r/videos • u/Junior-Key-5043 • 3h ago
Anthony Bourdain once claimed that when you go to a nice restaurant, by the end of your meal you've likely eaten "a stick+" of butter. Could the average dinner out really amount to 92 grams of fat?
https://youtu.be/dP0cudotB6g?is=kta0yQw7ypZLmHyf1.1k
u/youngrd 3h ago edited 3h ago
Probably. To paraphrase his writing in Kitchen Confidential. “There’s a reason my food always tastes better than the food you make at home and it’s butter”.
Edit: used to work at a french restaurant. FOH made shirts and all they said was “the chef recommends butter” w a drawing of a stick melting.
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u/hereforthefeast 3h ago
The saying I’ve heard is “a professional chef is just someone who isn’t afraid to use more butter than you” 😂
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u/ckid50 2h ago
One of my restaurant friends phrased it as the reason restaurant food tastes so good compared to home cooking is because the chef doesn't care at all about your cholesterol
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u/pwmg 3h ago
And heavy cream! I started keeping some in the fridge (it lasts pretty long) and it makes any kind of sauce or soup "restaurant quality" like magic. It can also magically change the shape of me and my family!
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u/joshuads 3h ago
And salt.
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u/nroth21 3h ago
Yes heavy cream and salt. We could combine the two together! But..but…yes…butter
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u/HugeHans 3h ago
Heavy cream and soy sauce makes a great sauce actually.
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u/doctor_x 1h ago
Whut?! Please expand on this.
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u/HugeHans 52m ago
After googling, it seems it even has a name. Shoyu cream sauce apparently. Though I haven't been making that exactly. I dont use the cornstarch.
I just make a simple dish with soba noodles, shiitake mushrooms, cream and soy sauce. The soy and cream thicken quite well without adding anything else.
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u/geneticswag 3h ago
don't forget an acid
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u/ArchDucky 2h ago
Everyone under salts their food. Thats why most spice blends are always salty because home cooks just don’t get it.
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u/SharkFart86 2h ago
Also under-peppers it too. You’re never going to notice two shakes of pepper in a pot of soup. Use more.
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u/OrangeOakie 2h ago
I didn't know that until somewhat recently when I was offered one. I salt and season my food. I didn't notice that this "spicy blend" was actually 60% salt. Yap, oversalted my food as heck. But hey since then when I want to use it I just don't salt my food until then 👍
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u/PongoWillHelpYou 3h ago
I once had too much leftover heavy cream and froze it in an ice cube tray, and now I keep cubes of it in the freezer to toss into soups and sauces as needed!
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u/pwmg 3h ago
That's a great idea. I do that with chicken broth and pesto, but never thought of heavy cream.
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u/RakeattheGates 2h ago
Seems like the water would crystallize and it would break up the emulsion but I'm curious to see how it works.
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u/Synectics 2h ago
Would that break matter if you are applying it to a sauce anyway? Seriously asking, I would think with enough elbow grease, it would still reform.
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u/RakeattheGates 2h ago
Depends what you're adding it to I suppose. I like to put cream in a lot of soups and I'm not whipping my chicken wild rice hard enough to emulsify anything. A pan sauce or something you can immersion blend? Shouldn't be an issue.
Might be talking out of my ass though. I cook a lot but I'm not a pro. I like this idea to keep it on hand for emergencies and want to test it out now.
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u/insanityzwolf 2h ago
When I found out that Alfredo sauce was basically butter, heavy cream, cream cheese and parmesan, it explained a lot.
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u/thelingeringlead 2h ago
Only cheap Alfredo has cream cheese. Traditional is just butter and Parm emulsified with pasta water directly on the noodles. American style is typically either butter, milk/cream and cheese melted together slowly or made like a mornay (bechemel from roux + cheese). People only add cream cheese when they can't get a consistent thick sauce the classic ways.
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u/Mechtroop 3h ago
It only lasts pretty long if it’s ultra pasteurized. Same with milk. Lasts SO much longer, it’s crazy. From like a week with regular pasteurized to a month or more with ultra.
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u/Mastshin 3h ago
I use a splash in my coffee. Really rounds out the flavors and is keto friendly way better than butter coffee.
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u/Life_outside_PoE 3h ago
This reminds me of when I was over at my friend's place, who is a chef. He asked me "do you want to know the secret of restaurant cooking?" "sure." he just plonked a massive cube of butter into the food.
