Steven Gao

Steven Gao Never Stop Learning
Institute of Culinary Education ‘24
Per Se ***
[email protected]
(7)

11/06/2026

cooking the perfect steak w/ Hestan Culinary

surprisingly, the first time I ever cooked a steak was in culinary school and this was the very first method I learned how to do it! learning how to cook a steak this way actually opened my eyes because I had never done anything like pan roasting before, and didn’t understand its benefits, but it is so simple and foolproof once you try it just a few times. one thing i wasn’t able to get into so much in this video (which is already long) is about maillard reaction, which is essentially the denaturing of proteins and development of complex flavors as the proteins approach higher temperatures ultimately resulting in that beautiful brown crust we look for on a good steak. there truly are countless different ways to cook a steak and it changes depending on the cut and type. I have been in restaurants where the steak is flipped constantly over charcoals or live fire, only cooked in the pan, reverse seared, sous vide, but as long as you find one that you think gives you the best results that is all that matters. for me to cook the best steak I need my trusty stainless steel from Hestan, it is just so reliable and the quality and details of each piece last a lifetime. in this video I am using their stainless steel skillet which i like because it is wide and has plenty of surface area to gather heat that way you can move whatever ingredients you are cooking around and develop a great sear on pretty much everything. consistency is what levels up your cooking especially as a home cook, and when you can rely on your cookware, consistency comes through practice. as always I hope you all enjoyed this video and feel free to comment below with any questions or message me directly

ps. thank you for letting me borrow the kitchen space chloe, much appreciated!

09/06/2026

dinner for some friends :)

appetizers:
bruschetta w/ toasted sourdough
brown butter, peaches, prosciutto, and cheese (didn’t remember she can’t have cured meat 😓)

sides:
mashed potatoes
honey cumin roast carrots w/ mint yogurt
cauliflower w/ shish*to pepper aioli
jumbo asparagus

bone-in ribeye and ny strip steaks

07/06/2026

bringing back an endangered fish species: totoaba

first of all sorry for the substantial amount of graphics and text to read, i wasn’t able to get as much footage because i was so focused on learning and listening as i was brought on this tour through UABC’s totoaba hatchery. some things that i wasn’t able to mention was how the overfishing of totoaba nearly drove another species extinct. as migratory fish the totoaba would be easiest to fish during spawning seasons where they gathered in large groups. as fishing technology improved they began using nets to capture the totoaba and as a result caught many other species including the world’s most endangered marine mammal, the vaquita (a small porpoise). this brought additional attention to the overfishing of the species, but unfortunately even when they became a protected species, illegal poachers would continue to fish for the totoaba’s valuable swim bladder. nowadays on illegal markets a large enough swim bladder can sell for over $20,000. i also wanted to note how they raise the totoaba so they are nearly indistinguishable from wild fish. at the facility they produce their very own rotifers (plankton-like organisms) and artemis (micro-shrimp) in the millions everyday and they even have students at UABC help process/clean them so the totoaba have a proper diet from larvae to adolescence. there are so many more details i couldn’t even add into the video, again a huge thank you to UABC and the scientists who showed me everything, i hope this was informative to you all, please feel free to comment below with any questions or message me directly :D

have you heard of totoaba?

29/05/2026

3 am craving, tuna tartare:

i usually never get hungry late at night but i really wanted something crispy and satisfying so when i saw the rice paper in my pantry i knew i was going to make rice crackers. happened to have a nice piece of tuna in my freezer along with tons of asian ingredients so i decided to make tuna tartare. brunoised some ginger, daikon, french radish, and shallot before deeply caramelizing some scallion bottoms to make a scallion aioli to coat the tuna. i didnt add it in the video but i also pickled some daikon shavers and cut scallion curls and when i mixed it all together this completely satisfied my cravings. moments like these make me reflect on living alone because i remember sneaking down and peering into the fridge trying to make as little noise as possible fixing myself a snack (inevitably causing a huge racket) and now i can just blend and do anything freely at the expense of my neighbors lol. anyways i hope you all enjoyed the video for your night, and as always feel free to comment below or message me directly, good night!

