The Chef's Press

The Chef’s Press is a product that was developed by Bruce Hill, who’s a chef in San Francisco, and he’s been making these for many years now. I’ve been using them for at least the past ten years. They function as a weight to keep good contact between the food and the pan. The really cool thing about them is that they’re vented, so you don’t trap moisture under them the way you would with something like a bacon press. That means the food will brown more efficiently. They’re also stackable, so you can adjust the amount of weight you want on there.

I use them for everything: When I’m making a grilled cheese or a melt, I put one on top to make sure I get that really nice, even, golden-brown crust. They’re great for searing fish or chicken. A piece of fish, if you just put it in a hot pan, it’ll start to curl up. But with the Chef’s Press, you just pick it up and put it on top, and then it stays there through the whole cooking process. It makes the fish crisp up much better and cook more evenly. Just yesterday, I was searing a bunch of zucchini in the skillet, so I cut my zucchini in half, put it face-down in the skillet, and dropped a Chef’s Press on top to make sure it got that really nice crust. Basically, anytime I want something with a golden-brown, crispy crust, I reach for it.