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u/SinibusUSG 2h ago
Fucking Basmati rice, man. I tried so many whole spices to get it anywhere close to Indian restaurant quality.
Add 1 tbs butter per 1 cup of rice (dry) after cooking. Turns out that’s the real secret.
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u/WolfColaCompany 2h ago
Yeah I made an effort recently to cook more with my mom, who was a professional baker and is a very good chef, to learn from her.
Butter, salt, and cream/fat was definitely the main thing I’ve taken away. The amount that she uses seems absurd at times. All the kids played a bunch of sports growing up and it’s gotta be the only reason we weren’t morbidly obese.
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u/Afro_Thunder69 3h ago
And mayonnaise, less as an ingredient more for looks. If you wonder why the things you toast or press or bake at home don’t ever look as good as restaurant/store made? It’s usually because they gloss it with mayonnaise before finishing. Bit of egg white in a spreadable form can do magic and give food a beautiful golden finish when heated.
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u/pedanticPandaPoo 3h ago
When I cook at home with a shit ton of butter, I feel like I've eaten a stick before I even get to the plate. The air is heavy. I can't imagine working in that environment for hours. But they probably have better hoods and vents.
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u/here_for_the_lols 2h ago
It's actually 3 things - cream, salt and butter (which is just cream and salt)
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u/mightylordredbeard 1h ago
I got curious once and watched the huddle house cook my hashbrowns because theirs always tasted better. The first thing the dude did was drop like half a stick of butter on to the cooker and then half way through he poured more melted butter on top of it. So I went home and tried an obsessive amount of butter myself and sure enough there they were.. I then stopped eating huddle house and tons of butter because I want to live past 50.
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u/mccarthybergeron 3h ago
Kitchen cares about your experience in the restaurant, not your healthcare bill.
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u/ngetch 3h ago
Imagine living somewhere where you get a personal bill for healthcare. Absolutely insane.
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u/sixtyshilling 2h ago
I know this is a dig at Americans, but I also get billed for healthcare living in Europe.
It’s just significantly less, and covered by my health insurance as long as it goes over the deductible.
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u/steelcurtain87 5m ago
When I worked in a kitchen a chef came around to my station where I added butter to mixed veggies and after adding twice as much butter as I put (which I thought was already a heavy amount) on originally said ‘this is a restaurant, not a health club’
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u/bdog143 3h ago
I had mashed potatoes in a French bistro that were almost butter with some potato mixed in. They were amazing, I still dream about them sometimes.
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u/_Rand_ 3h ago
Forget where it was, but there is a YouTube video claiming to be from a Michelin star chef/restaurant (I didn’t verify) for mashed potatoes where it was/was nearly 1 to 1.
So butter with some potato isn’t far off.
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u/Aggravating_Fox_8159 3h ago
The most famous high butter version is Joël Robuchon’s Pommes Purée which uses a 2:1 ratio of potatoes to butter.
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u/Golden_afro 2h ago
Think it's Adam Byatt from Trinity in London it's an incredible restaurant but the ratio is pretty much 1:1.
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u/tkhan456 3h ago
Yes. Joel Robuchon style potato’s. They’re glorious.
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u/smellyelderberries 2h ago
I try to only make those 1-2x/ year on special occasions. They are glorious and require good butter for anyone interested in making some.
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u/teachbirds2fly 3h ago
Yeah I ve seen reels that talk about Michelin level being close to equal part potatoes to butter. Which is so crazy
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u/obstreperousRex 3h ago
I make mashed potatoes out of 3 large russets and two blocks (not sticks) of Kerry Gold butter.
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u/Dr_Jackwagon 2h ago
My buddy taught me how to make mashed potatoes. He said the trick is to make sure you add enough potatoes to your butter.
I started making them for the family and friends and coworkers, and people lost their fucking minds.
Potatoes. Fuck ton of butter. Splash of milk. Little salt and pepper. Hand whipped. A coworker literally told me he dreamt about my potatoes.
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u/BeerBuzz 1m ago
If you ever feel like taking it a level higher: push the potatoes through a fine mesh sieve/strainer. It's a pain, but worth it for the texture.
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u/thblckdog 2h ago
I worked at a fancy restaurant. My job was mashed potatoes. For like 6 months all I did was make mashed potatoes. The chef said. “Potatos are there to hold the salt, cream and butter together. “
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u/chaos8803 3h ago
The potatoes are merely a way for me to get butter, salt, and pepper into my mouth.
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u/imamakebaddecisions 3h ago
I get a She-Crab soup from a popular restaurant in my beach town that is 90% butter, but soooo delicious.