27/05/2026

i actually had more :)

24/05/2026

afternoon of cooking :)

here is the much requested follow up to my day of morning prep for this dinner party w/ including a very brief look at the entire dinner party. if you want a little breakdown of the dinner, we served 3 pizzas and 3 pastas (you can see the full rundown on my recent video a couple weeks ago) and i was in charge of all of the pastas which i kind of ideated and just made on the fly this day. my personal favorite of the three was the mushroom on mushroom on mushroom pasta (mushroom sauce, mushroom breadcrumbs, pickled mushrooms, crispy oyster mushrooms) followed by the pesto pasta and then the pea pasta, though i did think all of them came out very well. usually for dinner parties i like to just think of a dish i am really excited about making and then use it to theme the rest of the meal typically with seasonal produce in mind, but at the end of the day as long as you cook food you are happy with, there is almost no way the dinner will go poorly. i hope you all enjoy this video, something fun and relaxing to watch for your afternoon and as always if you have any questions feel free to comment below or message me directly :D

20/05/2026

views from spain :)

18/05/2026

How to make chicken stock w/ Le Creuset

Today we are making the backbone of hundreds of recipes, chicken stock. To specify, this is white chicken stock (compared to brown chicken stock) which is when the bones and vegetables are not roasted yielding a very clean, subtle, but highly versatile stock that is used in most restaurants. A few key notes to making stock are to always start with cold water. Cold water allows all of the ingredients to heat up gradually and at the same time, which means the chicken has time to release all of its impurities and fat and improves the end result of the stock. We also never boil our stocks because all of the fat that collects at the top would continuously mix into the stock making it impossible to skim off and would give us a fatty murky liquid. For those of you that want to use vegetable trim, and old herbs, you absolutely can adjust whatever ingredients you put into the pot, the flavor will just change accordingly. For me using a large pot like the Le Creuset Deep Dutch Oven also makes the entire process super simple to follow, the cast iron is great at maintaining a consistent heat, and if you wanted to make a darker stock of any kind, that same enamel coated cast iron develops the best sear and fond on vegetables and meat for soups and stocks. I also like how I can use it for all of my other tasks that require a deep pot like blanching, braises and of course baking whenever I need it!

16/05/2026

let’s learn how to make mushroom essence!

today we are making something you may have never seen before but has many variations, mushroom essence/stock. this is an ingredient that has so many uses from simple to extremely complex and it is one of those things that you may have never heard of but exists in so many restaurants around the world. the process of making mushroom essence is similar to steeping tea leaves but instead you use ground mushrooms. you can use whatever mushroom trim you have and save the pulp itself but the infused water is the true star. as always i hope you all enjoy and learned something new, this is actually one of the main ingredients i use to make my favorite mushroom pasta (let me know if you would want to see that) and if you have any questions feel free to comment below or message me directly :D

14/05/2026

good morning :)

a little bit of prepping from my last dinner party. i woke up and pretty much got straight to work. i made a pistachio mint pesto along with honey and garlic mascarpone, and some herb goat cheese for the first course of pasta (couldn’t fit it all nicely into the video). i prepared pickled king oyster mushrooms, a mushroom sauce (mushroom essence, cream, chicken stock), and mushroom bread crumbs for the second course. and blanched some peas and reserved then used the rest for a pea ricotta filling as well as brown butter and the prosciutto jam for the third pasta dish. i made a whole bunch of pasta dough as well which is always relaxing for me. i actually had a 45 min meeting in the middle of this morning and so i was trying to keep on top of getting things quickly, but it was relatively simple things to make and it turned out really well! i hope you guys find this relaxing and let me know if you want to see another video on how the dinner party went/the bts of that. as always feel free to comment below with any questions or message me directly :)

Address

Dubai

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Steven Gao posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category