of them I’m immediately five years old again.
Andi’s top tip:
There’s a strange law of physics that dictates that the first one is always rubbish, whether you’re making a crepe or an American stack. I don’t know why this is, but don’t be discouraged. Just have it as a chef’s side nibble and keep going. It’s also a great idea to rest your batter, so beat it all together then cover and leave it for 15 minutes before you start frying pancakes. Don’t have the pan too hot either – patience is always a virtue.
Pancakes, Kneadery style
Tom Aikens
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
The most memorable pancakes I’ve eaten were in Sun Valley at a place call The Kneadery in North Ketchum, USA. They were called the ‘Famous Kneadery Pancakes’ and I ordered the ‘Papa Bear Stack’, which meant there were three of them. They were so big and stacked so high! You could choose from buttermilk, blueberry, oatmeal or chocolate chip toppings – I had blueberry. I just about managed to eat a whole one but couldn’t finish the three! They were lovely and fluffy and light.
Tom’s top tip:
There are so many different pancake styles that you can make, from thin to thick – with egg white for extra fluffiness or adding different flavours. I would say the main thing to be careful of is not to overcook them – keep them a little under, as they carry on cooking for a while, particularly the big ones. Let them rest for a minute before you eat them, dust with a little icing sugar or micro plane some fresh lemon zest over them.
Whipped whites make better batter (Adobe Stock)
Tom Kerridge
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
The best pancake I ever had was from Paul Ainsworth at Caffè Rojano. It was a layered clotted cream and banoffee pancake – fluffy American style pancakes stacked on top of each other with Cornish clotted cream, butterscotch rum-soaked bananas and sprinkled chopped pecan nuts, finished with chocolate sea salt sauce – it was as good as it sounds!
Tom’s top tip:
For fluffy pancakes, you want a thick batter with folded in whipped egg whites like a soufflé, a thin batter results in thin pancakes that aren’t fluffy, so make it thick so that the batter doesn’t spread too much on the griddle.
Crepe expectations (Getty)
Marco Pierre White
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
When I was a boy in the restaurant world in the 1970s, you used to see pancakes on menus all the time, whether they were savoury or desserts. At the Box Tree, they would do a ‘Crepe Alfredo’, which was the most delicious pancake, where they would take chicken thighs and fry them with onions and garlic and then they’d add spinach, mince it all together and place it inside the pancake, roll it up and finish it with mornay sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan. That was one of the restaurant’s specialities when it had two Michelin stars.
Marco’s top tip:
The one thing we always used to do at Le Gavroche was make the crepe mixture and a beurre noisette (brown butter), which we’d add in at the end. I also think coating consistency is the most important, because if it’s too thick it won’t spread across the pan. A pancake is like a soufflé. You can make it too heavy, or you can make it too light – the texture is very important. It’s the same with a pancake. You must have that coating consistency over the back of your ladle so that it runs across the base of the pan, so you’ve got the thinness, but you’ve also got the thickness. It’s that beautiful balance.
Just add blueberries (Getty)
John Torode
Where have you eaten the best pancakes?
My favourite pancake experience of all time was in San Francisco. It was 1974 and my dad had taken us to America on the trip of a lifetime. Trams rattled by as we crossed the road to a little diner with bench seats in tiny booths. I was in food heaven: hash browns, eggs over easy or sunny side up, bacon rashers crisp and smoky, bottomless coffee. The chef who stood behind the counter cooked everything fresh to order and our waitress was so efficient and beautifully dressed in classic diner uniform. She was constantly being shouted at, though, so was permanently on edge. We had fun nicknaming them Cranky Frankie and Nervous Nora. These two fed everyone in the packed diner at such speed! What I loved the most, though, were the thick, soft pancakes stacked three- or five-high ready to be dressed with maple syrup, which I’d never tasted before. I have spent many years working out the best way to recreate those American pancakes so that my children love them as much as I did.
John’s top tip:
Don’t mix your flavours into the batter – make the pancake in the pan and, as it starts to cook, sprinkle the apple and cinnamon or blueberries on to the uncooked side, leave to cook as normal until the bubbles appear on top and then flip over.
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