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u/koos_die_doos 3h ago
Yup, one time I accidentally doubled the amount of butter I added to mashed potatoes, it was incredibly delicious.
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u/sillybunny22 38m ago
I had some instant mashed potatoes where the person made them with extra butter. I swear they tasted just like the best pomme purée I’ve had. More butter makes everything taste amazing lol
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u/Meet_the_Meat 3h ago
That and the "pinch of salt" uses all five fingers
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u/I_Make_Food_Often 3h ago
I always tell people “when you think you added enough salt, add more”
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u/anamericandude 3h ago
My gf has an aneurysm every time she sees me salting the pasta water
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u/Smokey_the_beer 2h ago
I was told it should be ocean water salty as a child and ive lived by that
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u/Nairurian 2h ago
That’s a common misconception but it’s too salty, especially if you’re making something which uses pasta water as an ingredient (e.g. carbonara).
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u/TheNorthComesWithMe 1h ago
It makes no sense to call this a misconception. There are lots of different way to make food.
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u/Inside_Dimension2319 1h ago
No, ocean level of salt is going to be way too salty and ruin the dish. Maybe it should be what people feel like is an ocean level of salt, but oceans are saltier than that even.
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u/thesolmachine 1h ago
Yep, use more until you go, "That's excessive" and it's pretty good Everytime.
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u/principled_principal 3h ago
I love watching chef videos where they like, “add a pinch of salt 🫳🌨️”
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u/djanes376 3h ago
Even at Olive Garden they would use obscene amounts of butter. I think the Alfredo had at least a stick and a half, for just one entree.
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u/Pugilation01 3h ago
in fairness, in italy alfredo is basically butter, cheese and pasta water.
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u/Junior-Key-5043 3h ago
That surprises me because I think of Olive Garden as a budget sit-down restaurant so I would expect them to use more oil than butter.
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u/CharlieTeller 2h ago
Hardly a budget sit down anymore. I can go to my local actual italian spots for the same if not less price generally.
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u/therinse 3h ago
Yes, absolutely. I never had cooking like my father-in-law's wife.
When I asked my wife what the secret was, she said:
"A fuck ton of butter"
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u/Lagneaux 3h ago
Yes this is entirely true. Cooks don't care about your health. They care that they don't need to remake your food for some stupid reason. So pund it with butter and other tasty things and run it
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u/Horrible_Harry 2h ago
Most cooks don't even care about their own health.
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u/Be_quiet_Im_thinking 1h ago
You wouldn’t trust a thin chef would you?
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u/Horrible_Harry 1h ago
To quote Gordon Ramsay, "You shouldn't trust a fat chef either because he's already eaten all the good bits."
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u/Mirar 3h ago
It seems likely. Sugar, fat - usually butter - and salt are used a lot to enhance the flavours.
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u/orthopod 3h ago
Yep.
And for some reason people think a nice restaurant meal is healthier than some fast food joint.
Surprise- they both have roughly the same amount of fats, sugar and salt.
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u/Shot-Possibility-399 2h ago
They are generally though, if you do compare the fat, sodium, and sugar of a McDonald's burger (which you need two of and will be hungry again in an hour) to a normal restaurant meal the McDonald's will win 🥇
This type of butter heavy cooking is also very much a fancy French cuisine stereotype. There's butter in everything, but not as much as people are screaming about. And even then is not the end of the world. The processed saturated fats in fast food tend to be much more unhealthy.
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u/IBeVance 2h ago
Surprise- fat, sugar, and salt aren't the only indicators of whether a certain food or meal is "healthier" than another
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u/Shot-Possibility-399 2h ago
Particularly for bad quality good, these things can mask off flavors. In quality cooking they use these things too but usually in a more balanced way because these things bring forward good flavors of the ingredients.
You don't need to ba afraid of a restaurant meal, unless it's all you eat 24/7. Your diet is a marathon, not a sprint.
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u/drinrin 3h ago
It's absolutely the secret ingredient, I used to make all the food for me and my friends when we go to the lake or we go skiing or whatever.
This one time I had woken up early to make sandwiches for everybody to take with them on the lifts and they're basically just bread that I have fried in butter that had lunchmeat and cheese in them.
One of the girls on the trip was raving about them and said op I can't believe you can make such delicious, healthy food and I just started laughing because all of the food that I make is butter and heavy cream and that's why it's so delicious.
And salt and pepper at every stage
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u/liger03 2h ago
My culinary teacher always told us that the three pillars of French cuisine were, in order of importance:
Butter,
Butter,
And butter.
The secret is getting good butter, it makes things good AND buttery unlike cheap butter which can only make things buttery.
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u/complacent1 7m ago
What designates "good butter"? Brands? If you told someone what to get at the grocery store what would you be recommending?
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u/weefees 1h ago
Actually you've consumed closer to a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter
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u/mustardtiger1993 3h ago
My favorite restaurant in Switzerland is the old Swiss house in Lucerne. You get their schnitzel and they bring out bricks of butter for each schnitzel. It’s price of entry in the game.
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u/GoodLookingManAboutT 3h ago
Yes, because the chef doesn’t care about your diet. They just want it to taste good.
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u/Gumbercules81 3h ago
If your food seems like it's missing something, 99% of the time it's butter and salt
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u/StfuBob 3h ago
Probably not Japanese restaurants
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u/McMadface 2h ago
I don't think there are any East Asian dishes that traditionally use any form of dairy.
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u/iamalwaysrelevant 3h ago
most traditional asian restaurants don't use much butter in any recipes. I have worked at a few in the US and I am having trouble remembering any dish that used it.
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u/dover_oxide 2h ago
They may not use butter, but they do use oils. So there is additional fat that you probably wouldn't be adding to your food at home or maybe a quantity you wouldn't be using at a home
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u/refriedmuffins 2h ago
Yeah the highest fat content Japanese foods are probably kaarage or gyoza, and those use oils instead of butter.
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u/prodandimitrow 2h ago
Mediterranean cuisine also doesnt use a ton of butter and most of the fat is from olive oil. TBH french is the worst when it comes to that and for some reason most chefs decided its the best/most important cuisine.
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u/MrSh0wtime3 3h ago
its a pretty big reason restaurant food tastes good.
Cooking isnt some impossible thing. Most things comes down to good quality main ingredient and simple seasoning. The difference is youd never in your life use as much butter or salt on anything at home that they do at restaurants.
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u/statelypenguin 2h ago
Fat and salt is like 75% of what makes restaurant food taste so much better than home cooked food
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u/thedugong 58m ago
And 90% of the other 25% is sugar and MSG (or umami because MSG is bad, apparently).
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u/conbar 2h ago
I was a chef (a long time ago) and that is certainly true. The meal would also have way more sugar and salt than you'd expect. You have to keep in mind that everything is made with taste as the primary focus, as opposed to healthiness. The amount of salt that one of my head chefs would put on a green salad would make your eyes pop, but it meant he could put more balsamic vinegar in it without it being too acidic, so it was really tasty (the salt also added more depth). Don't eat out if you want to be healthy.
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u/refriedmuffins 2h ago
It makes sense, especially when you go to a restaurant with nutritional info available. Many Cheesecake Factory items are well over 2000 calories for just the entree. It's not like the chicken parm is a 500g piece of protein, it's maybe half that with the majority of calories coming from fat.
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u/zeekoes 2h ago
Yes. Food at restaurants taste different and better, because it contains insane amounts of sugar and fat (usually butter). Restaurant food isn't meant to be healthy (unless specified).
Want to make your pasta sauce at home taste way better? Lob a stick of butter into your tomato sauce and be absolutely blown away.
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u/LoneWulf14 3h ago
I used to work in a restaurant, a chef literally said to me "you have to cook like you're trying to kill someone", not in terms of cleanliness or food health and safety, moreso the diners dietary health. I 100% believe this
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u/ReasonablyConfused 2h ago
I cook this way at home, and I have not seen the ill health effects people claim. My Alfredo starts with 1 pound of butter, most sauces I make will harden into a block when refrigerated. Heavy cream, well salted, always full-fat milk, sometimes I even reach for MSG. You want less calories? Eat less.
We drink zero soda, have nearly zero highly processed foods in the cupboards, and vegetables are common and cooked fresh. I’m beginning to think we give poor dietary advice when it comes to fat.
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u/Boniuz 2h ago
You didn’t reveal your BMI to prove your point.
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u/Wheat_Grinder 1h ago
inb4 "BMI is a bad measure of health, I weigh 200 lbs but it's all muscle"
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u/Messier_82 2h ago
Nah, saturated fat definitely contributes to cardiovascular disease. But sugar probably does too, and genetics definitely does. If you have the right genetics, diet may not be as impactful as it is with most people.
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u/deviant324 35m ago
Feels good doing nothing but cardio but being diagnosed with high bloodpressure before you even turn 30 because it runs in the family
I’m on the same dosage as my dad who’s in his mid 50s, I hate it here
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u/Zeflonex 1h ago
I honestly believe people upvote these kind of comments as ragebait
There is no way real humans at 2026 think this is a valid take
We are collectively cooked as a species aren’t we
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u/DarmokNJelad-Tanagra 2h ago
Absolutely disgusting lol
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u/johan851 2h ago
The kind of person who thinks "their experience so far" is equivalent to a meta analysis of multiple peer reviewed saturated fat studies.
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u/Kier_C 1h ago
Saturated fat absolutely raises your LDL cholesterol which raises your lifetime risk of stroke and heart attack. There is also a genetic element to LDL and you can outrun saturated fat impact for a while if you have the right metabolism. But it tends to catch up with you (and if you dont get your bloods done annually you wont find out about it until its doing damage for a while)
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u/Tebasaki 1h ago
Anyone who has ever watched Gordon Ramsay cook knows this is absolutely true. His scrambled eggs have like 6 Tb of butter
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u/Burndoggle 3h ago
When I want to impress guests with something I cook I just double the amount of butter and salt I use. Surefire way to get a “this tastes like it’s from a restaurant.”
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u/NinjaInTheAttic 2h ago
What's a dish that you wouldn't think adding butter to would make it better but it totally does?
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u/DFrostedWangsAccount 1h ago
Pop-Tart.
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u/inchlongnipples 1h ago
Toast it and then brush the back of it and the front crust edge with a bit of melted butter. It will be better. Way less dry, and the touch of salt will improve the sweetness of the glaze and filling.
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u/danjo3197 1h ago
Hot pot
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u/inchlongnipples 1h ago
Any piece of meat or vegetable cooked in hot pot, try dipping it in melted butter before you eat it and tell me it’s not better.
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u/MurkDiesel 1h ago
when was the last time you saw a calorie count next to a yummy entree in a great restaurant?
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u/pewsquare 1h ago
Classic french cooking? Absolutely! I mean restaurant mashed potatoes are something like 50% butter, and I am not even joking. I attempted this at one point and yeah, you can just keep adding butter and it keeps staying edible.
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u/Bloodmind 57m ago
Your question is a little misleading. Bourdain was referring to a “nice” restaurant, but you’re asking about the “average” dinner out.
But yes it’s very plausible that you could eat a stick’s worth of butter in a single meal.
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u/Kick24229 46m ago
Putting table cream in the freezer halfway frozen, then taking it out and whipping it with a spoon is better than ice cream!
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u/CaptainHappy42 43m ago
My buddy worked at Paul Prudhommes' restaurant in the French Quarter - said the amount of salt and butter going into dishes would be nauseating if it wasn't so delicious.
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u/purrcthrowa 27m ago
I used to have a Robert Carrier recipe book. It was virtually impossible to cook anything from that book that was less than delicious. The ingredients list for every recipe in every section started with copious quantities of butter, cream and oil (usually olive). There was also plenty of salt, and often a load of sugar.
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u/SE7ENfeet 20m ago
My food tastes better than the food my wife makes because i use 3x as much salt, butter and cream.
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u/Knyfe-Wrench 12m ago
Everyone in this comment section is saying "yeah, totally" but nobody is giving any hard numbers. Is everyone just going along with this because it matches up with something they heard once about cooking?
A stick of butter is about 900 calories. A big dinner is like 1,500 calories. The meal would have to be mostly butter, or it would have to be massive and you would actually have to eat it all for this to be true. I get that professional chefs use a lot of butter, but this is a big [citation needed]
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u/Beor_The_Old 8m ago
A stick of butter is about 800 calories, so assuming you’re actually eating any protein or carbohydrates this would be well over a thousand calories for a meal, I think he was being facetious
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u/LionBig1760 3m ago
Chef here... Its a little bit of an exaggeration.
When he says "a stick of butter" he means a stick worth of butter was used to cook your food. It doesnt all end up on the plate. Its used to baste a protein or to finish a sauce or create an emulsion.
Its not really at all the same as eating a stick of butter.
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u/Wompatuckrule 3h ago
One of my favorite ever internet comments was on a Paula Deen recipe for "Country Peas" on her website.
The recipe was draining a can of peas and then heating them in a saucepan with a stick of butter. The top comment was something like, "I love this recipe, but it's even better if you substitute a stick of butter for the peas."